Making your own stamps and logo's with acrylic and a diode laser.

[RockyAussie]

17 hours ago, chrisash said:

What sort of size impression plate could a large clicker press use on leather. looking on Etsy they generally seem quite small, but i guess there would be a market for large embossing plates say up to A4 size in the future which traditionally would be done by tooling, a bit like selling prints of artwork rather than the original. Lots of belts are made the same way.

Guess it rely's on the power of the press, bigger size = more power= more cost

And the design has a lot to do with it as well. In the Wild Harry pictures above you will see where in one the letters are pushed in and the other where the letters are protruding out. There is something like 3 times more pressure needed to press the background in. Good thing though is that it costs maybe a one $ of material to find out against $100 for a metal one you cant push in either. Also great for testing the design before committing to getting a metal one made up. Also great if you want to print the font of your choice out and make your own letter set. WAY more options to explore.

[chrisash]

Thats true Brian

My problem is after trying 3D printer and small Laser, what would the sensible way to go

3D resin printer where you get exceptional details Limited resin choice

Diode Laser slow but good quality limited to Acrylic in most cases

3D CNC router can do ally and acrylic

Life gets complicated especially if your a hobby person rather than investing in assets for a company

[sbrownn]

On 9/27/2021 at 10:04 PM, RockyAussie said:

Very good indeed. I think you gunna master this process real quick and save a whole lot of $$$$$ on stamps as well.

A 3D printer works for making dies but I think the quality of the press with your laser cut dies is better.  How long does it take compared to 3D printing?

[RockyAussie]

10 hours ago, sbrownn said:

A 3D printer works for making dies but I think the quality of the press with your laser cut dies is better.  How long does it take compared to 3D printing?

The laser is quicker and the acrylic is harder than the pla+ and therefore does a crisper neater cut into the leather. keep in mind that a 2.5 watt laser is still pretty slow and a 5 watt would be 2 times faster and a bigger tube type as @PastorBob showed above would likely do the job in only a few minutes. I have not tried it yet but I think it MAY be possible to even make a press knife out of this acrylic for light weight leathers. I have been able to get an impression left behind in the hdpe cutting board and that surprised me a lot.

[RockyAussie]

14 hours ago, chrisash said:

Thats true Brian

My problem is after trying 3D printer and small Laser, what would the sensible way to go (You asking me )

3D resin printer where you get exceptional details Limited resin choice. I don't have a resin printer but  the filament printer I have does way more than i could ever do with a laser or cnc machine if we are talking 2 axis.

Diode Laser slow but good quality limited to Acrylic in most cases

3D CNC router can do ally and acrylic. I don't have one yet but would love to get one that can do metal. A lot of my stamping is done on chrome tan and needs the heat to keep the impression well and more so if using gold foil etc.

Life gets complicated especially if your a hobby person rather than investing in assets for a company

 

[PastorBob]

6 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

The laser is quicker and the acrylic is harder than the pla+ and therefore does a crisper neater cut into the leather. keep in mind that a 2.5 watt laser is still pretty slow and a 5 watt would be 2 times faster and a bigger tube type as @PastorBob showed above would likely do the job in only a few minutes. I have not tried it yet but I think it MAY be possible to even make a press knife out of this acrylic for light weight leathers. I have been able to get an impression left behind in the hdpe cutting board and that surprised me a lot.

Yeah, it doesn't take long at all.  I think the one above took about 15-20 minutes to create.

[sbrownn]

On 9/30/2021 at 4:10 AM, PastorBob said:

Yeah, it doesn't take long at all.  I think the one above took about 15-20 minutes to create.

Thanks, that makes sense since you are only cutting out a small part of a pattern instead of creating the entire part.