Has anyone tried using this ?

In theory, it should work well to hold the stencil tight against a metal surface.

Keeping the stencil clean of paint build-up might be a challenge.

Thanks for any ''on-topic'' replies. lol

I saw the BN repaint a caboose and they primed the caboose, they painted a big white areas in the correct locations and the applied magnetic masks of the BN logo to the white area and painted the caboose green over the masks.

It passed the 5 foot rule.

-Hudson

Eleven or so years ago, I put lettering onto the former Central of Georgia office car Columbus at the Savannah Roundhouse using stencils that I cut from hand from magnetic vinyl.

It was sort of an experiment to see if it would work. This produced good-looking lettering, but not without some challenges.

Everything--everything--has to be absolutely clean. In an imperfect environment without a separate facility for painting, all manner of dust, and especially little bits of ferrous material, stuck to the stuff, and was a pain to remove. Even with much work, the dust kept them from totally sealing around the edges, so paint applied too heavily bled beneath the stencil. Also, I had to cut out for rivets.

After I got it to where I could at least work with it, I found the best technique to use was to drybrush the first coat, then go back with a steady hand after removing the stencil and finish the lettering with more opaque coats. Unless done very carefully and patiently, spray painting would likely have produced some overspray.

I'd probably consider doing it again in a clean shop, and perhaps on a smoother surface. The reusability factor is in magnetic vinyl's favor. If getting a hand-painted look (for, say, pre-1930 or 1940 equipment, or shortline stuff) is important, this may be a good way of doing it. Of note: paint buildup on the stencil did not seem to be a problem, but perhaps could be after 10 or 20 uses. Of course, your stencil might start to tear before you get to that point.

However, I'm fairly sure that adhesive masks are a better way of getting professional, clean-edge results, even if it takes a little longer, and even if it means you have to get a new one made for each job. With a CNC-cut image from a CAD file, getting consistent results from one job to the next shouldn't be much of a problem.