August 25 - September 1, 2023 "A Project That is Topographical" Contest

Show Off! 🏆 Contests
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Happy Friday everyone! Thank you to the makers who participated in the contest for this week, where we asked you all to share your sign projects made on the LongMill.

We are happy to announce that Alex No, Andrew Neeb, @Fredymac, @Sweethand03, Eric Sirrine, and @Billkelley05 are the winners of the "A Project That is a Sign” contest! Look out for a prize!

The theme for this week is “topographical projects”. Show us your best topographical carvings, whether it be of a map, lake, mountain, city, state, etc. that were made on your LongMill. We will choose what we think are the best ones to send creators cool stuff to!

Visit our blog for more information on our Weekly Themed Contest:

Weekly Themed Contest Rules and Guidelines:

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting down below!

Happy making!

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I have made a couple of Topo maps for family and friends:

  1. Devon Island in the Canadian high arctic (in support of an expedition);
  2. Barbados - because we vacation there a lot with friends;
  3. The island of Newfoundland as I have family there; and
  4. Antigua (family friend own a brewery on the island).

Devon Topo
Devon Topo1920Ă—1953 393 KB

Barbados Map
Barbados Map1920Ă—2560 422 KB

NFLD Photo
NFLD Photo1920Ă—2211 503 KB

Antigua Photo
Antigua Photo1920Ă—1440 424 KB

1 Like
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Very nice @grubbertire. What’s your process for clearing and finishing these pieces? Flat end mill and tapered ball nose?

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I started with a 1/2 bowl (ball end mill) for roughing, then a 1/4 ball for a 3D clear and a 1/4 tapered ball mill for the finish. 60 Vbit for the lettering and a 30 Vbit for the roads and boundaries.

The STL file for the topography I get from the Iowa State University (TouchTerrain: Easily Create 3D-Printable Terrain Models (version 3.6)). Streets, boundaries, lakes and rivers I get from Open Street Map (https://www.openstreetmap.org/), I clean up these vectors in Inkscape (https://inkscape.org). And finally overlay the vectors onto the 3D model in VCarvePro. (Touchterrain, Open Street Maps and Inkscape are free :grinning:).

1 Like
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Thanks for the details! Once again, awesome work. Eventually I’d like to try making one of these.

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When you start give me a ping if you have any questions.