Cutting a Path - Paper Cut Map

I have always had a love affair with maps. They can be a beautiful representation of places we've been or places we want to go. I wanted to display a map in my home, but wanted to be creative with it, so I created this paper cut map.

FYI: I originally created the map a few years back, so for the purposes of this instructable, I'm creating a smaller example for the step by step instructions. 

Supply List: 

map (It's important that the map be a detail of a city so that the streets are large enough for you to cut around. My large map was a tourist map from a hotel that I got when traveling. The example in the following steps was printed from an online map.)
paper larger than map (I originally chose to use plain white paper for a minimalist effect, but since my second map is much smaller, I decided to use a magazine image from a large fashion magazine. I would have loved to use an image of the town in the map. Perhaps someone else would like to go that route.)
tape
x-acto knife
optional: frame

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Cutting Out Your Face

Let's say you have a photo of your face. Or your child's face. Or your dog. Or, really, any photo you find pretty much anywhere.

Let's say you want to cut it out of metal (perhaps with the plasma cutter at TechShop) or out of wood or cardboard (maybe on the laser cutter) or on a tshirt (vinyl cutter) or even carve it into a pumpkin! You'll need to convert that photo a black and white image that can be fed to one of these machines. Or you can print it on a transparency using a regular ink-jet printer and then shine light through it. Project it on a wall and paint it, or onto a pumpkin.

Before you can do any of these things you need to transform your photo from a thing with 32000 colors to something with only 2.

I'm not going to go into much detail about how to cut it out. This instructable is all about how use the software available at any computer in Techshop (and other places) to create the cutout. I spent several hours last night figuring out the exact steps; it should take you about 20 minutes to follow these steps!

I made it at Techshop!  www.techshop.ws

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Refresh that old plastic cutting board

Plastic (polyethylene) cutting boards tend to get worn with use, eventually leading to an unsightly (and often unsanitary) surface. Between cut marks, foods, and cleaners can leave a plastic board looking pretty ragged.

But not all is lost - a quick attack with some sandpaper can refresh that cutting board, making it as good as new and saving the time and money of replacing them! This tried and true food service industry trick can help clean up even the worst of boards and prolong the life of your boards and boost the cleanliness of your kitchen.

Materials in addition to your old cutting boards
dropcloth/newspaper/garbage bagclampssanderSandpaper (ideally 25 grit through 80 grit)metal scrubber or rough steel woolscraper/hand plane/razor blade (not pictured)gloveseye protectiondust maskdish soapsponge
For the sander, I'm using a Dremel contour sander. Any sander will do the job, and one with more horsepower will do the job faster. A belt sander or orbital sander would work nicely. I just didn't happen to have one handy at the moment.

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Bottle cutting: some thoughts

I'm going to proceed with the idea that whoever is reading this either has a bottle cutting jig, or knows how to get one.  For those interested in using one like mine, or who want to see what I did and improve upon it, I'm showing what I use here.  As you'll see from my pictures, mine is pretty primitive.  It consists of a vertical board, a board at a 45° angle and a base post.  In the pictures that follow, I had removed the base post, and instead had the entire cutter positioned vertically on the garage floor.  I'll explain why in a moment.  

I just did an Autodesk 123d mockup (this is my first time using the tool, and I literally just did this moments ago, so be gentle - it is a pretty damn cool tool though) of my jig.  To hold the bottle cutter in place, I cut notches into the vertical board as I need them.  This set-up has allowed me a fair amount of versatility over the size of the bottle I cut and where I make the cut.  I would not call it a precision instrument.  The scoring tool is a basic glass cutter from a hardware store.  They run about $3.

(However, the lumber for the jig was entirely free: Big box stores (like Lowes and Home Depot) cut wood to their customers' specifications.  The customers then take what they want and the big box store worker throws the "waste" into a scrap pile or bucket.  I've found that if you ask nicely, and don't take more than a couple of boards, they will give these to you for free.  Don't be greedy!  Don't make them feel like they're giving you stuff they could otherwise sell to you!  It probably helps if you approach the worker with a cart containing other stuff you are (or appear to be) buying.)

Edit: A quick note on the jig design.  A reader below suggested a wheeled design, which I like, but in the end didn't go with.  My reasons for this are flexibility, simplicity and security.  The wedge shaped slot here can accommodate a wide variety of bottle/jar diameters without any moving parts.  With the base peg in place, the bottle is supported/secured in virtually all directions except up.  It is far from a perfect design, but it is easy to build and fairly efficient.  However, for those who will be cutting only beer and wine bottles, the wheeled version of jig may be more efficient than the one I show here.  Here are a couple of alternative designs:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Glass-Bottle-Cutter/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Drinking-Glasses-from-Wine-Bottles/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Adjustable-Glass-Bottle-Cutter/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Want-to-cut-wine-bottles-Build-this-jig/

Mine could be called a variation on the last of these.  I wanted it to be able to cut at many different heights, hence the wedge with an unfixed cutter/scorer.  I cut slots in the vertical board to hold the cutter at the place I want to make the cut.  Step 3 will show this in greater detail.  I'm also including a picture of a small San Pellegrino bottle and a large mayonnaise jar I recently cut.  The former has a 2 inch diameter, the latter, a 4 inch diameter.  A wine bottle falls in between these two, at about 3 inches diameter.  This flexibility is one of the advantages of this style of jig.

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