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Laser cutting meets 3D printing, a stamp

· Fox Bright

Engrave a die into laser rubber, print a handle that fits it, and you have a tool that neither machine could make alone. Artwork rules, mirroring, Speedy settings and a Fusion handle in one short walk-through.

A laser-engraved rubber stamp die sitting on a 3D-printed handle beside a fresh impression on paper.

The laser is good at surfaces. The printer is good at forms. A rubber stamp needs both: a flat die with a design in relief, and a handle shaped for a hand. Do the die on the laser and the handle on the printer and each machine does the part it is best at. The same split works for a lot of display work: a laser-cut face with a printed clip, hinge, pin or foot behind it.

For the full project brief, see A custom rubber stamp. This page is the technique.

Artwork

  1. Draw the design at real size, in Illustrator or Inkscape. Solid fills only, text converted to outlines. Keep the die under 50 × 50 mm.
  2. Nothing thinner than 0.5 mm, and no gap between raised areas under 0.5 mm. Thin lines break off the rubber; thin gaps fill with ink.
  3. Mirror the whole design horizontally. The die is a reflection of the print. Read any text in the file backwards before you go on.
  4. Invert it. The laser removes what is black, so the background goes black and the design goes white. Add a thin outline around the edge in the cut colour.
  5. Measure the outline and write the size down. The handle is built from it.

Engrave on the Speedy

  1. Load laser rubber, 2.3 mm, on a test strip first. Focus. Air assist on, extraction running. Rubber dust smells and it is the reason the extraction exists.
  2. In Ruby, choose the rubber / stamp material and turn shoulders on. A shoulder puts a slope on every raised edge so it holds up under pressure instead of folding.
  3. Starting point on the 60 W: full power, speed around 25 to 35 %, 500 dpi. Measure the depth with calipers; aim for 1 to 1.5 mm and run a second pass if it is shallow. Cut the outline slow.
  4. Wash the die in warm water with dish soap and a soft brush until nothing comes off. Dry it. Ink it and stamp once by hand. Fix the artwork now if anything is filled in or missing.
  1. In Fusion, set parameters: die_width, die_depth, grip_diameter, grip_height. A grip of 30 to 40 mm across and 40 to 60 mm tall suits most hands.
  2. Model a base plate at die size plus 1 mm each side, 6 mm thick, and the grip on top of it.
  3. Give the handle a way to say which way is up without looking: a flat on one side, a notch, or an arrow raised on the top face. Fillet every edge a hand touches.
  4. Print base down, no supports. Check the base is flat.
  5. Mount the die with double-sided stamp foam, the orientation cue pointing to the top of the design. Ten impressions in a row is the test.

Other places the split works

The stamp is the clearest example, but the pattern is general. On a mostly laser-cut artifact, print the parts the laser cannot make: a pin that holds two layers at an angle, a clip that grips 3 mm plywood, a foot so a panel stands up, a hinge. Model the printed part in the same Fusion file as the laser parts so the fit is checked before anything is made.