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DIY rubber stamps all you need to know Blog post. As a custom stamp maker, we get asked about some tricky stamping situations. There might be special office stamps, address stamps, special tick box stamps, chart stamps or table stamps. Most of these all fall within that search parameter of stamps nz a lot of people use when they don’t know quite which stamp to look for. We are here to help you find just the right stamp for your purposes.
All of these are possible. Then there are adjustable stamps DIY rubber stamps. These are very different. All of these can be changed by you. There are a few categories of these.
There are Date stamps and Numberer stamps which can be modified to have letters and numbers on rotatable bands. And the unusual ones are one you make.
However, these have a unique build which makes them customisable and changeable at any time you like. We call these a DIY stamp or TYPO stamp. Some even call them a typomatic stamp.
These DIY rubber stamps have a base plate which is ribbed instead of flat where the rubber part is. On to that ribbed base plate wherever you like on each of the ribs you can place characters. The stamp comes with a set of characters.
These characters may be letters, numbers or little pictures. Each has on the back two little lugs. These lugs grip the base plate ribs and hold them in place. These characters sets have multiple of each letter and more of the common ones.
They vary from 256 to 336 characters depending on the character height or brand. No these can’t be of your choice of font. The font might best be described as something like Arial Narrow.
These sets of characters come in different character heights. The Trodat 6003 is a 3mm tall character set. While the Trodat 6004 is a 4mm tall character set. There are also the Shiny S-623 which is the 3mm one and the Shiny S-624 as the 4mm one.
These character sets can be bought from Self-Inking Stamps at any time if you have lost some characters or need more of the character than comes in the one set.
To set up your stamp for stamping you hold the stamp body and squash it down into the bottom position and lock it in place. Then using the tweezers supplied in the kit you select and remove the character you need from the character set.
Then push it into position on the ribs on the stamp base plate. Then repeat until you have every character in place. After that unlock the stamp to release to its resting position.
Once that is done the characters are resting against the ink pad and are ready to mark. However, do test that stamp on some wastepaper. Make sure your spelling is correct.
Oh, and most importantly is to write your words back to front. The word ‘backwards’ is like ‘sdrawkcab’, but the individual letters are already backwards.
Yes, there are different base plate sizes for the stamps. The most common one used is a 47 x 18mm size. Some of these may not be in stock with Self-Inking Stamps and may take 2-3 working days to get to you.
Others can be specially imported to New Zealand and may take 3 to 8 weeks depending on the shipping cycle arrival times.
There is also a Trodat Professional grade one for high use situations. The most common one is the Trodat Professional 5253. This DIY stamp has a base plate which is 49 x 28mm. No, you don’t have to fill the entire area. Just a full stop is possible to do.
Yes, you can have a combo of date in the centre of a DIY stamp and ribbed areas above and below the date. This is an excellent combo for a Best Before and Date stamp. However all of these stamps can do that. The advantage of these stamps is that the date can be quickly and easily be changed just using your fingers and not getting all inky.
This is the most common use for these stamps. They are especially suited to making a batch number and date combination stamp. This can be either as all characters individually placed or using a Dater DIY type stamp and place the characters for the batch number.
This must be above or below the date only. Not side by side. If you have a very small space to stamp within the suggestion is to use the non-dater version and placing all the characters while using the 3mm size character can help.
The row spacing is closer together this way. The date version has a space around the date to allow the characters to rotate on the bands and makes the rows further apart.
The standard ink for these stamps is water based. The stamps are usually in a blister pack or set, other than the professional grade models. These have the standard ink pad for that stamp in black ink.
If you need a different colour of ink a separate ink pad must be purchased separately and then changed out of the stamp body before you begin.
Read our post on changing the ink pads in self-inking stamps here.
However, if you stamp on gloss or plastic surfaces this ink may smudge, smear or wipe right off. A different ink is required. For the Trodat stamp brand Self-Inking Stamps can usually supply a ‘dry’ ink pad and a special ink for the surface you are stamping on.
These solvent based inks will dry in the stamp if left for more than one day and pull all the characters off the base plate and if left for too long weld them to the ink pad and wreak the ink pad and the characters.
It is imperative to remove the ink pad after every batch of stamping if using solvent based inks. The standard ink is fine to leave in forever.
If you can’t find what you need please use the contact form and describe your stamping needs. Self-Inking Stamps may have a solution for you.
Please contact us, if you have any questions regarding available variants or further product information.
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