Some of the above messages are fairly old, but I hope this will help some of you.

I haven't tried this organization yet, I am pondering doing my Totem cabinet stencil on my own. The issue is the cabinet is actually in very good shape and the paint is very stable, but I had to fill a few gauges and I also have a handful of nicks and color matching, even with decent acrylics doesn't seem to be going well for me.

Anyway, this might help some people reading this, it is fairly expensive, but for the same price of any of the stencils they already have listed + potentially 2 weeks of work time, they will make a stencil custom for any pinball based on pictures you send them. Neat idea, none the less...

http://www.twistedpins.com/products/stencil_creation/

I like the work you TwistedPin folk do, but the machine is already costing me some money, a little here and a little there -- it all adds up. Not that I wasn't aware going into it, but the price of a stencil is a bit steep for me....a little bit. Unless you want to trade advertising banners or something to lower the prices. I am an artist, but not a painter or stencil maker -- at least not yet.

Let me know. Thanks!

Yes, I realize this is an old thread. But as I argued in another Pinside thread -- why not keep like stuff in the same thread? Why not refresh the thread rather than having twenty threads scattered all over dealing with the same thing? Yes, I understand how Google Searches work.

Anywho,

I finally came up with stencils that I am happy with. These are for Gottlieb Totem, and they are solid, will be reusable, will allow for the overspray (if you wish to do it like it was done in the factory) and here they are -- one for each color for the sides and one for each color for the front. The purple side color includes the cutouts which need to be sat in place while spraying. The stencil edges will all be clear-coated to give them long lasting rigidity that the wood would not have on its own.

1. I used a roll of vellum tracing paper to carefully trace the entire design, separate vellum tracing for each color
2. Then I cut out sheets of 1/8th" panel plywood to the exact size of the machine sides and front
3. Next I used removable adhesive and sprayed the wood, for each panel and color, laid the vellum sheet down and aligned it properly
4. I used an Xacto knife to cut out the shapes from the vellum, leaving the wood exposed
5. I used a fat drill bit to drill a single hole in each shape (giving me room for a jigsaw blade)
6. Using a flexible speed metal blade, I cut out all of the shapes (saving the purple insert shapes -- as per picture)
7. On the side pieces, because they are long and now have many holes in them, I added a lower and back 1x2 for support
8. Finally, I labeled them with a marker, so there would be no question which stencil they were, and no issue with where to align them on the cabinet when it came time for painting.

Gottlieb Totem - Front Cabinet Stencils.png
Gottlieb Totem - Side Cabinet Stencils.png

Thanks!

If I was doing Eight Ball or one of a million other machines, your method with vinyl or any of several other materials would have worked great, because over-spray wasn't done on those cabinets, but with overspray...it changes the game a bit.

They weren't thin steel sheets. From everything I have read, they were heavy metal plates of a cast material.

Nice job on all of that. Very cool.

Yes,

To make these older machines look like the originals, the stencil edges can't be crisp. As illustrated in your picture, it might look a little like an amateur did the work. For the effect to be done properly, what you said is absolutely correct, you raise the stencil slightly away from the cabinet.

Which is why I don't understand how these lightweight cardboard or paper stencils are so popular. There is really no way to lift them from the machine, they require being held tight to the surface.