Turning different materials
Most people use their mini-lathes to turn metal or plastic and some even venture into turning wood but I expect few will be turning lino. As a Christmas present for an uncle, I made the above lino ink stamp from some turned hemlock and some artists lino from the local art shop.
A small square of the linoleum was stuck to the faceplate with double sided tape. The lino is very soft and a little crumbly but turned well. I used a small straight parting off tool to form the outer ring of the stamp. The lettering was then hand carved using standard lino cutter tools and magnifing glass. The letter height is about 7mm. Normally lino printing is done using silkscreen inks and rollers but I found that a cheap ink pad worked well.
After turning the wood it was sanded down and treated with three coats of clear varnish. The lino stamp was simply pushed into the hole rather than gluing it. The plan has origionally been to cast the stamp out of aluminium but due to time and the weather I’d not been able to complete any castings for the last couple of months. I hope you wil agree that the results in wood came out just as well.
Posted in: Lathe, Printing Stamp, Turning
Tags: Lino, printing, Wood
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
