Scaring People With a Cardboard Cutout of Myself

So the other day i was bored as heck, and i thought to myself: "Hey Dominik, you're bored as heck!" (yes my thoughts are THAT complicated). Earlier that day i had discovered, that my younger sister was wearing one of my (My) T-Shirts again. There was my objective. The only thing missing now were means. I wanted it to be personal, as her wearing my stuff was personal too. I could've simply scared her at night or whatever, but where's the fun in that (also i'm super lazy so staying up all night just for a tired scream was not an option) A copy of myself would do the trick just fine i decided. And holy cows, it did.

"So Dominik, what do I need to scare the holy crap out of my little sister" you might ask. Well, as the title of this very Instructable so clearly says, this is going to be a CARDBOARD cutout, so you might want to figure that one out yourself Sherlock. For those not that mentally gifted: I'm talking about cardboard. A buttload of cardboard, to be technically precise. Ideally that cardboard would be totally flat without crinkles, holes, paint etc.

"But Dominik, where do i get totally flat cardboard without crinkles, holes, paint etc.?" Just. Wait. Please.

As on every occasion the answer is IKEA. Thinking about it while writing this down 2+2=IKEA seems kind of wrong, but that's a topic for another day. What I'm actually trying to say here is that you should go to IKEA's parking lot, because (at least at my IKEA) they have a bunch of huge containers standing around where people can throw away their Kallax's packaging. This is what you're aiming for. take a bunch of those. Because i'm lazy i didn't go to IKEA. I took some scraps of cardboard i found in my basement. We'll see later why that could be a problem.

That's basically it. You could go on from here, cutting out your 2D double by hand but as i've mentioned before im lazy and where is the fun in doing something by hand when you could support the robot uprising by making a machine do it. Lucky for me, i own a DIY CNC Router, but you could also use a CNC Laser

First things first you're going to need a photo of yourself. Doesn't have to be good quality, you just need something to draw outlines of in Fusion 360. If you've never worked with Fusion there are some really good tutorials on Youtube and i won't go into much detail on this one. Simply import the picture you took earlier and scale it up to your liking. Create a new sketch and draw your outlines. Then extrude it to the thickness of your cardboard and boom, you're ready for CAM!

Important: As long as your CNC Router is not at least 180cm long you will have to cut your model down into smaller chunks. In an ideal world those chunks would correspond to the size of those pieces of carboard you aquired earlier.

Export your gcode and carry on with your life

Take those GCodes and throw them at your CNC Machine. Sadly, most CNC machines dont like things being thrown at them, but you'll find out for yourself once you start machining!

Go ahead!

What are you waiting for, come on!

Sounds way creepier than it actually is. Just use some duct tape or hotglue and slap those pieces together. There you have it! You may now name your clone. I called mine Hermann, because why not?

Important Note: Under no circumstances mix hotglue AND duct tape as they will form an impermeable bond that will most likely destroy the world. Do not try this at home

Add some spare pieces of cardboard in the back to give the hole thing more stability. You might wish to paint your copy to cover up some imperfections, but i was too lazy to do that

Believe me, it is FUN!

First of all, placement is key. You need to go through your house and mark locations where you have been scared by either other people, lights playing games on the curtains or clothes hanging somewhere. Those locations are very important as people in your house have probably built up an immunity towards those mildly scary situations, but research conducted by no other than myself has shown that placing something actually scary in those locations is a lot more effective than placing it in random spots around the house. Dont't ask me why, it just worked.

Creepy spots include:

• Behind a curtain: When it gets dark light from the streets will fall in through the window, illuminating the figure. At the same time the curtains are diffusing the shape so that it's not quite clear who's standing there. Who doesn't like a creepy guy standing behind their bedroom curtains!
• Frosted glass doors: same trick as with curtains. Diffusion, boom.
• In your sisters closet: she was freaking out!
• In the shower: just don't turn the water on. please
• Casually leaning in the staircase: always great

Would i be writing this Instructable if it weren't worth?

Lets just say it was! I scared my sister for two weeks straight until i ran out of good spots. Hermann had proven himself useful and is now standing in my room. You might call me weird, but i have adjusted well to sleeping with a cardboard guy called Hermann watching me in my sleep. I even let him watch TV with me from time to time.

If you enjoyed this Instructable please consider voting for it in the Cardboard Speed Challenge!