McMaster has a brush border that I used to make the skirt for my xcarve
So do you prefer the Laser Rubber outcome over your Lino stuff? Aesthetically speaking?
Yes to everything. It still looks a little rough when stamping - which is nice, but it doesnāt require as much pressure to get nice coverage. Everything about the process is easier with the rubber. I suppose if I were going to do heavy duty printing/stamping, the lino would be a better choice.
Thanks! I will check them out. It occurs to me, there is room in the store āpartsā section for a shop vac extension to ease cleaning of the exhaust path back there.
Now I wonder if there are different grades of rubber, so that maybe there can be less cleanup. Where did you order it from, if I may ask?
I was gifted it by a friend I met several years ago who runs a laser business in Denver. Originally I had ordered linoleum because I had/have no idea what I was doing. I asked her if there was a place in Denver where I could purchase some(there is not) on short notice and she gave me a few sheets due to the lack of places to purchase it in person. She rarely uses it she said, so by giving me a few sheets it would see use
Itās āLow Odorā Laser rubber and Iām not too concerned with the cleanup. I worked in a frame shopāoh my godāalmost 20 years ago in high school and they had a laser for making rubber stamps and they did NOT use low odor rubber. Maybe it wasnāt invented yet, but iāll take the low odor stuff over the stinky red stuff. I couldnāt smell this stuff at all while engraving it.
This is what the edge of a sheet looks like:
Hey man, if youāre in the Denver area you might consider meeting up with the other forgers. We are a good bunch, maybe even better in person!
Are you on the map?
Thanks @aj_stewped. Cheaper than https://www.johnsonplastics.com/laserbits so thatās encouraging. How are you cutting it? Does it cut easily? Sorry for all the questions, Iām very interesting in exploring this process. Especially like the idea of āmulti-plateā lino-prints. (I use printer language since itās what I know)
Absolutely I would love to meet up with folks! No, Iām not on the map yet because Iāve just been a lurker over the past 2 years. I will check that link out.
I am planning on making a journey over to Plasticare next week, so Iāll be up north-ish, wink wink, nudge nudgeā¦
What do you mean by cutting? With a knife or withā¦ THE LASER! The rubber cuts easily with an X-acto blade since itās so soft. I havenāt tested a multi-pass cut on the laser yet, but it did cut in 1 pass with the settings above.
Sorry for the delayed responses, i was at a mini-comic-con yesterday and no time to login to the forum.
Alright! A forger on this end of the metro hemisphere!
The rest of us who have met up are scattered up north, Boulder, Erie and Ft. Collins. There is a plastics vendor in Louisville who sells scrap at half price once a month, so thatās where we have gathered for a beer.
I have met 7 owners now, and welcomed 5 of them into my home to get a look at the pre release. All of them friends now.
Plasticare has great reviews, I need to check that place out.
Let me know when you are going and Iāll plan on it!
I look forward to meeting another of our ilk!
BTW, your comics are great!
Yeah, Iād love to meet folks!
I donāt know what a good price for scrap is, but the Plasticare place sells it for $1.50 / lb, so Iām hoping to find more lucky pieces.
Iām planning on Wednesday for the trip up there. Work for you?
At this point, itās likely to be just you and I at Plasticare, I dunno. Itās a long drive from up north.
But @dwardio was just asking about another meetup. What time frame?
I forgot to say āthank youā re: my comics - was in a hurry to respond, so thank you very much!
Howās about between 10:30 and 11 am? Itās approximately a 30-minute drive from my place, straight up 85. Miss that lunch traffic.
Meeting one fellow laser pal is better than none , but itād be cool if other folks could make it.
Wednesday, closer to 11 fits my attitude better. Maybe we grab lunch somewhere?
Works for me! See you there and we can figure out lunch on the spot unless you have a place in mind over the next couple days.
Sorry, I thought about ācuttingā query being unclear after the fact, but yes, I meant with a knife. i.e. is it easy to make the stamp. Thanks for answering already.
No worries If you look at the picture at the top with all the rubber dust crumbling into my hand, thereās a slight ridge around the whole stamp because i didnāt align the cut line perfectly, so I had to trim all that with the X-acto blade.
So I was trying my first rubber stamp and saw all the complaints about dust. Wanting to keep my GF clean, I thought Iād try a little different approach. I first cut out the block of rubber to the size of my stamp rather than having the GF create any more stinky rubber smell than necessary. Then I folded up a piece of cardstock into a makeshift tray. Then did the engraving. As you can see, the tray did a pretty good job of catching the dust. There wasnāt any noticeable dust by the front door (although my stamp is much smaller than the one above) ā¦anyway, thought Iād share.
Well thatās a clever thing!