How to Make a Maker Stamp for Leatherworking

Continuing the discussion from Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - February 2017:

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Awesome Mike. Could you show some of the rest of us leatherworkers how to make one, too?

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@coloneldan, it’s not real complicated:
The stamp was cut into the end of a Delrin Rod (scrap ends ordered off of eBay). I got 1.75" X 5-6" long pieces.

Design stamp in Adobe Illustrator: will need to cut this on the ThunderLaser since it is only laser with adjustable bed. Starting with AI makes things easier: I had poor luck importing the curved text from my initial design efforts in Inkscape.

I used a 12 pt font for my name, slightly larger for “Maker”.

Make image a large black circle (2"+) with white text. My stamp was about 1" x 1.3" inside that black circle. A ratio of 1.6:1 would be closer to the “golden mean” and might be more aesthetically pleasing. YMMV.

Important: You need to mirror the image before printing. Should end up something like this:

Plan to raster the image (not vector). I think Thunder S/W uses “scan” and “cut” nomenclature respectively. I used 20% for power and 400 for speed (FWIW, @Webdevel used 20/500).

I used a woodworking 2-screw clamp to hold the rod vertically. Used a small spirit level to check that top was level. Had to lower bed quite a bit to set laser height properly.

I used the “frame” option to manually place the “home” so that stamp would end up centered on the end of the rod. Got close enough, but not perfect. If the Thunder had a Center Home option rather than upper left, that’d make centering much easier, but I used what I already knew rather than digging through the manual.

Took about 11 minutes to raster out the image.

I then used a Dremel to taper the rod edges back from the stamp - this prevents the round edge of the rod from becoming part of the stamped image. Got pretty close to the outer rim of the oval.

The Delrin leaves a powder residue when cut on the laser, so a good wash/scrub cleaned it up pretty easily.

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@HankCowdog you can set the home coordinates to center. The setting is in the software. I can post when I’m not on mobile.

I cut mine into 1" pieces since I was planning on using a handle with it, so I didn’t have to lower the bed on the thunder as much.

I think mine took about the same amount time.

I wonder if there is enough interest to do a class? We could maybe team up? 1" stamps would only cost a few dollars I think.

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I would definitely be interested!

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Very nice! A class on how to make stamps would be fun! You should think about teaching a class on how to make leather workingstamps!

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Hey y’all… I moved the “how to” responses and class requests to this new thread - so it wouldn’t get lost.

@jast ~ please keep this in mind when you make the February Show and Tell blog… :wink:     …and, thanks again for taking the reigns on the blog posts!! :slight_smile:

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This is awesome. I would be interested in a class. I would be more interested in becoming creative enough to come up with a logo…

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Would it be possible to use a design? I have a logo, I have not idea hoe to goe what would be needed on the computer

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Yes absolutely . that should work nicely

Count me in on a class then, I would love to have it for clay as well

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Count me in to i would be interested in this class.