smtstencil.co.uk un-friended me. Where do I turn instead?

[bpiphany]

I've ordered from them/(him?) a few times and never had much issues. Their product seem to be of good quality, but I have nothing to compare to. I've used their polyester stencils over and over hundreds of times. The accuracy and edge quality seem great to me. They are local (read EU for now). They accept gerbers which is certainly very convenient. They claim a two day turnaround.

On September 2nd I placed my order (ok that is a Saturday)
On Friday 8th I asked, very politely, by e-mail what the progress was and when to expect shipping. No response.
On Monday 11th I asked again, still quite politely. No response (ok, that may have been a bit impatient, being right after the weekend again)
On Thursday 13th I asked again, not quite as politely, and finally got some response. My order was promptly refunded and canceled.

I take it they are either planning to go out of business or I'm just not welcome any longer. What comparable services are there price and quality wise?

So far I've found hobbytronics which look fairly similar.

[Kjelt]

Why not just choose a board house that also does stainless steel stencils ?
They are quite affordable these days and last forever.

[48X24X48X]

On any day, stainless steel stencil is better and it's so cheap now. Used to order from them but that was ages ago.

[bpiphany]

Why not just choose a board house that also does stainless steel stencils ?
They are quite affordable these days and last forever.

Forever has never been an issue. The polyester ones seem to last just fine. But I suppose I'll have to try stainless at some point. Any recommendation?

I usually submit a few board designs at a time, to save on shipping. And then I combine all the stencils onto a single sheet. £13.50 for a full A4 polyester sheet, unlimited cutting, seemed hard to beat. I just placed an order with Hobbytronics to try them out, they only take £8.40 for the full sheet... I have a friend with access to a laser cutter at work. I have no idea if it is accurate enough, but I hope we can give it a try.

[Kjelt]

I dont know about multiple designs, you can try contact the boardhouse.
But prices are low, i use pcbshopper to find but as an example this chinese manufacturer produces lasercut stencils upto 25x25 cm without frame for $16, excl. shipping costs ofcourse, very affordable IMO

https://www.elecrow.com/laser-cut-pcb-stencil-p-450.html

[Fortran]

Elecrow has stencils from $16 for 20x30 without frame and $18 for 30x40 with frame.
 * darn. Kjelt beat me to it

I haven't tried the stencils, but I've been ordering boards and laser cut acrylics lately.
So far I've had no issues with them.

[bpiphany]

Thanks, Elecrow looks interesting for sure. I can't see how they wouldn't allow me to combine any number of designs on their stand-alone stencil service. They couldn't know unless I told them =) I'll probably try them next time I've got a new board, which doesn't happen every month...

[mikeselectricstuff]

Last couple of times I used smtstencil they were pretty slow. I don't use them any more since I discovered how well my vinyl cutter does stencils.
For anything more than a few-off, or anything dense I've always used metal stencils

 

[Fortran]

Interesting.  I've been thinking of getting a vinyl cutter for that (among other) reason.
What material are you cutting and how small pads can you cut reliably?

[RGB255_0_0]

Mike has done a video on it.

https://youtu.be/FrxlQ2l_AHM