Nautical Maps - Is this a business in a box?

[Gary Looft]

I came cross a site a few months ago that is selling wooden laser cut nautical maps (http://www.nauticalwoodmaps.com/) and was impressed how great they looked. Then I found another one, then at least a dozen more.

http://www.thosbaker.com/group/wall-art/type/laser-cut-nautical-charts
http://nnchart.com/
http://www.belowtheboat.com/
and many more...

I realize it is possible that somebody sees it and recreates and then another guy does it, but they are all almost identical so I am wondering if someone is just selling the plans for these things like those laserbuzz (http://laserbuzz.com/) designs from a few years ago. Or is it a package deal..."Buy this laser cutter and get the plans for a profitable nautical map business for free!"

Does anyone have the scoop on these things?

Thanks,
Gary

[Mike Null]

George Perzel has been doing nautical maps for years. He's a member here so you might want to do a search.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

No answer as to who is making them, but of the 4 sites you listed, 3 of them had identical designs. Look around the various maps and you will see some that have words that are too close to the edges or alignment issues that could have been better. Then look at the maps on the other sites and you will see the exact same design issue on those maps. Just a guess here, but I think the thosbaker site is purchasing the maps from one of the other sites you listed....

[Gary Hair]

$300 map and they can't even take the time to clean the soot... Pure trash in my opinion!

[David Somers]

I agree Gary. I have seen some sold at craft fairs that were well made and clean, but not often. I also first thought they were designed by an individual but after a bit I noticed the identical nature of the designs and assumed the rights to the files were purchased from just a few sources.

Incidentally, for anyone thinking about this, the US Geological Survey, a tax payer funded agency that is under the Department of the Interior, has an amazing range of mapping products in digital format that are available to you as a taxpayer. IF you are willing to take some time and modify the maps to do what you want you should find everything you need to come up with your own design for area maps, both nautical and topographic. Remember the time to develop your product from the digital products might be somewhat long, but once done your effort to reproduce them on laser or CNC really drops.

Dave

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Guys;
Most of these are made overseas- I think in Taiwan. I have been making them for about ten years-mostly NY state lake maps- made from my own designs. It's not a very complicated process, the key being to get vectorized contour lines for the depth segments as the map details are readily available. It helps to have a fairly complete wood workshop, at least for the versions which I do. Here some examples, including largest I have ever done 4x8 foot of NY 1000 islands area:334633334632334634
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Bob Davis - Sturgis SD]

Hi Guys; Most of these are made overseas- I think in Taiwan. I have been making them for about ten years-mostly NY state lake maps- made from my own designs. It's not a very complicated process, the key being to get vectorized contour lines for the depth segments as the map details are readily available. It helps to have a fairly complete wood workshop, at least for the versions which I do. Here some examples, including largest I have ever done 4x8 foot of NY 1000 islands area:<img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=334633"/><img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=334632"/><img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=334634"/> Best Regards, George Laserarts

Nice maps George. Here's a suggestion: BUY A DECENT CAMERA! Lol

[George M. Perzel]

Camera is fine-limited in what you can upload to SMC
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Bert Kemp]

George if your interested theres a free easy to use program called fotosizer which reduce mega bite photos to KB and not loose much in size.


Camera is fine-limited in what you can upload to SMC
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Kev Williams]

not sure which one I'm using on this win8 here, but it's made to work like the winXP pic resizer. Makes for a fairly large pic with a usable file-size.


334655



...

[George M. Perzel]

Bert/Kev;
Thanks-got it
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[AL Ursich]

Yes, please post bigger pictures.... Was looking forward to enjoying them...

You can never have enough screwdrivers....

AL

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Guys;
OK-here ya go334695334696334697334698334699334700

[Scott Shepherd]

Really nice looking work George, one can easily appreciate how much time you've spent on those by their quality. Very nice!

[Don Corbeil]

yes, real nice george. So that's where all those thin wood scraps comes from!