Inspired by Ben Gatien’s You Tube tutorial on how to design a laser cut box on Sketchup I downloaded the trial version today and had a play.
One of my first project when I get my Glowforge will be rubber stamps, and I have been mulling over a way to make the stamp holder, rather than buying blanks. Sketchup seemed the ideal way to test out my idea. I first drew the objects in Illustrator, then imported them into Sketchup as a .dxf file.
I then extruded them and created the model below. I also did a quick and dirty render using a free Sketchup plugin called Visualiser.
Cool didn’t know sketchup could render like that(I haven’t used it in years, on an iPhone screen that looks like a proper plastic stamp).
I don’t have much experience of stamping but I heard tapered designs give a better stamp relief from a detail point of view. GF plans to add a “stamp mode” to help do this. Yay
I like the idea of using magnets to hold different rubber stamps with one holder(I dono how you would not make a mess though when storing)
It should be possible to build a frame that goes around (and holds) the rubber stamp portion.
You would leave tabs on 2 opposing sides, or on all 4 sides, which protrude beyond the square frame. Then use the laser cutter to trim the rubber thin where the frame will lock in.
May be a bit complicated to fully engineer to the point of not needing any glue, but seems possible. Then you can have just a few holders, and a ton of rubber stamp inserts.
jacktyler_co_uk, The renderer is a free plugin. There are loads available - some are very expensive. I just downloaded the first free one I came across. It’s pretty limited though, so I will look for others.
jacobturner, I’m looking to sell these, so not particularly interested in removable stamps. It’s a good idea though, and perfect for crafters who want to use the stamps themselves. You could just use a bit of double sided tape to attach the rubber. Although, to be honest, it’s such a simple patter, you might as well make one for each stamp.
Thanks for sharing this…its awesome…while I have saw on this board that the machine will allow you to make your own rubber stamps, I am hoping that is true because I emailed a question about being able to take a drawing and turn it into a rubber stamp using rubber acrylic and this is the message i just got back:
That’s a fascinating challenge for our laser, and I’ve never seen a case like it before. I don’t want to mislead you that we know for sure that it would work. Unfortunately we’re not staffed right now to run samples or experiments for potential customers, so I’m afraid I can’t give you a definitive answer. If there is a local makerspace or shop that has a CO2 laser with a power of about 45 watts, you can test it there - if it works, it will work on a Glowforge. Right now, though, I’m afraid we just won’t know the answer.
SO I AM A BIT WORRIED NOW that it won’t be able to create rubber stamps
thanks for that link jrnelson…I saw that link on another post…all of this is so FOREIGN to me…I just hope it works…I did start a whole new post regarding this with a dog image…thanks again
