Crafternoon: Forget Potatoes, We’re Making Stamps With Lasers

No, that’s not Heisenberg without his hat. It’s [Jens], and he laser-cut a stamp of his face out of EVA foam. He made the laser cutter himself, which we covered a couple of months ago.

Let’s take a brief interlude to discuss your beautiful eyeballs. Keep them safe, okay? If you’re going to play with lasers, be smart and protect yourself according to the wattage and wavelength. Alright, back to business.

[Jens] started by making a stencil from a photo using this tutorial. He added a frame and supports around his face to keep everything where it should be. [Jens] then turned to Inkscape to generate the g-code using the laser plugin and then proceeded to cut his countenance into EVA foam.

After gluing the foam to a wood backing, he cut off the supports. Now it’s ready to stamp. You could use a brayer if you have one or maybe your wife’s rolling pin to apply whatever ink or paint you want to use. [Jens] loaded up his stamp with a sponge.

18 thoughts on “Crafternoon: Forget Potatoes, We’re Making Stamps With Lasers

      1. Let’s set aside the question of whether, in the year of our lord 2014, it’s cool to assume that everyone on this site is male. God forbid Hackaday not be a constant sausagefest, but that’s not the point.

        Why are you ok with the implication that males can’t be independent and need a woman to cook for them? Why is this “political correctness” and not just “knowing your ass from a hole in the ground”?

          1. @AJ
            Aegjio was in fact being sarcastic. He was mocking m4rkiz, who made a post precisely in the vein of the stereotypical american right-winger reactionary, who labels any form of sensitivity or awareness of differences as “political correctness” and any politics other than his/her own as “socialism.”

          2. So what’s the difference between sarcasm and just being a plain dumb arse?

            I’m sure you can explain it in simple terms, perhaps so even an American could understand it.

            Lolz you socialist herp derp de derp.

    1. You’re thinking of the ‘C’ in PVC. Lasering PVC aka vinyl gives of chlorine etc that makes your laser go all rusty, not good for your lungs either.

      EVA is quite safe by comparison, it’s even used in some cigarettes. I wouldn’t breathe the fumes anyway, but it’s nowhere as problematic as PVC.

      One thing abut lasering EVA is the edges shrink quite a lot from the heat.

  1. Nice link for eyewear, some graphs would help.
    Its an interesting point, with all the people buying illegal lasers from china, and all the people prying lasers out of dvd burners, has ANYONE heard of anyone getting one in the eye? I suppose its plausable that all the people doing these things are smart enough to be carefull….?

    1. Sure: http://www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se/Global/Publikationer/Rapport/Stralskydd/2013/SSM-Rapport-2013-30.pdf

      See Section 4 for tales of assorted dumb arses. Note the number causing damage with <5mW ones which are generally considered safe.

      There's no doubt a lot more, but you'd need to rummage though the medical journals. There's probably a lot of unreported ones as well, "well I can still see so all is good" like the kid playing in front of the mirror. Even if treated doctors may not report it.

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