Anyone used a stencil cutter before?

I'm just curious if anyone has used a stencil cutter like this one or something similar. I'm toying with the idea of getting one as I think it would be fun to be able to cut my own stencils. Of course I do have a plethora of X-acto knives being a designer, but was curious how well this tool works. It looks to me like it's basically a souldering iron so I wonder if you can just buy the stencil cutting tip itself...any thoughts/opinions would be awesome! Thanks!!

I have one very similar to that one, Gretchen. It works quite well, but it took a lot of thought each time I used it as to how to make a proper stencil and not cut out the wrong sections. There are probably useful tutorials somewhere that teach you how to, but I didn't think of that beforehand (duh!)

There is a new FABA tv video using that.. http://www.fabatv.com/page/video/id/136/q/mq

I was taught to use one of those (and an Xacto) on glass (with the design underneath) during a course I took. Yes it works.... it is different from a soldering iron or a wood burning tool, however there are similarities. After spending hours (which turned into days) doing a variety of stencils, I realized I was spending more time than the money was worth to just buy the stencil.

Now I use a cutter (I have a Cricut with the old SCAL) - and that is worth it for time - if only because I can do last minute changes of logos etc, create my own designs, do many copies of the same design, and do multiple sizes of the same design. But that only takes me 3-5 minutes of computer/cutter time (from a digital design) where the hot tool took at least 10 times that depending on complexity - and if you make a mistake, might as well start over.... oh and straight lines aren't!

Interesting...thanks for all the info, everyone! I never thought of getting a Cricut for that too. Great idea. Still on the fence but we'll see. I don't really have any particular ideas in mind to make myself, and I already have the BAM sets, but maybe if a great idea strikes me I'll have to give it a try!

Thank you. I've been toying with this idea myself to cut stencils to create my own business T-shirts. Want to learn silk screening, but this seems like a much less expensivle way. I've done the T-shirts with a custom stencil like the glitter tattoos, but that's a one and done deal. So this would be a lot nicer to make multiples with and not have the expense of the large stencil for 1 shirt.