Stencil findings

Let's talk units and conversions, starting from website quote "Stencil is laser-cut in 10 mil Mylar".  What does this mean? Using https://www.convertunits.com/from/mil/to/µm  therefore 10mil = 254microns.  Ok, now when you buy the stencil material we can check against some of these numbers.  

When buying cost-effectively from suppliers, the mainstream source is page dividers.  They are made usually from polypropylene (whatever that is) but is basically plastic and pretty darn tear resistant.  It's really good enough to use at home.  But thickness matters and you can use to to your advantage.  Because stencils are basically shapes cut out of plastic, all stencils produce different landscapes, and require different strengths to hold it together.  How floppy do you want it to be in the end?  It depends on how much of it is cut out.  In any case, if you're just careful with it, it will last.  It's no big deal and sticky tape can fix a lot of things.  At the end, stencils are made to be the ugly step before the beautiful step.  But generally speaking I want the stencil to be strong enough to do its job when I have to reposition it several times during the painting stage; that's all.

10mil is what you can get with typical transparent binding covers from office supply stores.  Typically 250microns, which is 9.8mil, which is essentially 10mil. This is as thick as I would want to get with plastic thickness.  It's sturdy but harder to cut.  If using a knife tool to cut it will definitely fatigue the hand and get annoying.

Super cool overlay from unknown source

Paisley by Alabama Chanin. Done on lightweight page dividers, unknown weight but I wouldn't get lighter than this.  It is borderline just good enough for this stencil.  It is much better suited to the Polka Dot stencil (see below).  With flicky-flimsy edges I think you generally need sturdier materials.

Lace Viceroy by Alabama Chanin  
Left/purple 180microns = 7mil
Right/transparent 250 microns = 10 mil
Testing them both to see which one I prefer.  The 7mil does work but I think I prefer the 10mil.  This is a stencil I made myself.  I think A.C. pretty much decided to open this one up for home-copiers.  They've released some really obvious images on their web store.

A good stencil for this unknown lighter weight page divider.  I am guessing it's around 4-5mil.  It's good because there's so much polypropylene still remaining and the overall stencil is still sturdy.  It's not necessary to go any thicker for this cut-out.
I have played with even lighter weight and there is such thing as too light.  Despite being tear resistant I can tear things too easily when the weight is too light.
A stencil size of 16 pages where each pack of 10 page dividers is $2 works out to be $3.20 of polypropylene.

The stencil cutting heat tool.  It must have that shape of a tip otherwise if it's the shape of a pencil tip it will drag and create thick/fat melting edges (no good; I've tried this. And because heat goes directly upwards, if you hold the pencil tip at perpendicular it will cook your hand.  Just use this tip designed especially for melting stencils).  

Printing onto the Page Dividers

Wow. A huge benefit to getting page dividers is printing at home.  I only have a laser black & white printer.  Instead of piecing all the A4 pages together, piecing all the page dividers together, spraying adhesive glue to stop those two layer from moving...why not print onto the paper? (BTW where necessary I suggest putting the paper underneath not above as taught elsewhere.  Why cut 2 layers when you need only cut 1?)

Tips

- Adjust the home printer so that the paper doesn't need to curl around when processed.  My printer normally curls around for normal printing but the back can be opened so that the paper spits out without needing to curl around. 

- The printer is warm so it has the potential to melt/snap the plastic/polypropylene dividers.

- Feeding the paper straight out from the printer will lessen these problems by a long shot.

- Since they are paper dividers they are generally bigger than the usual A4.  Trim to size (I used my home sized guillotine).

- Paper dividers also have those spaced holes for putting them into folders.  When printing, adjust the margins so that the holes don't affect the final outcome.  (For me I made the overlap margin in PDF around 0.3 inches.  That ensured it didn't matter if anything was printed over an acutal hole).

- Assemble on big glass window during daylight hours using basic sticky tape.  Finish assembly by using decent packing tape to cover all joined edges; this step is easier on a horizontal surface like the floor or a table.  You can do both sides; whatever you choose, it only needs to be sturdy enough for your own purposes.

Drafting paper

Now that the post-Xmas markdowns have begun I got the idea that you can get some big rolls of wrapping paper at half price.  These have a good width and the price I think beats trying to buy rolls of brown craft paper.  Drafting paper is another one of those things ugly things that serves the beautiful result.  It doesn't need to be fantastically amazing; it can be almost anything actually. These rolls are 12m for $2 each.