Rubber Stamp Cleaning

[Bonnie Knight]

I tried engraving rubber stamps for the first time on my Trotec Speedy 2 and they turned out fine but is there a way to remove the black smoke from the rubber? I tried soap and water and rubbing alcohol with a toothbrush.

[Brian Leavitt]

Which rubber are you using? The regular stuff or the 'Low Odor' material? I've had decent luck removing it from low odor rubber with the "LAZRCLEAN" that JDS sells.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I usually spray them with simple green, letting it work for a second or two then get'ta scrubbing with the toothbrush.

[Andrew Holloway]

What do you mean by black smoke? Can you put up a photo?
I only get a grey fine dust which cleans off nicely with soap, water and a small scrubbing brush.
If you are getting black burnt areas, it may be your settings or a focus issue.

[Chuck Stone]

simple green and toothbrush here, too.
Black doesn't sound right.. is it getting too much power?

[Deanna Watkins]

I can't say that I have every had black soot on the laser rubber, as one other person mentioned, I get a gray ash. I use simply water and a drip of citrus dish soap and it cleans up great. I use low odor with my 30 watt Trotec Rayjet.

[Dennis Watson]

Never had any black on the rubber I have been doing. Just a fine dust that I brush off with a dry paint brush and maybe a little dish washing soap and water.

Now I did get bad results when stupid me forgot to focus the height.

[Bonnie Knight]

I did not use "low odor", just regular material. I may have to change the settings. I used power 100, speed 6, and PPI 1000. I was not able to remove with soap and water or cleaners but the stamps work totally fine, just look bad.

[Gene Howard]

We engrave 10-20 A4 sheets of Trodat red rubber here a day so efficient cleaning is important. Our go-to cleaner is slightly watered down Tide Coldwater detergent, thinned out enough to still be "grippy" on the rubber, think vegetable oil viscosity. A fairly soft scrub brush is used alternating between moving circles and straight horizontal passes. The trick is to let the brush tips do the work, if the bristles are bending you're bearing down too hard and not getting into the smaller engraved areas.