I’ve been doing a lot with custom stamps lately. SpeedBall makes precut stamps made from linoleum that are mounted on particle board. Inventables has them pretty cheap and I’ve seen them at various crafts stores as well. Attached is the template with snap marks, so you’ll basically drop your design in the square, upload to GF, score the snap marks, cut the square and remove. Put the blank stamp in the square hole, snap it, and engrave the artwork (don’t forget to reflect it first!) and you’re done. Make sure you use some cribbing to get the height correct when doing the stamp as well!
Thanks for the info–I’ve not done a full etching for one, I just opted to etch the outline and then hand carve. I did try to do the same with the “speedy cut” material–like giant erasers, super nice for hand cutting, but DON’T recommend for laser. Very stinky.
And you can get the linoleum as sheets (I use Artist & Craftsman Supply–great stores if you can find one close to you). They not pre-mounted, just with the jute backing, so they a lot easier to fit on the bed, as they are only about 0.123" thick. And then I just glued my carved block to a piece of board from my GF scrap pile (mine was small, so just cut 2x3" rectangle w/ radii corners from maple ply).
The linoleum was fine–but even good venting didn’t stop this other type of stamping material from stinking up the room while scoring as well as the block still stinking after it’s taken out & washed. It may be safe/non-toxic, and I prefer it over linoleum block it for hand carving–have used for years for blocks for embossing velvet & leather ), but for lasering–will stick with linoleum.
Q: can you explain more about “cribbing” to get the height on the stamp correct? I would have to cut the jig/snapmarks with the crumb tray in, but I need to engrave my lino blocks with the tray out.
