Hi all! I posted about my first ink stamp attempt over in the “Made on a GlowForge” category and there was some interest expressed about what I used.
The original files for both the lazerable Tubman image and the 3D printable stamp handle were generously posted to Thingiverse by some clever guy that goes by DanoWall under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence. Thanks DanoWall!
The SVG provided had a LOT paths with a LOT of nodes and a few crossing-segments that I feared (with absolutely no evidence) might make the engrave act oddly and so I let loose with my OCD in Inkscape and came to my senses hours (days??) later to find that I had edited almost all of it, making it one big path and cutting down on the nodes a bit. I’m making this version available here to anyone who wants it under the same CC license agreement.
Note: I may have been too enthusiastic around the lettering at the bottom, and I’m not thrilled with the detail of that on the eventual stamp. I think I may fiddle with it more and if I come up with a better version I’ll post that here as well.
For the rubber, I grabbed a Rubber Stamp Sheet for Laser Engrage from Amazon. No idea if $13 is a lot for that sort of thing, but it worked for me. Please post if you’ve found better options, I’m interested!
For that sheet (0.089" thick) I found that the following worked pretty well:
Engrave: 300 zoom/73 pew / 270 LPI / 3 passes. Took about 17 min a pass (I might be recalling that wrong).
Cut (just the border): 170 zoom/ Full pew/ 2 passes
Note: GF Pro.
The Rubber smells pretty bad when lasered; I’m really glad I have a booster fan on my exhaust. I let that sit for a while with the booster running before I opened the lid.
Big tip: The charred grey detritus left in the engrave can just be washed away with light soap and water, but it STICKS to stuff. So, wear disposable nitrile/latex/whatever gloves when handling or your hands will smell BAD for a while.
Finally, I used SuperGlue to attach the rubber to the handle (3D printed with PLA). I think the handle is a little prone to breaking where the post meets the pad backing; maybe print with less voids.
I hope you find this helpful and fun! Madam Tubman was basically a superhero and I hope everyone takes the opportunity to learn about her.
