Decal Paint Pad Stencils
Earlier this week I made a trip up to the local Michael’s store to look for a package of card stock to practice cutting the stencils I need to create for making the luminous paint pads which have to get placed under the water slide transfer decals I am replacing on the front panels of the Coils, Aerial Tuning Unit No. 2 A, and the Supply Unit. I do have a quantity of old manila file folders on hand but was not keen on the idea of so much additional work cutting them up and prepping them.
Turned out the paper crafting hobby requires quite a selection of such material in colours, textures and weights, of which I was completely unaware. As I was standing in the isle trying to absorb all this new information, and make sense of it, a young clerk came around the corner and clearly saw a Geezer in Distress in front of her. What blew me away was she walked right up to me with a genuine smile, introduced herself and asked if she could help. It just kept getting better from there. I told her it was not a crafting project but the restoration of an 80 year old Canadian Military radio from WW2. Her eyes got a bit bigger, she kept smiling and she kept asking all the right questions. Once she knew what cutting machine I was using and the general size of the projects she picked a bundle of 110 pound, white, gloss finish card stock and handed it too me.
I thanked her and casually mentioned this was the most challenging stencil work I had ever done because it was important to get the stencils I was working with positioned exactly where needed. The work I had done with stencils years ago had all been hand cut and locations on vehicles were a lot more forgiving because the card stock would hide the details of the surface the decals were to be applied to, making lining them up a lot more difficult. She then cocked her head and asked if I had ever considered cutting the finished stencils on clear blank plastic stencil sheet? I replied I was not aware of it and she then proceeded to take me to the far side of the store to show me the product. The rack was empty but the system told her two packs should be on hand somewhere and if I did not mind she would see if she could locate them. I had something else to look for so did not mind so off she went. Not ten minutes later she was walking towards me with another big smile on her face waving the two packs she had found. I took both packs so she did not have to put one back on the shelf. She wished me luck with the radio and off I went to the checkouts. There, I bumped into her Manager and reported my experience. Staff like that are so hard to find these days.
As for the blank stencil material, it has solved all the remaining problems I have anticipated to date and with a little careful setup, one full sheet should be able to get all of the paint pads on the Supply Unit front panel done with the exception to the 12 Volt Power Input at the bottom left.
David
|