A rubber-stamping solution that's suitable for silver CD-Rs?

July 2, 2008 4:17 PM

Started up a DIY record label with a friend a while back. I'm looking for a rubber stamp that will be suitable for using on a silver-topped CD-R. Our first release was on inkjet-printable discs, which looked great but took ages to produce. Looking at this thread points me towards some vendor choices for the stamp. Anyone tried this method of disc identification?
posted by porn in the woods to shopping (16 comments total)

Your issue is probably going to be the inkpad you choose. Some are very much not suitable for stamping on slick and shiny stuff.

I haven't tried it on CDs, but you might try Tsukineko StazOn ink, which seems to be suitable for this kind of use.
posted by litlnemo at 6:32 PM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

(And hopefully if someone here has already tried it they can let us know how it went.)
posted by litlnemo at 6:33 PM on July 2, 2008

Wait, why did inkjet CDs take longer to produce than silver ones?
posted by rhizome at 6:39 PM on July 2, 2008

Forgot to mention: White-topped, inkjet-printable discs will likely fare much better with rubber stamping, but they're twice the price of silver-topped CD-Rs. Best deal I can find is 100 for $30 shipped via Amazon. Looking to effectively cut costs and labor (we're a stoner label).
posted by porn in the woods at 6:43 PM on July 2, 2008

Rhizome, I believe the inkjet printer was used to produce the stick on label, not to actually produce the cd. The silver top is probably a natural part of the cd and pitw wants to be able to have a stamp that can be applied to it.
posted by Macduff at 6:45 PM on July 2, 2008

Wait, why did inkjet CDs take longer to produce than silver ones?

They were printed one at a time with b&w disc art on an inkjet printer, which took a few mornings of work.

With the silvers + stamp, I'm looking to generate a nice disc identity without the time-consuming printing step. I might still roll out the inkjet option for future projects, for the quality is great, but we're doing a run which is much, much larger for our next release and I don't want to be printing CD-Rs for weeks.
posted by porn in the woods at 6:47 PM on July 2, 2008

$30/100 for silver or inkjet?

Consider replication for "much, much larger."
posted by rhizome at 6:59 PM on July 2, 2008

$30 for a spindle of 100 inkjets, $15 for a spindle of 100 silver-tops.

The 2nd release is 300, compared to the first release in an edition of 100 - so "much, much larger" is all relative. Plus, we want to get 'em on the street before a local ensemble featured on the disc departs on their European tour next month.

Thanks for the replication link - they are much less expensive than DiscMakers.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:14 PM on July 2, 2008

I'd look into doing some silkscreening - it's surprisingly easy to do, and you could get into doing some low-buck clothing merch as well.

Startup costs would likely be around $100, and this would give you materials to do many cds's.

There are many tutorials out there, if it's something that you decide to pursue I could point you towards some info..
posted by davey_darling at 7:36 PM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Stamp Connection have done me right over the years with stamps for a variety of surfaces. Send them an email and ask; they'll probably know the best type of ink to use for a job like the CDs. Their customer service is phenomenally good.
posted by bink at 8:43 PM on July 2, 2008

I work in a used record store and handle hundreds of cds outside of their cases every day. I have nothing concrete to back up the rubber stamp thing but it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me.
posted by dobbs at 9:02 PM on July 2, 2008

I'm going to disagree with dobbs on that last one. With the right ink, there's no reason it should be any different from a commercially-printed one, really. However, you may need to experiment to find the right ink. I'd start with the StazOn and go from there.

That ink, to my understanding, isn't very thick, so you may be able to stamp fairly finely-detailed artwork with it. But you will want to practice on some leftover discs first. If you find that the stamp tends to slide around slightly on the cd surface, that will affect the type of stamp you should use. You won't want the fine detail so much then.

(disclaimer: I own a rubber stamp company and sell ink pads, stamps, and custom stamps. I don't sell StazOn pads, and haven't used them. Those are the ones I would go looking for for a project like this, though. Some of the ones I sell might work, but I'd try the StazOn first as it's explicitly targeted at this sort of thing.)
posted by litlnemo at 10:48 PM on July 2, 2008

Awesome. Thanks to everyone for the help, links to distributors and the brainstorming. We're going to go with inkjet-printables on this batch but we will do try some silver-topped rubber-stamp experimentation in the near future.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:44 PM on July 3, 2008

I wound up getting a very inexpensive custom 2-line wood stamp and ink pad for under $13 shipped via Stamp Connection.

My local scrapbooking outlet turned me on to StazOn inks and they are a perfect solution for rubber-stamping on plastic. Silver-topped CDRs work well, although you have to practice your stamping technique to avoid smearing. Stamping on white-tops with this ink works brilliantly, as you might imagine. Thanks for the help in this thread!
posted by porn in the woods at 6:52 PM on July 22, 2008

The scrapbooking store turned you on to StazOn ink? I thought I did, right here in this thread. ;)

Anyway, cool! I'm glad it turned out well.
posted by litlnemo at 2:45 AM on July 23, 2008

Yeah, mucho props to litlnemo. I lucked out, my local scrapbook place stocks 12+ colors. Perfect.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:40 PM on July 23, 2008