Cutting .pdf files
I've been down this road with a water jet cutting machine. Trying to cut a .pdf converted to an .eps is marginal at best, however sometimes you do get one that cooperates.
Depending on how the .pdf was assembed, you also may even have issues with layers, overlapping vectors and co-liner lines (one line atop another).
More times than not, you will end up with a grouping of line segments which may or may not be connected, and geometry such as circles will no longer be reperesented by a center and diameter or radius...just a bunch of small segments.
Sometimes it's possible to have missing segments which result in open paths.
Jim