How a Rubber Stencil for Sandblasting Delivers Flawless Monument Lettering
There’s a certain pressure that comes from a monument engraving project. Unlike many other sandblasting work, the final results are on permanent display not just to your client, but to anyone who walks past the monument. It’s also often the case that monuments are dedicated in memory to someone or something, so your work needs to reflect the gravity of the project. It’s becoming easier to get professional grade results with a rubber stencil for sandblasting so you can be sure of a flawless finish every time.
What Makes Monument Engraving Different
Beyond the fact that your work is highly visible, engraving monuments often comes with a unique set of challenges. The first and most obvious barrier to a clean and crisp design is that most monuments are created from hard stone such as granite. This impacts the type of sandblasting media you can use, as well as increasing the duration that you need to have the sandblaster running for. The longer that the machine is on for increasing the opportunity for an error to happen. Secondly, clients who want a monument carving usually have a variety of depths on their project (typically deeper cuts for the letters and a shallower outer highlight), and this increases the challenge of getting clean engraving between the different depths. Finally, most monument engraving centers around lettering, and, depending on the chosen font, the complexity can make weeding and picking a challenge.
Rubber Stencils to the Rescue
Fortunately, there is a simple tool to help overcome these challenges to give you a flawless finish when you’re faced with a monument lettering task: a rubber sandblasting stencil. A rubber stencil is a game changer due to a high tack rating, a sturdiness under extended periods of sandblasting and a clean release making finishing up your project a cinch.
Uniform Tack For Crisp Edges
As you start to work with rubber stencils for sandblasting, you’ll find that they take care of the tack problem that is usually associated with competitor stencil rolls. The next-generation rubber material bonds strongly with any sandblasting adhesive and makes for a secure bond when you’re dealing with hard wearing stone monuments. While the rubber compound is highly resistant to blasting, the latest U-Blast stencils are also designed to protect your blades from dulling. The high tack rating will apply no matter whether you’re working with a shiny polished surface or one that’s been left deliberately rough to provide a contrast with your crisp edges, so there’s no risk of lift off or burning edges with a professional grade rubber stencil.
Sturdy Under Pressure
Your monument lettering project will see you running the sandblaster for longer periods of time than usual due to the intricate nature of carving each letter and the harder wearing stones used for monuments. A U-Blast rubber stencil will give you the long lasting protection that you need against extended periods of exposure as the material is designed to absorb impact without denting or damaging the substrate underneath. The next-generation rubber walls also protect the boundaries of each letter from pushing and distorting into the next, which can be a great help when the font or design doesn’t allow for much spacing in between each letter.
Clean Release For Easy Cleaning
Despite requiring a uniform level of tack to be effective on monument lettering projects, a high quality rubber stencil for sandblasting should come away relatively easily once you’ve completed your work. You’ll find it easier to cut and peel the rubber stencil away in smaller sections, and you’ll be pleased with how little residue is left to clean up. This will leave you with a flawless finish and a final product that will last as long as the monument does.
Get Professional Advice
It’s clear to see that you should be using a rubber stencil for your next monument lettering project, but it’s hard to know which ones will give you the flawless finish you’re looking for. That’s when a call to U-Blast’s team of sandblasting experts will save you time and effort, as well as helping you find the right rubber stencil for your project and budget. For example, they’ll help you work out if our 719 series is right for your project (perfect for smooth surfaces with a medium level of adhesive and a double liner to keep the lettering centered) or if you need something thicker, like our new UB2 series, designed for double process sandblasting and retaining its shape and quality under high PSI sessions. No matter what your project is, we have a rubber stencil that will give you a monumental finish every time.