“SIXMETRY” Packing Puzzle.

Boys and Girls,

Been a while since I posted another puzzle, but with eRasmus’s creation as a present for the greatest puzzle naysayer (Pottzy), I thought that it may be a resurgence or at least a movement in puzzle mania.

 

I usually start my puzzles by making a prototype/pilot out of laser cut MDF, however, to lure some of the audience in, I wanted to prove that they can be as easily (nearly) made out of solids using “conventional” woodworking tools… I say nearly as with the laser there’s no measuring and the only critical stage is the glue up. 

 

All the pieces are the same shape made up of a 24mm x24mm x 12mm square and a 24mm x 36mm x 12mm rectangle glued to it… 

and the box,

This template was made and laser engraved to assist in the sizing (and cutting) of the box,

… alternatively can be printed from this 1:1 scaled PDF.

For all you imperial freaks, that is easily translated from metric, but you will need to resize the box accordingly… just allow at least 1/16” wiggle room in all 3 directions. 

 

The pieces were cut out of dressed sticks of 24mm x 12mm,

and on my Micro-Mark TS,

and the two pieces were just CA’d together,

 

seven times per set,

The extra piece was for any frustrating "breaks". 

 

Then it was time for the boxing,

 

Started off with a well dried BOOMBY,

 and brough it down to size on the bandsaw,

revealing some neat patterns,

dressed square on the jointer, 

and started taking slices back on the bandsaw,

with trips back to the jointer to dress the edge of the bulk blank,

 

before the next slice. 

With one side of each slice flat, the top was dressed on the drum sander 

(after a quick pass on the thicknesser).

 

Next was setting up the stops on my mitre saw for the box sides using the laser cut MDF template,

and following the on-board instructions,

based on timber thickness.

 

Glue up was simple butt joints using CA braced against a combination of 123 blocks,

 

The bottom was engraved with the puzzle name, my “logo” and the date (in fine print),

Timbermate backfilled and buffed using my Beall buff system.

 

Two set aside for packaging and distribution, 

and one filed in the archives,

… suddenly that Indiana Jones scene 

doesn’t look so ridiculous any more.

 

The model is available from the 3DW,

and the A4 PDF solution can be downloaded from here.

 

Anyone interested in my puzzles (or other authors’), you can see them all here in my “Puzzle Collection” .

If interested in any of mine (LBD), measurements can be made available on request for anyone not familiar with SketchUp… though a working knowledge of SketchUp’s navigation (as opposed to its design/use features) and access to 3DW could be of benefit.

All the solutions to my puzzles can be found at this link... 
Kids love ‘em and most of us are still kids.

 

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