First up, the lovely city of Portland, Oregon and the Willamette river running through it. The map is walnut veneer mounted on a mirror, then set into a walnut frame. I had to break the engrave up into four parts (a different color in NE, SE, NW, SW) and run each separately without moving the veneer so that the system could handle it.
Next, a US map for my partner and I to track our travels—where we’ve been and where we’re going next. The cork is 1/4" thick and was scored with the beam focused below the surface so that the line would be a little wider. The outline of the country is 1/8" walnut I resawed and planed down from a scrap of 1x12. It’s a little thicker than Proofgrade walnut, so I slowed the speed just a bit and it barely made it though. Finally, I sprayed adhesive on the back of the walnut and stuck it tight to the cork.
Very nice! Can you be a little more verbose about what you mean when you say
[quote=“nathan_p, post:1, topic:12199”]
I had to break the engrave up into four parts (a different color in NE, SE, NW, SW) and run each separately without moving the veneer so that the system could handle it.
[/quote] It does look that large. Any thoughts as to why the "system couldn’t handle it? Were the files particularly large? I am interested in doing some maps when I get my zapper so I am curious about this. Thanks for any insight you can give!
I love both of these, despite the fact that my neighborhood didn’t make it into your frame (I’m a bit further east). It’s also great to know there’s a real live in the area!
The Portland map was 1.9MB. When I clicked “Print” it would sit on the “Preparing your design” stage for a long time, then error.
The Glowforge interface treats different colors as different operations in the interface, and lets you specify what it does with each. So instead of the roads all being black for engraving and the river being green to cut, I had to break the engrave into four separate colors. Then I would mark all but one as “Ignore,” engrave it, mark it as “Ignore” and engrave the next, and so on. Finally ending by setting the green to “Cut” and ignoring the rest.
Here’s a little screenshot of the file in Illustrator:
And here’s how it would be in the interface (I’ve got cork in there, not veneer, but the idea is the same):
Even if there weren’t the error, the long engrave time is a lot nicer when it’s broken into chunks so I don’t have to babysit it for so long in one stretch. Engrave one part, go eat dinner, come back and engrave the next, and so on.
There’s the tiniest line visible on roads that span the sections, but with more careful slicing I could put it where it’s not noticeable.
that makes total sense to me. as does the idea of figuring out the slicing in a way that might hide any issues w/four separate engraves. thanks for the explanation.
Thanks for the insight! I would have guessed 1.9MB would be handle-able, but what do I know. That does not seem that big. I see the benefits of slicing it, too. Again, thanks!
Yeah, who knows. Maybe the server was having a bad night that night. And the way the system is updated, what works one time may not the next, and vice versa.
These are amazing. Doing maps like this is one of the biggest reasons I wanted a Glowforge. I want to do a small map of every place I’ve lived. I can’t wait.
in the area!
