“I certainly wasn’t expecting the attention that this project would get, so I’m considering making more of them,” he said. His next models will be made entirely of wood and will capture the topography of iconic landscapes like the White Mountains, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. This content and associated text is in no way sponsored by or affiliated with any company, organization, or real-world good that it may purport to portray. “A larger scale version of, say, the Presidential Range that I can hang in my living room would be very cool,” he said. Load in 3D viewer Uploaded by Anonymous The CAD files and renderings posted to this website are created, uploaded and managed by third-party community members. His next project will be larger and more substantial, he said. Parnas’s mini-mountain stands 2 inches tall and 8 x 8 inches at its base. “It’s a fun experience,” he said, “You learn a bunch, and you come out with the feeling of having really accomplished something – kind of like hiking a tall mountain.” Layers in a line, cut and ready to stack and glue (For reference, Parnas used programs including Thingiverse and 123d Design.) He input this file to the laser cutter, which sliced the layers of the mountain to be glued. For the mountain project, Parnas relied on a free user-generated library that gave a vector file of Rainier. Maker spaces, which are workshops with expensive, precision technology available for member use, dot the U.S.
Laser-Cut ‘Topo Lines’Ī senior at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Parnas had free access to the school’s “makerspace,” The Construct, where he used design software to laser-cut the foam layers. Parnas spent $7 total, and he used some easily accessible technology. The layered-foam model required only cheap materials. But the ease with which he made it - and the accuracy of the end product - should pique the interest of collectors and tinkerers alike.
“The horizontal accuracy for this version is not perfect, however it’s not hard to make it accurate.” Laser cutter in actionĬompared to the stunning and meticulous professional topographical carvings from manufacturers like Precision Peaks, Parnas’s pet project might look amateur. It’s made of craft foam, plywood, and glue. “The vertical scale is very accurate, 500.51 feet per layer,” Parnas told GearJunkie. Most of the hippos were just side-by-side in a main group but, around the perimeter, there were almost continuous face-offs between two or three.
On a drive to our next safari camp, we were able to spend almost an hour watching a group of 20-30 hippos in a river. Please click twice on the image to view at the largest size. People were intrigued by the photos, which reveal a process that yielded a near-perfect scale model of Mt. Photographed in Tanzania, Africa - From a safari vehicle, no cover. Rainier Topo Map”) garnered nearly 100,000 views. In just two days, Ben Parnas’s Imgur post (titled “Mt. Home » Technology » Make Your Own Mountain: DIY ‘3D Printed’ Mt RainierĪ college senior’s 3D rendering of the Cascade’s tallest mountain marries cutting-edge tech with preschool arts and crafts. The to-scale mini-monument cost less than $10 to make.