“Guillotine” Packing Puzzle.

Boys and Girls,
 
All these packing puzzles may look the same, however, they’re as diversified as identical twins… and don’t believe the hype of twin similarity as they’re as different as their DNA (Duplicate Not Acceptable) jeans. So here is another injection into the packing puzzle genre that can confuse the reader purely on appearance.

This instalment could be administered using conventional tools, however, I chose to laser cut as I was too lazy to cut a dado in each of the two sides to let the lid slide and my puzzles being freebie giveaways, certified my indolence. 

Imported some downloaded happy snaps from the internet, 

and hacked it out using my “finger joints” for the box sides.  
Rather than cutting a dado, I opted for a side liner/support with a “cap” on top for the top slide runner slot (???... the picture below shows what I mean in red), 

 

The prototype was cut out of 6mm MDF with the pieces 18mm thick. The pieces were laminated out of 3 x 6mm MDF cutouts.  I didn’t use my dowel alignment technique for the puzzle pieces 

and as the laser cutting kerf was negligible, perfect alignment was difficult to achieve and I found the pieces could not straddle each other easily like this,

Consequently I chose to sand the outside of the pieces rather than the inside,

To permit proper fit/assembly… though this removed a lot of the laser burn marks making the pieces’  outter edges mottly,

 

compared to the crisp dark edges of the box, 

...  at least it was now readily assemblable. 

Disgruntled with this customisation, I redesigned the puzzle based on 12mm thickness (2 x 6mm) for the pieces and extended the middle part of the “U” shaped pieces and the long piece by 1mm,

This extra 1mm made the fit perfect and removed the need for sanding to fit,

 

During this downsizing I changed the design of the lid slide,

No idea why, as there doesn’t seem any logical benefit, however, I thought I will add in case some eagle eye detects it and decides to take me to task, which I would fail.

Then it was time to go solids. With the reduction in size for the puzzle pieces, milled some sticks of 12mm x 24mm on the TS,

out of pine and some sort of darker hardwood. 

Laser cut some templates for mitre saw configuration,

Hmm dummkopf, why did I?… Small pieces like above are much easier to lose than a sheet of A4.

The larger one-piece parts I cut on the mitre saw, but when it was time for the 24mm (and 25mm), it was too tight even with a hold down,

and thought it time to break out the Micro-Mark and set it to 25mm (for those extended middle pieces)

Milled and sanded boards for the boxes,

Which were cut on the laser,

and assembled maintain grain orientation,

The tape indicated the outer side and which side up, as I often glue up pieces upside down and the fingers do not mate on later assembly steps.

The box bottoms were engraved, backfilled with Timbermate and sanded,

The pieces were glued up with care taken that the middle piece of the “U” part was the 25mm piece in length,

 

Time to test the solids,

I’m assuming you haven’t read the instructions, so let me hint that it’s impossible to assemble this puzzle into the box and it has to be assembled outside the box,

and then the box slid over it and the lid closed… and voila, that is where you now realise where it got its Guillotine name from… when assembled (solved), the head is chopped off from its shipping status,

 

Two of the puzzles are 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...
*** 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. 

 

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