This puzzle was initially published at LJ on 11th Jan, 2021. I was just starting to piss people off with my puzzles, however at the time the William Tell Overture’s crescendo
was still in the orchestra pits having the brass pipes and drums tuned, the singers still rehearsing,
for Rossini... and the rest of my planet were trying to recover from C19 lockups.
Fast tracking to today… I was in the process of drafting another puzzle for posting here and got carried away with some of the compliments I got about some of the puzzles in solids I posted here at CN. Closed that door to block out the draft and followed a smoke trail to eke out a timber version of this puzzle with some of the left over pine cubes I had
... just needing a wee top up by just 24 pieces.
As with my other “solid” puzzles, the SU model’s box had to be redesigned, if only to cater for a more respectable thickness of the box and stock of walnut I had available.
I will forgo the preamble and go straight to the lasering.
A couple of asides…
1. Often I’m too lazy and just depend on my Rockler silicon mats,
as they are always on top of my bench, however, still with my left arm (dodgy), I could never have beaten the Yankees at the World Series.
So I grabbed one of my non slip mats,
that has been sitting on a shelf and had been impregnated with so much micro dust that the board was skating across it like on ice. I grabbed another brand of mats,
which was a lot better, but it still twisted enough that with my OCD, I couldn’t handle the angle.
Decided to try my VAC-SYS, however, one was not enough to support the thin board and side by side the board was too short. Fortunately for the versatility of placement, I was able to stagger/twist the base
to sufficiently support the full length of the board,
Unfortunately, with the narrowness of the board it was cupped. Moral of this story... non slip mats are not the best "hold-on" for small, thin boards.
2. This cupped board leads into the reason why I stagger cut sequences.
Because the board was cupped, when the perimeter cut was completed, the piece dropped about 3mm,
In this case that was not a major issue (other than the cup could have buggered up the focus).
Now if this happened on the bottom sides with the cut out circle
where the position of the circle was critical (not the case here) and the perimeter was cut first, if it finished up unlevel or displaced while dropping, the follow up circle cut may be badly positioned/angled… Aren’t you lucky you don’t have a laser and faced with these conundrums.
End of aside….
Did a dry fit of the box,
to make sure I won’t find any issues after the glue-up and sanding. Happy with the fit, glued it up
First sand was on the belt sander,
starting at 80G → 120G → 150G → 180G... had no 240... to remove the generous finger joints (tenons) and keep the faces flat… which hasn’t seen so much use since I bought my Jet drum. Then the inverted ROS with 240G,
before the Timbermate backfill
While the Timbermate was drying, I couldn’t help but admire the shine the buffer made on the lid,
... well me controlling the buffer.
This is one of the better puzzles to make as a prezzie as the claim is that there are 240 distinct solutions to this puzzle… making it a readily solvable puzzle for any recipient... though I am sceptical, as I have only found and memorised 237.
FAIW… This is not a “packing puzzle”… the box is only made to provide a package for it (and storage)… it can be KISS by just making the cubed pieces.
If I haven’t totally bored you to tears yet, read on to see what BS fertiliser I spread at LJ… in MDF speak.
----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo ---------------------------------------------
My Puzzle persistence is Puzzling (Soma more puzzles)
Boys and Girls,
One should never tidy up in the workshop without expecting the unexpected.
While cleaning up my scrapbox, I came across this jar of Soma Cube pieces
that I cut over 11 years ago before moving to downtown Churchill.
With my renewed passion for puzzles, I couldn't resist taking up the challenge and finishing the puzzle. Did a search on the Internet and quickly realised I needed 27 small cubes, however, I only had 21
which may be due to either
Couldn't count back then.
Calculator battery flat.
Someone mistook 6 for sugar cubes.
I had a leaking jar.
Had an infestation of thieving rats.
6 were cleverly hiding behind the others.
They fled the workshop to escape my misguiding influence.
Any of a few more reasons I can't think of now.
I vaguely remember (I think), that I baulked at the project back then as I didn't know how to easily chamfer the pieces all around
and hadn't established a trusting relationship with Titebond (hadn't met Titebond III back then).
I was initially faced with making 6 extra pieces, but no matter what I tried, my scanner and copier refused to co-operate.
Determined to complete the puzzle, I changed gears and decided to use my MDF laser cut lamination technique.
Decided to make my cubes 18mm³ (using 3 layers of 6mm MDF). Designed the puzzle in SketchUp
and through Layout→CorelDraw
→Trotec-Laser
generated the laminations required to create the 7 puzzle pieces.
I also designed a container box for the puzzle
so I can find it all in one area after belligerent solvers toss the bloody puzzle out of frustration.
If you are up to the challenge, I will assume you will be making it out of solid timber and the measurements are irrelevant as long as you use cubes… preferably of the same dimensions. You can get both design and solution from either the SU model or PDF available here … An animation of the SU can be viewed here …
Keep safe jocks… (or knickers)… or should that have been… keep safe, jocks!
----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO The End OOOOooooo ---------------------------------------------
Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I feel your passion for the MDF when you describe the internal stresses dealing with non-remanufactured wood!
Never tried the buffer on wood before, though I have gone through the compounds and pads for lacquered table tops. Seems to be the obvious choice for the small things, always hear about bring the tool to the work, but this is a nice way to make finishing the small bits easy.
Jim Jakosh commented about 3 hours ago new Nice puzzle, Ducky...but they drive me nuts trying to figure them out!! I made one and I don't think I can get it apart now!!
JJ you use glue for the "parts of parts" not between parts.
Also helps to grow a third hand so you don't have to use glue to stop parts from falling out/apart when solving.
The beauty of buffing wood is that you don't add that extra layer... while the thickness of many finishes is only a thou', it makes a helluva difference when fitting puzzles/shop-made jigsaws. Also CA works well on pre-buffed stuff... layered finishes separate.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
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