Rubber stamp material source

[David Fairfield]

Would anyone care to share a good experience buying and using material to laser engrave a rubber stamp? I need just a small quantity for personal use.

Thanks as always!
Dave

[Dave Johnson29]

Would anyone care to share a good experience buying and using material to laser engrave a rubber stamp? I need just a small quantity for personal use.

Try Millennium Marking for their low-odor and no-odor polymers.

http://www.millmarking.com/

[Steve Clarkson]

Would anyone care to share a good experience buying and using material to laser engrave a rubber stamp? I need just a small quantity for personal use.

Thanks as always!
Dave

As a matter of fact my sample material from Millenium just arrived today.....one 8x10 sheet of grey and one 8x10 sheet of clear.....now I just have to figure what they are, what to engrave on them.....and how!

[Jim Watkins]

If you check this link, I did a write up of some material I have been testing and my thoughts on how it went. I had three different companies send me test material and my results are noted.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=106752

Steve, The grey is just their low/no odor rubber and I found it to be really good as there was no odor I could detect.

The clear is a polimar (Bad spelling). It does not last as long as actual rubber, but Walt at Millinium said it is not a real depreciable difference in time and it lasers faster than rubber.

Smooth side down so it will adhere to the stamper.

[Steve Clarkson]

Jim,

Yes, I did read your post.....it was VERY informative.

I noticed we have the same 45 watt minis.....but you deviated a little from the suggested Epilog settings.....just wondering if I should start with yours or theirs.

If the grey is no odor.....why would I even use the clear?????

In your post, Bill really threw me off with Epilogs rubber stamp driver option.....the whole fence thing. Do you use it? Do you have to do anything special that your wouldn't normally do when engraving a piece of wood, for example?

Are stamps profitable? How much does a typical stamp sell for? Do you market them to rubber stamp stores?

[Dan Hintz]

To determine profitability, go to Michael's (or your local craft store) and see what stamps are going for these days ($3-$8, sometimes more). Now add on to that having to market it, spending time trying to cut custom designs, long time engraving, etc. and suddenly they don't look too profitable. you can make a few bucks at it, but I don't see it as a real money-maker. Do some when your machine isn't in use for other jobs, but I would suggest against making the business out of it.

[Jim Watkins]

Thanks for the reply Steve. My initial reply for the person starting the post. But I threw in some things because you had contacted Millinium and I had too and wanted to help. To your questions:

I noticed we have the same 45 watt minis.....but you deviated a little from the suggested Epilog settings.....just wondering if I should start with yours or theirs.

Yes I deviated because the burn did not go deep enough to get a good image. If you don't go deep enough, the edges will get inked and show in the stamp.

If the grey is no odor.....why would I even use the clear?????

If I remember, the clear is a little cheaper and you can use more speed as it is supposed to burn deeper than the real rubber.

In your post, Bill really threw me off with Epilogs rubber stamp driver option.....the whole fence thing. Do you use it? Do you have to do anything special that your wouldn't normally do when engraving a piece of wood, for example?

With the fence, you have to build a support for the stamp, especially when you have thin lines. The fence(I think he means the shoulder) supports the image, text, etc. Plus the driver has the ability to automatically mirror the image without having to mirror it when designing. I found that cool. I use the shoulder set at 25 and the widening set at 1.

Are stamps profitable? How much does a typical stamp sell for? Do you market them to rubber stamp stores?

That I don't know. I just got interested in them. I won't base my business (if that is what you call gross sales of $86 last year) on it, but I am trying to find a nitch. I am doing a pricing study to determine what I can sell for but haven't finished yet. I got some good information from Walt Urias at Millinium Marking. I have also been talking to Manual at MSM Marking. But Walt actually came to my house and we burned some samples and tests. Thats how I came up with the settings.
My guess is that I'll do a few here and there, but I want to do custom stamps. Return address stamps, special designs, etc. Plus I have a friend who sells stamps as a business so I want to talk to her about selling for me. I'll keep you all apprised.

The image shown was burned at the settings described and is 1.25" x 2.5". It burned cleanly and worked really good. I made it for a friend who just moved into a new home. He and his wife really liked it.

[Bill Cunningham]

Steve if you look at the epilog manual, it will explain the rubber stamp mode.. You basically just type your text or what ever, mirror it, put a hairline square around it, this becomes your relief area, (the white relief area will etch out, and leave the black text and graphics standing) then put another hairline square around that and this becomes your cut line to cut it out when the engraving is done.. The advantage of the stamp driver is you don't have to negative the image, and all the text and lines will have a thicker base ( called a shoulder) than the print surface.. This gives the text and graphics better stability than just trying to get them to stand up on their own with 90 deg. edges. If your doing printed lines in the stamp make them at least .010 and printed stamp borders should be .014

[Steve Clarkson]

Steve if you look at the epilog manual, it will explain

I suppose I should read the damn thing, huh?

Thanks guys.....I've give it a shot.