Rubber stamps

Projects
1

Hi!

Planning to engrave rubber to make printing stamps. Any advice on the rubber to buy? Do we have any in stock? Advice on the laser settings?

What type of paint/ink could I use with it?

Anyone experienced willing to give me a hand or with a similar project?

Cheers,

Pau

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There should be suitable rubber in stock and settings in the Material Database.

Would love to hear how you get on - as iā€™m planning on making stamps soon :slight_smile:

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Thanks Martyn!

Itā€™s a 20x20 cm so will need to buy more rubberā€¦ Would something like this be any good? What would be the ideal thickness?

4

Hi Pau,:smiley: if you need any laser rubber drop Steve Jones a message (sjmaker ) Keep well. Brian D=

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5

I made a laser-cut rubber stamp once, I just use it with a normal stamp pad? (I also laser-cut a wooden handle to help me use the stamp). 20x20 might be a stretch though, I guess what youā€™re making is more like linocut? In that case, Iā€™ve used acrylic paint with a roller.

Might be obvious but remember that you need to flip your design to make a stamp, otherwise your design will come out flipped when you stamp it :wink:

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We have or at least had some stamp material in the laser stock shop.

You donā€™t have to do anything, thereā€™s a setting in the software that flips and outlines it for you then etches angles on the edges for support.

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Hi Pau,

Whatā€™s the final use for the rubber stamp you are making? Is it a short use stamp or are you planning on using it a lot? It might inform the sort of rubber you get and the way it is made. If you want something that is getting alot of use then there might be certain considerations to make. Iā€™m guessing you will be using something like a rolling press for something around 20cm square? I can give you a few recommendations on material for things like Lino cuts but completely depends you your final use.

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Iā€™m sure @mbg will be happy to point you in the right direction. He was so kind to make the stamps for the Laser Shop.

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9

As mentioned, you want to remember to flip your design and engrave the negative of what you want the stamp to show. I used contact cement to affix the stamps to a wooden block. The settings I used should be something like ā€œmbg rubberā€ on the machine

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Again, you donā€™t have to. Thereā€™s a specific setting in the cutter dialogue that has all these parameters already.

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11

Very cool! Didnā€™t know that (and sorry skimmed by that bit on your post!)

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@Pau please keep us posted on what type you end up buying as I also want to make some stamps soon! :slight_smile:

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Iā€™ve always used the rubber from here:
https://hobarts.com/collections/rubber
It engraves really well. (flames around the laser head area are normal when cutting engraving rubber, air assist must be stitched on!) Also, remember to mirror your image. :slightly_smiling_face:

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14

Thanks Jonathan, super useful.

Do you need to do any postprocessing once the engraving is finished, other than mounting it onto something?

And do you need to adjust the engraving ā€œdepthā€ to optimise for rubber? (not sure if thatā€™s even possible, Iā€™ve only done a couple of beginner projects so far where the settings had already been set by someone else).

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I feel like Iā€™m going mad. Or maybe everyone just enjoys doing all this manually.

There is a specific option to optimise for stamps, one that mirrors the image, adds a ramp to sides for support and engraves to the correct depth for the right material.

Here is trotecā€™s own webpage about it: https://www.troteclaser.com/en-gb/learn-support/helpcenter/how-to-engrave-stamp

It works really well and itā€™s just in a drop down menu when you want to cut. The manufacturer of our laser cutter started in the business by makingā€¦ stamps.

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That is correct on all fronts, I have never used it but do know if itā€™s existence. Good shout. :+1:

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Itā€™s been previously mentioned that cutting rubber leaves a mess - is there any advice on how to minimise this? For example, Brian here is suggesting that we put something underneath. What would people recommend that we lay underneath?

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Just pasting this video tutorial from Trotec. It shows how to do this withRuby and explains the settings @iNerdier mentioned above :

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Also, if youā€™re using Adobe Illustrator for your stamp design (or any other design that youā€™re laser cutting/engraving):

  1. Create the design in .ai
  2. If the design has text, then click on it, go to Type -> Create outlines (otherwise your cool font might be converted to a simpler font)
  3. Scale the design by x1.333 (some weird issues with resolution when converting .ai to .svg making your design smaller than it should be. Explained in detail here)
  4. Click on the design, then click on the Artboard tool, then Fit to Selected Art
  5. File -> Export -> Export As -> .svg

This is the only way Iā€™ve found that works for Illustrator - if anyone has a smarter workflow please let us know :slight_smile: