Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Gallery for images of work cut using PhotoVCarve
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Binkmeister
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Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by Binkmeister »

After about three months of putting together a CNC router, tweaking it, learning the software, and getting past hardware and software issues, I've finally got a piece that matches the vision.
mthood_final_stained.jpg
This is a relief map of Mt. Hood and surrounding terrain, looking south. It's about 11x7.5x1.5", cut in red oak. The rough cut took 4 hours, the fine cut 9 hours. I'm working on reducing those times, now that I have a more powerful spindle. I had to do a workaround to get PhotoVCarve to cut this deep, which adds time, but I think it turned out well. I have an inexhaustible supply of terrain data available, so I'm just about ready to start cranking these out.

- Kelly

weber765
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by weber765 »

Hi Kelly
That looks great, are you going to paint or stain the terrain? Also if you start "cranking these out " do you already have a market for them?

Glenn

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AJF
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by AJF »

I'm curious to know why you chose PhotoVcarve to do the relief map?

Binkmeister
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by Binkmeister »

weber765 wrote:That looks great, are you going to paint or stain the terrain? Also if you start "cranking these out " do you already have a market for them?
I put a coat of sealer on it, but I don't want to go too much darker. I stained an earlier cut of Crater Lake with a darker finish, and it came out much too dark; the pronounced grain competed too much with the detail of the terrain. I don't have a verified market yet, but I'd like to get more experience and a library of files ready before I hang out my shingle. I figure I can nail down my process this winter and build up sufficient inventory by spring to be able to open a web site or Etsy store or something.
AJF wrote:I'm curious to know why you chose PhotoVcarve to do the relief map?
The source files I was able to find are 24-bit heightmap images, which can be manipulated with some free GIS software and imported into Photoshop, which I have a lot of experience with. A lot of it came down to the tools I know and have available; I can manipulate image files much more easily than 3D files. If there's another way, I'd be open to researching it; but I've gotten pretty good at being able to find the files I want, manipulate them, optimize them, and preparing them for input into PhotoVCarve.

Turns out PhotoVCarve wasn't really meant to do this type of cut, but in fact it works very well, even considering the workaround I need to use to prevent full-depth plunging.

I started researching this more than 2 years ago, and only recently have I nailed down and documented the entire process (starting from complete n00bishness). Like I tell my girlfriend, if it was easy to figure out, everybody would be doing it. :lol:

weber765
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by weber765 »

Thanks for answering, that is a pretty cool idea. If you ever decide to try and add color to it I have used Ritz die on some of my carvings, it can be a very subtle color and does not hide the wood grain or very bright and still lets the grain show thru. Here is a picture of a cane I carved for my mother that has Ritz die on it and it still holds that color after 10 years.
I wish you well on you endeavor
Glenn
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AJF
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by AJF »

If you search through the forum you will find many threads dealing with relief/topographic maps. I use Aspire to create my relief maps and the Digital Elevation Map (DEM) files that are publicly available through out the world. There is also many public mapping software utilities out there that allow you manipulate DEM files. I would have never of thought of using PhotoVcarve to do this process and I wonder about the scale accuracy of the final image.

Binkmeister
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by Binkmeister »

AJF wrote:If you search through the forum you will find many threads dealing with relief/topographic maps. ... I would have never of thought of using PhotoVcarve to do this process and I wonder about the scale accuracy of the final image.
Yes, I did quite a bit of research before buying a CNC router and software. I'm most familiar with adjusting image files (been working with Photoshop since it shipped on floppy disks), and it looked to me like the two main methods of doing relief maps was as an image heightmap, or modeling it in 3D. I already had Photoshop so going with image-based source files was a no-brainer for me. Another not-insignificant factor: PVC costs $150, Aspire costs $2000.

Once I figured out the right projection method for images, the width/length are precise. The height is more problematic, but I find the lowest/highest points within the selected area, and calculate the height based on the length/width scale. Of course, I can choose to exaggerate the height (like on the Moon/Tycho project somebody else showed on these forums), but Mt. Hood was rendered at a proportional height.

This method works for me, and it's relatively inexpensive... free source files, free GIS app, and a $150 program to create gcode. I'm sure there are probably more accurate methods, but at that point you're probably running into diminishing returns by having more detail than the carving material can handle.

Binkmeister
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by Binkmeister »

weber765 wrote:Thanks for answering, that is a pretty cool idea. If you ever decide to try and add color to it I have used Ritz die on some of my carvings, it can be a very subtle color and does not hide the wood grain or very bright and still lets the grain show thru. Here is a picture of a cane I carved for my mother that has Ritz die on it and it still holds that color after 10 years.
I wish you well on you endeavor
Glenn
Very cool! I'm going to remember that. At the moment I'm still concentrating on getting the cut right, and optimizing the time, but I see a day when coloring becomes important.

weber765
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by weber765 »

It is actually Rit die not Ritz die , here is a link to mixing any custom color you may want.

weber765
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by weber765 »

Opps for got to add the link, here it is :

https://www.ritstudio.com/wp-content/up ... _FINAL.pdf

Binkmeister
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Re: Relief Map of Mt. Hood

Post by Binkmeister »

Thanks! I have a couple of ideas for projects that may need color, so this will come in handy.

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