Framed Keswick Lake District UK map
Instruction
This engraved map features the small Lake District town of Keswick in the UK. It is made from 3mm plywood and I used blue card for the background to highlight the river and lake.
To create this map I used snazzymaps.com which is a free website that allows you to make custom maps in different styles and colours.
For laser engraving the background of your map should be set to white and the roads along with any other labels you decide to include should be set to black.
I prefer to remove the road and place names and manually add any labels I want once the map is imported into XCS.
When it comes to engraving your map the settings used will vary depending on the material and your laser machine.
The settings above are what I used with my 5w D1 Pro to cut and engrave 3mm plywood. 3 passes should be enough for 3mm material but I added a fourth to make sure this map had a nice clean cut.
I used cardboard for back of my frame but any blue material will work perfectly well as a background to highlight the lake and river.
Blue glossy acrylic also looks really nice as a background, just remember that it is very difficult to cut blue acrylic with a laser so you will need a piece the right size for your frame.
This map is 20x20cm and you will need a frame that is deep enough to accommodate the wooden map and which ever material you use as a background.