12 Piece BURR Puzzle #1.

Boys and Girls,

 

I have been unleashing some of my MDF puzzles here and am planning to drag across a whole lot more that I have previously posted at Lumberjocks.  After digesting BURR Puzzle "#1", I won’t intimidate yazall by divulging the BURR Puzzle number that are/will be available for posting.

 

However, there seemed to have been a temporary infestation of our MDF trees in downtown Churchill, so I had to resort to some un-artificial media, to continue my puzzle inundation of this site.

 

I hear too many “too hard”, “too complex”, “out of my league”… comments.  Don’t get intimidated by my dulcet words and pictures… they are no-where as complex as they appear and I hope to subliminally convince a few out there by sacrificing some pine purchased from my local Bunnings store.

  

Most puzzles take a standard measurement (eg. 19mm)… and if that mm confuses you, try the mouthful of three quarters of an inch.  From then on, 99% of the following measurement are multiples of that base (‘x’)… kinda reminds ya of those maths days… dontcha wish you paid attention, especially to the times tables.

 

So for all you budding prestidigitators, let’s start your puzzle life with a simple crawl.

 

While all those 12 pieces may seem intimidating, it is an imperial friendly number and all pieces are the same… well nearly… as in all groups there is a black duck sheep… one piece is different, however an extra “notch” (dado) is cut into the 12th (same) piece,

 

though you can be a thrillseeker and cut it into the 6th piece,

to further confuse the victim.

For those too lazy (or intimidated) to look at the 3DW model above, here are the measurements (for political correctness… in both races)

As this has not been posted before, no happy snaps were taken, so it’s time for the hero uniform 

and a trip down to the workshop.

 

Cut a piece of 19mm pine to 76mm width and long enough for at least 12 pieces (and maybe a few test pieces),

Having established the base measurement at 19mm, it was time to set my dado to err 19mm (DOH!).

Mounted my pecker’s dado stack,

which is set out in the MFT style measurements and unboxed my 'pecker Dado Set,

Used my thickness gauge (included with the Dado Set) to set the timber thickness,

... didn’t have to be exactly 19mm as the thickness was taken from the gauge.

 

Removed my TS blade… this orange “blade lock” and ratchet 22mm spanner made the job a tad easier,

and mounted the pre-configured dado stack (dialed) using the Freud supplied nut wrench designed to get into the dial’s crevice,

 

Set the TS fence at 9.5mm from the edge of the dado, run the length of the board, flip horizontally and hog out the other side.  Just two overlapping passes (with fence adjustment) will hog out the centre.  Sorry, but I didn’t take a photo before I started to butcher it at the mitre saw,

 

Now this is where you need to decide whether you want an easy, loose fit or a tight fit.  

For an easy, loose fit, you can plane out the dado to make it a tad shallower (and even out the overlaps, if there was some), or you can laboriously sand each piece down later to hone-up/customise the fit.

Then it’s over to the mitre saw (or TS Sled) to cut off 19mm strips,

  

One more dado cut to make in one of the pieces (12th … or 6th ).  Take your favourite looking piece and after setting up the fence to 19mm, you have one more decision to make.  Do you want to make a packer to prevent tear out when making the cut as per instructions,

If you can’t imagine the issue from the above picture, you’ll understand it if you didn’t make a packer.  I used a “backing rod” rather than hacking a dado into my mitre gauge’s ZCI fence.

Now if you’re as lazy as I am (in redoing the SketchUp solutions) you can choose to deviate from plans and cut the dado on the other end as the “backing rod” will prevent tear out (not an issue with a sled),

If you make this cut, the assembly will need to be re-oriented (Southpawed) and as mentioned, I’m too lazy to change the SU solution.

For those confused, when looking at the solution, you will be working with  the complimentary moving pieces on the right hand side and the key will need to be pushed left to right after inserted.  If your still confused… make that bloody 9.5mm  packer.

 

After the initial test fit, I had to shave some off the dado.  I ganged up 6 pieces and used a block plane to take off about 0.3256mm (metric is more user friendly), 

followed by 0.1744mm sanding, reducing the overall girth by exactly 0.5mm for a snugger fit... do those in imperial...

 

A quick run across the edges with 240G,

took the bite out of the sharp edges... (contrary to my advice, looks like I took the notch out of the 5th piece... or was it the 8th?).

Then it was time to assemble… only got so far,

and it was up to the office, (and the mini workbench)

for some unsolicited assistance,

 

QED!... anyone can do it… though I like the accuracy and efficiency (no setup required) of laser,

though it require assembly… unfortunately human intervention required… waiting for Fe$tool to release a robot.

Give it a go... and thanks for looking.

 

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