How to Make a Laser Cut Stencil from Vector Art: Make:

I made a stencil of the mighty cordless drill using vector art and a laser cutter.

Vector art files are perfect for making stencils. Here at the Maker Media Lab, we’ve been working hard to ramp up our public appearance. As part of this process, I made laser cut stencils to paint our favorite tools on the sides of our desks. I thought it was a pretty neat project and learning experience, so I decided to share it with the Maker community.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to use vector art files to make laser cut stencils. You can design your own image for this project or find one online. I personally like downloading vector art from the Noun Project, but in this case, I was given vector art files for several tools. In your vector art program, you will scale your image as needed and make minor edits to colors and line thickness to ensure that your laser recognizes the paths for cutting. For more complex shapes and images, you will also need to cut and reconnect paths so that “floating” paths show up on your stencil.

As for the laser cutting, you will be using a technique called “vector cutting,” where the laser cutter’s beam follows one or more paths defined by the vector art file. Laser cutters can also be used for “raster cutting,” where the beam moves side to side rapidly like an inkjet printer. Both processes have their strengths and weaknesses, but vector cutting will allow you to make much smoother stencils. Raster cutting is more appropriate for laser engraving solid shapes and images. Please be warned, your laser cutter may operate differently from the Lab’s Epilog Mini 24. For your safety, please consult the appropriate manuals to get properly acquainted with your laser cutter.

13 Responses to Laser Cutters 101: How to Make a Stencil from Vector Art

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Drill looks cool. Have any other tools to show?
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Charles Haase on July 14th, 2015 at 7:22 am said:

Very nice! For those of us unwilling to spend money on Illustrator, do you know of an equivalent tutorial for a free program like Gimp or Inkscape?
- Nikki Smith on July 14th, 2015 at 9:03 am said:
  
  Inkscape is the one I’ve seen people use for laser cutting.
Dude on July 15th, 2015 at 1:48 am said:

if you intend to spray-paint it, you should leave more margin around the artwork, to avoid spray stains
- Jose Santos on July 18th, 2015 at 10:32 am said:
  
  That’s a good thing to keep in mind! If you don’t have too much material, you can also just add a larger margin with painter’s tape.
Amy on March 15th, 2016 at 4:37 am said:

That’s why Laser cutting is the best and most efficient way to handle any types of job. As you can see that here are some complex shapes and Laser cutting ease it’s through a perfect shape.
Amy on June 10th, 2016 at 5:16 am said:

Thanks for sharing this How to Guide to make a stencil from Vector Art. There are lots of extra benefits can be used from laser cutting machine and the same process is counting on this type of job which is called raster cutting. This process is happening when a beam moves side to side.