Tutorial: make your own stamp with a laser cutter

With a laser cutter and a piece of stamp rubber, you can easily make your own stamps. What do you want to stamp? From logos to drawings and birthday gifts, bring your designs to life.

Stamp rubber is new in our assortment, and we are very happy with the possibilities this material offers. We immediately tried it out for you to see how you can make stamps yourself with a laser cutter, here is our tutorial:

Materials:

• Stamp rubber
• Piece of wood, preferably a bit thicker (for example Lime plywood 12 mm)
• Double-sided adhesive film or rubber contact adhesive

Step 1: Design

It starts with the design. This can be a logo, text, or drawing; it's important that it's in black and white. You can laser very precisely into rubber, but this doesn't always remain visible when stamping. Small details can get lost, and narrow corners can fill up with ink. On solid areas, the ink can print blotchily. Keep this in mind when creating your design. 

Also, squint at your design to estimate if it's somewhat stamp-proof.

Avoid:

• Small details
• Narrow corners
• Large solid areas

Step 2: Drawing for laser cutting

For laser cutting, you need a vector drawing. A commonly used program for this is Adobe Illustrator. You can also design directly in your laser cutting software, such as Lightburn or XCS.

Ink-carrying parts of a stamp are the highest and therefore remain untreated. White spaces around them are removed with a flat engraving. What is black in your design remains untreated, and what is white in your design is engraved.

Turn your design into a vector drawing, draw a cut line around the entire design, and convert white spaces into flat engravings.

Step 3: Mirror

Mirror your design. Then the impression of your stamp will be correct.

Step 4: Making a stamp holder

You can buy a ready-made holder for your stamp, but you can also laser cut a stamp holder yourself from a piece of wood.

To make a stamp holder yourself, draw a spacious circle or rectangle around your design, and cut it out of wood on your laser cutter. We used a lime plywood of 12 mm for this; this is thick enough to easily hold your stamp.

Do you want to make your stamp extra nice? Then also engrave your design on the top of the holder. Engrave your design as you originally designed it, and not the mirrored drawing for the stamp rubber.

Step 5: Engraving and cutting

Experiment with your laser to find the correct engraving depth for the stamp rubber. An engraving of 0.5 to 1 mm is deep enough for a stamp.

Engrave and cut your design from the stamp rubber on your laser cutter, and if necessary, also cut a stamp holder from wood.

Stamp rubber from Lasersheets is specially made for laser engraving stamps. This is safe, but soot and odors may be released. Always follow your machine's instructions and ensure good ventilation.

Step 6: Attaching

Clean the stamp rubber and degrease the back. Attach it to the holder. You can use double-sided adhesive tape or rubber contact adhesive for this.

Step 7: Start stamping!

Your homemade stamp is now ready for use. Have fun stamping!