Stencil material or vinyl cutting?

[RWilloughby]

I work for a relatively large company and I am being asked to periodically make stencils to mark our parts at other campuses around the country.

I need a material that is durable enough to be cut on the shopbot with either a drag knife or anything from a 1/16th to 1/8th bit. '

Does anybody have any experience cutting stuff like this?

Or can you accurately cut vinyl on the shopbot?

I have PRS Alpha (96x48) and a Desktop (18x24)

[bleeth]

You can use card board (flat, not corrugated) and cut with a drag knife and also 1/8" PVC which is pretty cheap and more durable which I would cut with a bit (1/4" o-flute works well).
Cutting vinyl can be a pain due to holddown issues and keeping it flat. You would likely have to add at least a pressure foot (Sold by SB and/or Donek).
Fellers ( a national sign supply company) also sells Paint mask vinyl of various types that you may want to speak with them about.
If I wanted to keep it simple I would just use cardboard.

[RossMosh]

I asked this question the other day on another forum. PVC, aluminum, polycarbonate, and polystyrene are the 4 materials that were recommended to me.

[donek]

Cutting vinyl is no problem. See the Vectric video on this page:
http://donektools.com/cnc-knife-cutting-system-video-tutorialstutorial-video/

I believe most of our customers are drag knifing permanent stencils from 0.03 polycarbonate.

[WMNH]

I use masonite, its cheap and lasts a long time.