Africa Puzzle

[AndyP]

I was asked if I could make a jigsaw to be used as a teaching aid at a Montessori school in Paris.

This is what I came up with. 9mm birch ply backed with 3mm MDF. I would like to have made it a bit larger but restricted by the throat on the scroll saw. Although By cutting halfway across and them removing the blade I might be able to make larger....next time.

Countries stained to make them stand out. Country names will be added, not by me, to either the back of each piece or to the back board.

I am also not happy with the left hand edge I might try and find some suitable trim to hide it.

42 pieces, 3 countries I deemed to small to cut out so are just outlined. I am sure you can name them all.

 

[Mike G]

.........I am sure you can name them all......

Yep (I've traveled in most of them). Don't let anyone take that to Morocco, or it will be confiscated for having Western Sahara shown as a separate country. Lesotho, Swaziland and Gambia are the ones too small for handles, I think......and you've forgotten South Sudan (and Somaliland, albeit not everyone recognises the latter).

 

[Malc2098]

Nice one, Andy.

However I can only remember the map when it had lots of red on it!

 

[AndyP]

.........I am sure you can name them all......

Yep (I've traveled in most of them). Don't let anyone take that to Morocco, or it will be confiscated for having Western Sahara shown as a separate country. Lesotho, Swaziland and Gambia are the ones too small for handles, I think......and you've forgotten South Sudan (and Somaliland, albeit not everyone recognises the latter).

Thanks for the heads up Mike.

Western Sahara listed by UN as a non self governing territory whatever that means. Too late for me to glue them back together.

Oops, South Sudan as it is recognised by the UN really ought to be there . My map obviuosly more than 5 years old. Shouln'nt be a problem to cut Sudan in half.

Somaliland is not UN recognised so will be left off.

There is at least one other disputed territory that I left off. Portugese Congo, or Cabinda.

Maybe the departments of France will be less complicated.

 

[AndyP]

Nice one, Andy.

However I can only remember the map when it had lots of red on it!

If I had used my school atlas it would have looked a little different, especially the names. Unfortunately it is for a geography lesson rather than history

 

[DaveL]

Andy,

What order did you cut that in?
I think if I would cut the outline first, using the blade in normally and the with it reversed to over come the limit of the throat size. Then cutting the countries off the overall shape would be relatively straightforward.
9 mm ply sounds a bit heavy for this, any reason why you went with that thickness, I would have gone with 6 mm.
Looks great and should last OK until the borders move again. [emoji16]

 

[Mike G]

.......There is at least one other disputed territory that I left off. Portugese Congo, or Cabinda. .......

Is that disputed? I wasn't aware of any dispute there, although it is a weird separate bit of Angola. As for cutting Sudan in two: there is a disputed border area you might have to fudge.

 

[AndyP]

Andy,

What order did you cut that in?
I think if I would cut the outline first, using the blade in normally and the with it reversed to over come the limit of the throat size. Then cutting the countries off the overall shape would be relatively straightforward.
9 mm ply sounds a bit heavy for this, any reason why you went with that thickness, I would have gone with 6 mm.
Looks great and should last OK until the borders move again. [emoji16]

Dave, not at all sure that I did the right way to maximise throat depth, it is a Hegner Multicut 1btw. Interest tip regarding reversing the blade, I had not thought of that.
Anyway I went straight across from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east. That gave me two halves which I cut the outline from. Then the indivudual countries in each half.

I tried 6mm first and came to the conclusion that the countries with long sticky out bits would not be strong enough in the class room. Time will tell.

 

[AndyP]

.......There is at least one other disputed territory that I left off. Portugese Congo, or Cabinda. .......

Is that disputed? I wasn't aware of any dispute there, although it is a weird separate bit of Angola. As for cutting Sudan in two: there is a disputed border area you might have to fudge.

Yeah I noticed that.

You may be right about Cabinda Mike, I had never before heard of it and have only just read Wikipedia. Too small for me to cut anyway.

 

[AndyP]

South Sudan duly added. Luckily I did not have to resite the peg in Sudan.

 

[Mike G]

Fantastic, Andy. Looks great. I've been waiting for the "name every country on this Africa map" picture round to come up in our pub quiz for about the last 5 years.

 

[Dalboy]

Great job Andy not used the scroll saw for a while but still have to tidy up a chicken I am doing

 

[Mike G]

Great job Andy not used the scroll saw for a while but still have to tidy up a chicken I am doing

I'm on to the RSPCA. And anyway, wouldn't a cutting up a chicken mess up the dust collection?

 

[Dalboy]

Great job Andy not used the scroll saw for a while but still have to tidy up a chicken I am doing

I'm on to the RSPCA. And anyway, wouldn't a cutting up a chicken mess up the dust collection?

The feathers are the thing that buggers everything up keep getting caught up in the scroll saw mechanism.

 

[Phil]

Andy, that looks great.

I think painting each piece in the colours of their flags would be a very good idea.

 

[Commander]

That looks great Andy! Not sure I would have enough patience (or a steady enough hand) to make something like that, which makes it all the more impressive!

 

[AndyP]

Thanks Erich. The cutting out is actually the easy bit. Sanding all the edges, top and bottom, of each piece takes longer! The other nice thing about cutting a map like that is that a slight deviation from the actual border line goes unnoticed. Cutting letters and precise shapes and letters is far harder.