It's come to my attention that PETG CAN be used with the 0.2mm nozzle. I will definitely need to test this as the benefits of printing with the harder PETG material could be very interesting!

In the BambuLab slicer, selecting "Top Most Surface" for ironing can significantly improve the quality of your stamp.

I love that the best material ended up being the cheapest and easiest one!

One thing you might want to do in Tinker Cad is to round the corners of the base for the stamp. My method (for other similar projects) is to: Bring in a block that will be cut down to the size of the finished base in the process. Set height to 20 mm, and then size x and y to be larger than the image you are stamping. Apply a Radius to the block. Make sure all the content will still fit within the block space Drag the new 'base' off to the side. Now bring in two "hole' blocks, setting them each for 9 mm in height, and sizing them to the dimension of the base. Center the 'base' on one of the hole blocks, then merge them. This will cut the bottom off the block leaving a flat surface.. Flip the base, and bring it down to the graph bed of the workspace, Center the 'base' on the other 'hole block. Again merge the two, You should have a rounded corner block to use as a base for your stamp. Drag it down to the bed, center the block on the bottom of the stamp image, mirror one or both for the stamp, and export the resulting STL. If you don't merge them, it's a lot easier to extract that base for later re-use on another stamp. The main reason for this is that having a rounded set of corners will leave less chance for a corner to break off, or if there is some reason that the stamp gets started off center, for the corner to end up stamping into the leather. Mostly the former means that at least this part will be less likely to be the reason a given stamp breaks or fails. There's still going to be durability issues with the stamping image of course. 🙂 I believe there are nozzles down to 0.1 mm as well, but as you've no doubt discovered, reducing the nozzle size dramatically increases the time it takes to print. I'd like to see a process that allows you to add some draft angle to the stamped image to improve it's durability, but that's a bit more than TinkerCad can do at the moment. Autodesk would like you to move operations like that into Fusion360, which considering you're doing this as part of a leather working business would likely engage their prohibitively expensive (for most of us anyway) licensing fees. As long as this works, and you're OK with the time it takes to print spares of stamps, and have the sliced versions ready to print replacements at the end of the day, or on demand if the printer is in the back room of your shop, that works too.

"Ironing" a function in the slicer, that indeed irons the top layer can help you get a better finish as well

I've been printing stamps commercially for 10 years for leather stamping. They stand up very well over time, I've never had a stamp fail in many years. If used correctly the stamp work is amazing. I print at 33% infill with at least 3 shells. My depth of the stamp is 3/8". I use a simple Harbor Freight arbor press with good quality veg tan leather. Most of my stamps are created with the Lulzbot mini with 2.85 PLA filament.

Watching this video made me want to trade in my morning coffee for a 3D-printed Division Resurgence mug! ☕ That printer is straight-up making dreams come true! And can we talk about that funky music? It's like the soundtrack to my 3D printing adventures! 🎶 Plus, those cinematic shots had me feeling like I was starring in my own action flick! And those leather details? Classy touch! James, you're killing it with these vids! Keep 'em coming, mate!

Add Ironing option on your slicer for better final layer result

我去年買了這台印表機，第一件事也是拿來做皮革印章哈哈。

This a great idea, wouldn't mind doing a few bits for myself, i already have 2 , 3d printers, thank you for showing us this idea. What would be a cheap press for a beginner please ?

Would love to see longevity tests. You should be able to get all of the filaments to look the exact same with machine dialing, or a hair of sanding at the end. The biggest issue with these style of stamps is that they wear out after only a handful of uses. I would love to see tests till destruction.

Think you could get even better results by flipping the print and printing by the stamp detail on the print bed and getting a nice even textured surface, instead of the top layer lines that you can see on some stamps. The bed layer will always be better than the top layer. You can add supports and it doesn’t matter the surface quality where the supports hold the top of the stamp since it won’t touch the leather.

PETG is not "harder" than PLA, it's tougher. PLA is harder, but less flexible, thus more brittle. So, I would definitely choose PLA for stamps. PETG flexes some, which is why it's tougher, but that's not a really desirable trait in a stamp. ,The next better choice probably would be Nylon or Polycarbonate, and maybe ASA?, as they would last longer, but those require a much more expensive printer, and frankly, I'd only choose it if I was selling stamps. For my own use, I don't care as much about serious longevity, since I can just print another, and my A1 is definitely NOT rated for ASA, PC or PA. For infill, I'd probably recommend 95% over 100%. At 100% any "over extrusion" will cause some distortion, and the strength difference between 95% and 100% is negligible.

which one is the right nozzle to buy for a sidewinder x3 pro do you have any experience about it?

James: My only question is...Do the PLA stamps (at .2mm nozzle) stand up to comparison with a brass stamp. Especially the right angle edges. I have been eyeing the Bambu Lab A1 mini for monthis. This is just another reason it would be great for me. I have a 9 year old Lulzbot Mini and it is slow. Finicky and a pain to work with. Lulzbot has been sold once or twice since I purchased that printer. $250 US vs. $1500 for the mini (years ago) is a bit easier to swallow. I don't need color changing filiment so the AMS is not necessary.

I built my 3D printer 6 years ago.

A 35yr old Harry Potter clone talking about leather embossing... how did I end up here?

You should try resin printer. Perfect clean embossing.

Did you look at the warranty for these printers? 14-days? What kind of warranty is that? I was considering buying one, but now I will have to pass. Tells me these machines won't last.

For what it's worth, PLA is not biodegradable in any meaningful way - it requires specialist high-temperature processes to break it down, it's not just something you can toss in your garden composter. The 'PLA is biodegradable and therefor nicer to the environment' thing is something filament manufacturers pushed, but is well debunked in the 3d printing community. That said, it's still the most common and easiest filament to use!