Fax Machine Stencil Copier

[AtlantaNate]

So after shopping for stencil printers and watching reviews, I came across some videos showing how to use a standard old fax machine to make stencils. I have been making my stencils by hand and still probably will in the future but man it is nice to be able to resize or flip and image real quick and not have to redraw the stencil by using a printer.

So, I got on craigslist and found a Brother 575 copier for $20 and it is awesome. You print a reverse image of the stencil you want to make, I use my all in one printer copier for this. Then you cut out some stencil paper and tape it to a blank piece of printer paper. You then run both the printed stencil and the stencil paper page through the copy function on the fax machine and voila, you have a perfect stencil. I used it on a tattoo this last weekend and the quality of the stencil is just as good if I made it by hand.

Has anyone else tried this method? How has it worked out for you?

 

[Rossco]

i also saw that on youtube..ut was good but seemed a lot of messing about so i just bought a thermal copier instead

 

[balooka]

Used to have a thermal copier but mine was crap, eventhough they all seem to have the same specs.
Anyway, mine had problems wih fine lines and details and was only good for bold lines, bolder than w points at least otherwise there would be nothing. I sold mine and got a brother thermal printen. It takes some to in prepping the files and understanding what the printer and carbon actualy do, but I really love it.

The Brother thermal printel I got a great deal on, otherwise I would have gone for a 24 pin matrix printer for sure.

 

[TexasPT]

I had a mac when I saw the fax machine thing...i got one of the thermal's everyone sells. first one made it a year and a half, I'm on my second. $20 is a helluva deal for sure.

 

[AtlantaNate]

I can see buying one of the brother printers if I was doing my design work in the computer. I only been drawing by hand so far. If I were a pro I'd definitely buy an Ipad for the design work if for nothing else but making symmetrical work easy.

 

[balooka]

I can see buying one of the brother printers if I was doing my design work in the computer. I only been drawing by hand so far. If I were a pro I'd definitely buy an Ipad for the design work if for nothing else but making symmetrical work easy.

I draw most of my stencils by hand because even after 20+ years of photoshop and illustrator, there's nothing like hand movement on paper. I do scan them all and clean them up in photoshop and modify line weight in relation to the final size. I would have gone for the 24pin matrix (old noisy machines) if the Brother was not offered to me. The thermal copier never worked for me so I think mine was crap. Other get much better results from it. Also, while having the copier, I preferred to hand trace on hexograph paper because it would give me a 'test run' of doing the design without inking it in!

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