Yeah. 5mm plywood, cut out the outline of the country as one cut, no in-cuts. THAT was a real
PITA. Took about 4 hours. had a tiny blade for jigsaw, .012 thick, .037 wide, had to drill a .040
hole and restart about 20-25 times due to 10.5" reach of the saw. once that was done, it was
easy to slice up the states. Had to figure out how to keep parts of Louisiana delta, Cape Cod,
the MD panhandle and NJ, Del and RI and Conn from breaking off, or getting lost or swallowed
by little kids. Had to join Upper Penninsula and Michigan with Lake Michigan, various tricks to make
it workable as a puzzle. Then the background (Canada, Mexico and oceans) is glued onto a 1/2 plywood
backer, varnished.
A lot of fussy hand painting for the small details and lakes, Chesapeake Bay, etc. Drying time for layers
of paint was a killer, added days.
Lots of fun, the kids love it, but my tractor didn't get ready for winter snow before we had to leave.
It was worth it. I love making toys that will last and teach them something. The name is on the
back of each state. Right now it is just a puzzle, but it will become a learning tool.
Now I wish I had used a straight mercator projection, but this is a conical projection. The diff is
that E-W lines are curves in a conical, which is slightly weird when putting it together. I want
to put the southern border of VA in level, but it isn't, kinda screwed me up the first time I put
it together myself. Oh, well, still nice toy.
Bill