While researching methods of laser cutting my dumpster fires I found this article talking about making rubber stamps. On a glowforge no less with exact specs on what product and power/speed to use while cutting it. Already having the vector for the dumpster fire I quickly ordered the recommended rubber sheet and got to work. The steps in the walkthrough described 2 methods to both straight cut the parts or to add supporting gradients against each of the ridges. The laser cutter usually would engrave out a constant percentage of anywhere its told to engrave but with some manipulation of the files and settings it can instead make the engrave act more like a gradual mountain instead of the White Cliffs of Dover. This gives rigidity to the thin lines which is most of what my patterns are made up of.
A small 3” x 3”-ish cut can take around 30-45 minutes to complete based on the white space so after patiently waiting for everyone to finish I started the cleanup process removing all the ash from the mold, cutting it off the main sheet, then running it under water to clean it even more. From the fridge ornaments having a wooden border around the acrylic center I had tons of scrap wood in the shape of the dumpster fire so I super glued it down onto there. 3D printed a handle to attach on the back and gave it a shot. I think using a stiffer backing board would give better results but for as quick of a project as it was to produce the stamp I am beyond happy with the results. It wasn’t for a few weeks until I realized I can find tons of svg memes online and, using the same steps as the dumpster, can turn them into rubber stamps to decorate any box I’m mailing out to friends and family in the future.
