Stamps

Post by **dighsx** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:08 pm

Well I'm sure I'm the last person on the earth who collects stamps (or maybe the last who will admit it) Been thinking of a project to show off some of them. Got the idea to take pictures of them and then cut big versions of them. The plan is to cut them all about 12 inches by 12 inches and then hang them up. Here's my first tests to see if the idea would work. Some take more cleaning up then others but I think there's promise.

Post by **dighsx** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:09 pm

Here are a few more.

Post by **dighsx** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:10 pm

Here's the last of my current tests. I think the Abel and the Archimedes' ones came out the best.

Post by **CRFultz** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:51 pm

Jay,
Those are pretty cool....I'm guessing your gonna cut them as a engraving?
Are you scanning and then changing to vectors?...I'm guessing...
Chuck

Post by **dighsx** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:10 pm

Some are from photos and some are scans. I'd take the photos into Inkscape and convert them to eps files. Also most just have one toolpath using a 60 degree .5 inch vbit. I was thinking about trying to find some nice maple to use. Stain the wood light and the cuts darker.

Post by **CRFultz** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:31 pm

You can get some nice maple from http://www.sloanswoodshop.com/default.htm
They don't sell over the web but a phone call to Rhonda and tell her what you are doing and she will fix you up.
They have pretty fast shipping as well. They cater to scroll saw folks but there wood is pretty good.
Check out there plywood as well...it's pretty nice stuff.

Post by **dighsx** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:36 pm

Thanks for the info I'll check them out. It's hard to find good wood with out spend an arm and a leg. And the stuff you get from the home centers leaves a bit to be desired.

Thanks again.

Post by **dighsx** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:46 pm

Well I decided to try cutting one of the stamps and 4 1/2 hours later you can see the result. I'd like to say that I knew it would turn out fine but there were a few times I thought about stopping the machine. With all the little dots while it's cutting it you really wonder if it's going to turn out. I just used a chunk of plywood I had laying around for my test. It measures about 10 inches by 8 inches. I sanded and waxed the wood before I cut it and then just brushed stain on and rubbed off the excess.

To be honest I'm shocked how well it came out.

Post by **BrianM** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:47 pm

HI Jay,
that looks great, I bought some wood yesterday and would love to try cutting the abel example. I'm on holiday this week so I'll contact you when I get back and see if I can beg the .crv file from you!

Nice work

Cheers

Brian

Post by **dighsx** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:25 am

After seeing how the Abel stamp came out it's really made me think about trying other things done in the same style. I believe that style of engraving is called stippling. You see a lot of currency and stamps done in this style. I'll see if I can't dig up a few more examples to try.

Post by **dighsx** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:27 am

Here are a couple of examples of the same type of style as the Abel stamp. I think I'm going to try cutting the Bosovisch one; it looks like it might be a winner. The Gomes stamp might cut nicely too.

Anyone notice a theme to all these stamps?

Post by **CRFultz** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:29 am

Excellent work Jay!.
I'm guessing that all three are inventors? Scientist?
Chuck

Post by **dighsx** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:36 pm

Pretty close Chuck, they're all math related stamps. Does that make me even nerdier?

Here's another stamp I think I'm going to try and cut. But a slight twist for all you following this thread, this stamp features Jan Komensky who came up with ways to help control the plague.

As you can see my life is pretty exciting....?

I also ordered a new 60 degree vbit this morning that claims to come to a point at the end. So I'm hoping I can get finer detail using it.

ROOKIE432 · Post by **ROOKIE432** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:24 pm

These are pretty interesting. Have you considered using PhotoVeeCarve for these?
I would thing you could get many more graduations with PVC.

Bill

Post by **dighsx** » Sun May 14, 2006 6:37 pm

Finally got some time to start running these stamps. Here are the first three. I've got a few more to go yet.

They're about 12 inches by 9 inches on 1/2 inch plywood. I put 6 coats of polyurethane on them, sanding between each coat and moving up the grits to 800. Then after the final coat I sanded with 1500 grit and buffed them with Tripoli, then White Diamond compound. To finish them off I buffed them with Carnauba wax. The whole process takes a while but it gives them a nice glassy look and you can rub stain on them and it only goes on the cut bits. I think this finishing technique would work well for PhotoVCarve projects. I've got a few bits of scrap from this project that I'm going to try it out with. If it works out maybe I'll post step-by-step instructions with photos if anyone is interested.