Due to popular demand, it’s been a while since I posted a puzzle project… however, I couldn’t stand the silence and ignore all the naysayers and relented to start posting them again.
As alluded to in my previous post, I thought there would have been an insurgence of puzzle mania here, however, due to apathy, I decided to crack a can devour some beans
and start a cheeky movement myself.
While i have many in draft/2Bpublished, this being the latest, it was easier to slip it in, out of sequence due to my short memory syndrome.
Now where was I… hmm... err… My initial intent was to stay away from laser cutting the box… other than an “easy cutting reference” templates with basic instructions engraved on them ,
and cut out of solids even though it had angles…
albeit 90° which is a tad hard on the TS and straight lines (for me) on the scroll… maybe bandsawed. The arrows “→” is to indicate which side the timber thickness is to be added to when cutting, and this layout diagram is used to ascertain grain direction (if needed),
The beauty of this puzzles box is that there are only 2 different shapes (3 of each coloured),
For simplicity, I lasered the box’s cutting templates,
The following is a video I made of how I use these laser cut templates (fast track marker at 3:17),
However, for the pilot run, I used the laser to cut the box’s rectangular pieces resulting in what would have been created using traditional woodworking principles (similar to process used in the above video)
This puzzle as sold on the internet, follows this two piece per side design (OK, I followed their design), however, as the glue up was a PITA, for further production I capitulated and decided to resort back to my finger/tenon joins laser cut, with one piece each side, out of merbau strips… each box set was processed in one continuous line/string (more on this below)… these were out of some other unknown timber I had,
… sorry guys, the only timber I recognise is pine, MDF and wine groves… and that’s because the bloody Bunnings stickers on them are near impossible to remove cleanly, even with a heat gun and acetone, and the empty casks overflow my rubbish bins.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of interesting grain patters in both bits of timber, grain alignment was merely a redundant exercise.
With the fingers, the box was much easier to assemble and glue up,
Made up a few sets of contrasting pieces from my cache of pine cubes,
Had a swag of darker cubes just loitering about,
that gave up their tranquility for a few more piece sets,
which seemed out of place and I felt they required a lighter box for contrast.
Resorted to BOOMBY, and took some shavings off a log I had lying around,
and thinned to final thickness on the drum sander (approx. 4mm),
and “plugging” a knot hole with masking tape to get full suction on my air clamps.
finished sanding using my VAC-SYS for support,
Unfortunately, there were hairline cracks in the strips which caused grief when laser cut, as some pieces just fell apart,
so, I pre-empted the cracks on the remaining strips and snapped them on the apparent fault line,
Redesigned the cutting layout from the 6 in-line to fit what timber I now had (3 in-line),
Just and FYI… regarding my reference to ”one continuous line” somewhere above, I tend to butt pieces to be cut together, to minimise wastage and unnecessary/duplicate cuts, however you need to delete overlaps,
to minimise duplicate/overlay cutting and wastage. In this case (and most), wastage would not be a major issue due to the size of the blanks, but unnecessary cutting is a bugga on my filters (and cutting time to a lesser extent).
Prior to assembling the boxes, I always buff the inside to minimise friction while moving pieces internally. Because of the frailty of the wood I chose this time, I used a backing board to provide support for each side while buffing,
Then it was time to assemble/glue up the box using the fingers/tenons for alignment. The wood was very porous and a seal coat of CA had to be applied to each connecting surface, prior to final glue up,
which was conducted in the comfort of my office while watching American Ninja Warriors 2016… BTW, the contestants were a bunch of pussies.
Then it was a case of back down to the workshop to sand off the protruding fingers,
FAIW, the box is so designed that the same pattern/setting can be used for any timber up to 6mm thick… the thinner the stock, the more of the protruding fingers that need to be sanded off on my upside down belt sander (150G, 180G, 240G)
and a 2bsure, 2bsure, finished on the 240G upside down ROS,
Then it was a case of engraving and backfilling (with Timbermate) the puzzle ID, logo and date on the bottom,
and final buffing,
no other finish used.
The pieces were also buffed… as well as the shiny, friction resistant surface, an added benefit of the buffing was that the vigorous action identified any weak glue joins,
to permit fixing and preventing potential blow for the future optimistic solver.
Finally, packaging the puzzle using the “packing” configuration (as per solution cheat sheet) and instructions,
As always, the SketchUp model is available from the 3DW,
and its solution is downloadable from my cloud storage… more specifically this PDF.
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... *** Measurements and further details can be provided on request. *** Christmas is coming and puzzles make a great stocking stuffer... for all ages. Kids love ‘em and most of us are still kids.
Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Corelz125 Interesting puzzles there. Cutting that square out is a challenge.
I've printed out a cutting template on self adhesive A4 paper which will need to be adjusted for the thickness of the timber (green dotted through red rectangles), (the red arrows indicate grain direction and up orientation). Simply cut the rectangle perimeter and then cut out the inside. I'm hoping to try the cutout on the bandsaw using the fence and a 6.35mm blade... unfortunately its drinkSaturday night so, testing may be postponed for awhile.
If this works, it should be simple to make using conventional tools... unless one can scroll straight, which should be a laydown misere.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Hey now, gotta like a bin full of cubes! There was a period where I enjoyed making as many different kinds of puzzles I could with them, still do once in awhile. These kinds of packing cube puzzles are loads of fun. Nice work!
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