Rubber stamp adhesive foam

[Marc Nicoloudis]

Hello All,

I am having trouble locating a laser friendly adhesive foam cushion that can be laser cut for making art stamps. I can trim them separately, manually, but may have trouble when it comes to doing circles or odd shapes. Does anyone know a good retailer for this? Most retailers cannot confirm whether or not the product contains PVC or not.

Do you have a quicker method? Using fun foam and then attaching adhesive to it is an option, but sounds like it will be alot more labor intensive. What do you normally use in this situation? Thanks, Marc

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Could you forgo the foam tape and use a 3M tape from Johnson Plastics or the like? It can be laser cut, for sure, and for that matter you could likley adhere a sheet to the underside of the rubber and cut both in one go.

[Robert Walters]

TESTING FOR PVC

"Take a copper wire, heat it up and touch the plastic. Then take the copper wire with the plastic residue into a flame. In the case of PVC you should see green color in the flame because copper chlorides are relatively volatile under such conditions. You even don't need a spectrometer. This is a classical method for detecting organic chlorine."

Quoted from: http://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_...sh_PVC_and_ABS (http://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_there_an_easy_cheap_way_to_distinguish_PVC_and_ ABS)

[Dan Hintz]

Have you considered spray adhesive?

[David Somers]

Marc,

I don't have a laser yet so I am asking this out of ignorance. But stamp making has been a basic function of laser engraving for a fair amount of time now. Most of the lasers, Chinese and Western, have a built in stamp setting that creates an angled kerf that works great for stamps. Isn't this a process that is well laid out with materials available readily?

Dave

[Marc Nicoloudis]

Chris,
Was hoping someone would chime in about the 3m tape. Best case scenario, would be something that came in sheets, so larger cuts could be performed.

Roger,
Thanks, was hoping to not have to purchase something unusable if I didn't have to. i could by a sheet and try it I guess.

David,
Agreed! having no problems making the stamps themselves, just the cushion that resides underneath the rubber that gives it a buffer when stamping.


Dan,
If I were to adhere myself, what substrate could I use?

Thanks everyone! Marc

[Matt Turner (physics)]

McMaster has a large selection of adhesive-backed foam sheets and foam tapes.

[Henri Sallinen]

I use craft foam for my stamp cushion. Before lasering it I cover the whole sheet with double sided tape film (both sides). This way I just need to laser the foam and peel the backings off both sides. It shrinks just a bit when lasering so just add a very small contour in Corel Draw and you should be fine.

[Dan Hintz]

If I were to adhere myself, what substrate could I use?

If you want dirt simple, I imagine a piece of 1x4 pine would work well and be easily cut. You could even go with some 2x4 and route a groove along the edges for a finger grip.