How To Stamp Letters In A Circle

[LNLeather]

I put this information in one of my first posts, but I thought I"d put this in a How to.... to make it easier to find.

I was working on some coaster designs, and I remembered seeing a gizmo that someone 'here at Leatherworker.net' had made -

to attach to a coaster with a pin in the center, that would swivel around the coaster so you could stamp letters in a circle.

Well I didn't want to have to put a pin in each coaster. And I have never seen anything else written about how to do this.

Soooooo, I figured something else out...

Some of the coasters I am making have no border, some have a straight line edge, some have a straight line edge and a camouflage stamp etc.

Sooo I have made a special tooling coaster to line up the letter stamps with to use with each different border design, because the distance

from the edge will be different with each different design - and also for your different sized stamps...

So- for the coaster with just a single line border, make 2 coasters just the same (with just a single line border) and one of those

will be the tool to line the stamps up on all the other coasters with the single line border.

To make the tooling coaster place your stamp on the coaster where you want the letter to be - exactly in the position you want the letters to be in.

Cut out the leather directly beneath the stamp - straight up the left side of the stamp and straight out along the bottom of the stamp.

I am not an engineer, so this might sound confusing, but the pictures should clear up any questions you might have.

2 on one. I use the cut out at the top for coasters with the single line border,

and the cutout at the bottom for the single line with a Camouflage stamp

Take the coaster you have just cut out and put it over the coaster you want to put letters on in a circle.

Put the letter stamp into the corner of the tooling coaster and just stamp a letter and then turn the tooling coaster in a circle as you go.

With a little practice you will get the feel for how much to turn the tooling coaster to get your letters to line up

with the same amount of space between them, and get perfectly positioned letters.

*Before I get started putting letters on a coaster, I line up all the letter stamps in the order I will will need them,

so I don't make mistakes in the spelling… Learned that from experience…

Edited January 13, 2012 by LNLeather

[Tree Reaper]

Great idea Cheryl;

You could use cardboard as well for a template.

How are you indexing your letters, are you guessing at the spacing or do you have a method for spacing?

Kevin.

[stelmackr]

Very nice tutorial. Here is an alternative way to place/impress letters on leather and even how to make the letters curve:

www.pslac.org/download_area/Typography%20in%20Leather%20Article.pdf

Hope this is helpful.

Bob Stelmack

[pete]

Great idea. I made the same thing out of thin clear plastic from a soad bottle. That way I can see the previous letter(s) and can space them as evenly as I can.

pete

[moeg]

Thanks for that, I'll be trying it out for sure

Moe

[LNLeather]

Great idea Cheryl;

You could use cardboard as well for a template.

How are you indexing your letters, are you guessing at the spacing or do you have a method for spacing?

Kevin.

Thank you Kevin!

In the beginning, I was hitting the letters too hard and there was a faint square outline of the metal stamp,

So, I would turn the tooling coaster forward till I could just see the corner edge of the stamp outline.

As I went along I learned to whack the letters a little less hard... and just got a feel for how far to turn the

tooling coaster. You could also just tip the stamp a little to make a very slight mark to turn to.

I do Hope this helps.

Very nice tutorial. Here is an alternative way to place/impress letters on leather and even how to make the letters curve:

www.pslac.org/download_area/Typography%20in%20Leather%20Article.pdf

Hope this is helpful.

Bob Stelmack

Thanks Bob. and Thanks for the pdf link for the Typography in Leather Article!

There is a lot of great info in that article! Thanks so much for sharing that!

Great idea. I made the same thing out of thin clear plastic from a soad bottle. That way I can see

the previous letter(s) and can space them as evenly as I can.

pete

Thanks Pete. Clear plastic is a grrreat idea. I used leather because I have a clicker and it is easy to

cut leather rounds all the same size.

I do have some thick plastic, so maybe I will try cutting some of that. I like my tooling coaster to be made

of thicker material, I think it will last longer and so the metal stamp is real easy to put in place and not slip.

Thanks for that, I'll be trying it out for sure

Moe

HI Moe

You are welcome. Have fun!

[Stewart]

Thank you. It gave me an Idea. Make a template for what border your using . I use fonts and transfer to transparent

paper than arrange the as the go. That will require a little practice in placing. i my self like using Fonts. so many different types.

Joey2shoes

[shtoink]

I love simple and elegant solutions to a problem.

The soft plastic lids found on coffee creamer, cocoa, or anything else you can find in the kitchen or pantry would work well for a template. Just make sure it isn't still being used first.

[LNLeather]

I love simple and elegant solutions to a problem.

The soft plastic lids found on coffee creamer, cocoa, or anything else you can find in the kitchen or pantry would work well for a template. Just make sure it isn't still being used first.

Oh, what a Very Good idea! If you found one the size you want your item to be, that would also be a very good template for cutting it out too.

Thanks for the tip

[Half Goat]

braw tutorial thanks!

[Leela Valley Leather]

In relation to indexing the letters, why not work from right to left? There should still be some portion of the previous letter visible shouldnt there?

[LNLeather]

There is no right or wrong

Right to Left or Left to Right

What ever works for you is good.

It gets easier The more you do it...

[whiteeugene]

A lot of great stuff in this thread thanks everyone for sharing.

Doug

[LNLeather]

Happy to Help

[LNLeather]

If you think that will help you get the stamps spaced right then that's great.

My experience was that - I found that after stamping a few coasters (2 or 3) with the "tooling coaster"

as described above, it just became easy to gauge the spacing and also how hard to hit the stamp so

there is not a square outline around the letters.

What ever works for you is good.

It gets easier The more you do it...