# Rhinestone Settng Material Just the Facts



## kentpyper (Feb 19, 2009)

Please help out a long time screen printer NOOB stone setter. I have read post after post and I would love some help with the following questions:

*1. What type of stone setting template material may be used to get good results.*
Reading the forums, I have found that some people use sand blasting mask cut by a vinyl cutter (but what thickness???) and some people use "oil board" and they cut their holes in it with a laser. There is also material sold by Digital Art Solutions but you need to be an owner of their system in order to purchase the secret material. 

*2. How thick does the material need to be?*
I was wondering, since I cut vinyl ALOT, would it be possible or feasible to maybe put a few layers of vinyl together to garner the required thickness and then cut it with a cutter. (to be clear on this theory, take 3 squares of vinyl lets say 12" x 12" and put transfer tape on two of them, remove the backing and apply each to the third piece which still has the backing. Which should leave you with triple thick vinyl you can put through a cutter etc...)

*3. What other types of materials do you think might be possible to use such as:* how about a thick manila folder, (looks toe me to be the same thickness as oil board)

*4. once the template is cut,* *then what?*
Tthe consensus I have found is to spray the back of the template with adhesive and lay it on a piece of foam core board. Do you think it would be ok to use a nice heavy piece of cardboard cut from a sturdy box from the dumpster (thinking green) What other ideas do you have for this.

*5. Best tool to use to position and flip.*
Is the foam painting pad a good tool to use to spread the stones on the material to help get them positioned and flipped.

Thanks for all your input!


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## BML Builder (Jul 8, 2008)

Kent,

I have not tried multiple layers of vinyl, but what is the thickest material you can cut with your cutter? We use the oil board which is about the same thickness as a manilla file folder, so if you can cut that, it should work fine. Also the backing can be an old piece of cardboard. It just needs to be something that is sturdy enough to keep from bending up real easy. We use card stock for our backing. The biggest key is that the template stays secure to the backing so that the stones do not slip out of the holes between the template and backing and need to be able to pick up the stones with the mylar film or transfer tape. Then finally the brush that we use is a painting brush but it has these fuzzy fibers on it that catch the rhinestones when you brush them. We tried the regular foam brushes and they did not work that well because the rhinestones would get caught on the foam. The ones we have we found at Walmart in a multi pak for about $5.


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