{"id":589,"date":"2011-09-17T08:11:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T15:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.built-to-spec.com\/blog\/?p=589"},"modified":"2011-09-23T11:17:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T18:17:02","slug":"making-stamps-with-lasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.built-to-spec.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/17\/making-stamps-with-lasers\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Stamps with Lasers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The above image shows the first mounted\u00a0stamp I made up with my laser cutter, which was created as a stand in for CCCKC<\/a><\/noindex>'s official hackerspace stamp for hackerspace passports<\/a><\/noindex> (I can't wait to get mine own soon)!\u00a0 It should be no surprise that I love to use laser cutters for making all kinds of stuff.\u00a0 I thought I'd start posting some of the myriad of ways you can make stuff with a laser cutter\/engraver and today I'm going to cover making stamps like this.<\/p>\n

First off, you'll need access to a laser cutter that supports raster etching.\u00a0 Almost all commercially available laser cutters will support this, and most will support a special stamp mode.\u00a0 I'll be covering how to do stamps with Epilog Laser drivers, but Universal Laser and GCC laser cutter (I've seen them sold under the LaserPro and Pinnacle brand names) drivers also have stamp modes, I'm just not familiar with how they implement their stamp modes.\u00a0 Unfortunately laser setups that have to be driven directly by G-code like the Lasersaur and some of the A4 size laser cutters out there probably won't be able to make stamps with the methods I'm outlining here.<\/p>\n

First off, you'll need a few supplies.\u00a0 First and foremost is laserable rubber, which is specifically designed with laser based stamp production in mind.\u00a0 It's available from a number of sources online and comes in a couple varieties , one of which is low odor rubber which is what I've been using.\u00a0 Next you'll need the other components of the specific type of stamp you'll be making, called the mount.\u00a0 If you just want a simple, easy to mount and use stamp, you'll probably want to pick up a self inking stamp.\u00a0 These come in several sizes, are pre-inked in most cases, and simply have an adhesive strip you place your cut out engraved rubber on and you're done.\u00a0 Most also have an indexing strip you can stamp and insert after mounting your rubber. Here's an example I made up:<\/p>\n

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The second option for mounting stamps are \"artistic\" stamp mounts, like the kind used for crafts that you find at local hobby stores.\u00a0 These consist of a wood block (or an acrylic block), a foam rubber cushion that forms a bond between the block and the rubber (or some foam rubber with a sticky coating or simply a sticky film if you're using an acrylic block), and the rubber stamp itself.\u00a0 If you've got some wood scraps or acrylic to use, all you really need is some cushion, making this style the cheapest stamp mount you can make.\u00a0 It also gives you the most freedom since you can make them almost any size or shape and the results can still look very professional.\u00a0 Hand stamps are similar in construction to wood block artistic stamps but have a handle and often an index strip on the side, or you could just print the mount if you have or know someone with a 3D printer using this design<\/a><\/noindex>.\u00a0 Here's a picture of the 2\"x2\" blocks I used for the CCCKC stamp above:<\/p>\n

\"Artiscic<\/a>I coated one with polyurethane because I planned on etching it with the laser later and the polyurethane coating protects the wood from the byproducts of the etching without masking.\u00a0 Here's a small scrap of cushion as well:<\/p>\n

\"stamp<\/a><\/p>\n

The cushion has adhesive coating on both sides and is used to mount the stamp to the block and distribute pressure when stamping.\u00a0 I picked up all my sample stamp supplies from JMP<\/a><\/noindex> because they had all the supplies I wanted in one place, but they're not the cheapest source out there.<\/p>\n

Now you'll need some artwork. Ideally you'll want a nice crisp high resolution black and white raster image or some vector artwork to work with.\u00a0 The easiest way to get a nice crisp black and white image from raster artwork that's well defined (already high contrast) but a little blurry around the edges and\/or not quite black and white is to:<\/p>\n