Rubber-Stamping Torsos

[raminator]

In my last post I said that fore better quality and ink transfer pad printing would be needed.

So I searched for a company that sells pad printing equipement and ordered everything to get started (the cliché was created after my design). I payed 125€ in total.

After some promissing freehand printing I grabed some bricks a started building my own "pad printing machine".

After some more testing I got the first more or less satisfying results.

old rubber stamped and new pad printed by bricks @ raminator, on Flickr

You can see that the allignment is not perfectly consistent but good enough for now.

Also you can see one of my first trys of rubberstamping for comparison. Looks better now, do you agree?

After some some research I bought some other stuff (additional 40€) and updated my "brick printing machine".

After lots of positioning and calibrating I found the right technique for ink applience and transfer.

And this is what I came up with.

Progress... by bricks @ raminator, on Flickr

Better allignment and better ink transfer. Even several over prints work without looking bad. The 3 Figs in the last row are from the first batch of testing (see previous picture).

C and C are very welcome.

Btw. since I'm on my mobile there's only the links to flickr.

EDIT: Pictures properly linked

Edited January 5, 2015 by raminator

[raminator]

Small Update:

after some hours of more fiddling and testing I was able to create these.

note that the waist area on the female torso is dark grey instead of black.

Mr and Mrs Grey by bricks @ raminator, on Flickr

Mr and Mrs Grey show their backs by bricks @ raminator, on Flickr

Edited January 16, 2015 by raminator

[Zeev]

I wonder what exactly your setup is like. If you do not feel like it would be intrusive, could you post a picture of your "pad printing machine" or say more about it? Whatever the setup is, you are doing great work with it.

[ED-209]

Very impressive results indeed! I'd love to see what the cliché/plate looks like. I expect that would be biggest hurdle - you can build a stamping mechanism out of Lego which would hopefullyl be precise enough to eliminate registration errors, but getting the cliché's etched would be an ongoing cost. Would a CNC laser be able to do it? Or what about some of the home circuitboard etching techniques? I've seen a method where a printout from a standard laser printer is ironed onto a metal plate to create a mask, then etched in an acid bath. I've not done it and don't know if it would be sharp enough, but it might be worth investigating?

[raminator]

I wonder what exactly your setup is like. If you do not feel like it would be intrusive, could you post a picture of your "pad printing machine" or say more about it? Whatever the setup is, you are doing great work with it.

The Setup is pretty simple. The first version is more or less an evolution of the stamping machine in the first post.

The current version uses some stuff I bought in a hardware store and a bruickbuild sliding mechanism to move the cliché and the torso under the pad.

Very impressive results indeed! I'd love to see what the cliché/plate looks like. I expect that would be biggest hurdle - you can build a stamping mechanism out of Lego which would hopefullyl be precise enough to eliminate registration errors, but getting the cliché's etched would be an ongoing cost. Would a CNC laser be able to do it? Or what about some of the home circuitboard etching techniques? I've seen a method where a printout from a standard laser printer is ironed onto a metal plate to create a mask, then etched in an acid bath. I've not done it and don't know if it would be sharp enough, but it might be worth investigating?

The cliché is 8 by 8 bricks so it fits LEGO. For the cliché the company created a film first, then it was taped on the steel plate and exposured to UV-light.

Afterwards it was etched.

Actualy there are companies who use a CNC laser for engraving and cuting the clichés to the correct size. But I read that the print resolution is infereor to the film etched.

Also there´s plastic clichés (actualy it´s steel with a plastic coat) on which you can directly print and exposure it without the film.

I´ve heard of the circuitboard etching too. Might work...

Like said earlier the cliché is the most expensive part of this.

Since I was able to have 4 graphics on one I saved some money...but still.