“Hexy” Jigsaw Puzzle.

Boys and Girls,

This puzzle was designed from the pattern I downloaded from Steve Goode’s  Scrollsaw Workshop and posted on LJ back in March 2020.

 

As I draft my blogs before posting, I can recreate it here as I can no longer easily find and link to that on the other site. 

 

I have basically made 3 themes for this puzzle.

 

I appologise for its length as I noticed it exceeded even my abnormal practices, however, it has a good scattering of pictures that may ease the pain.

 

For those that prefer moving words to static and refuse to read to the bottom where I reference a video I made, here is a fast track, 

or just keep reading on to see what was still acceptable at LJ just a few years ago. 

 

Anyone interested, all my files can be found at this cloud storage.  I believe that my CorelDraw files can be read by the freebie Inkscape.

 

----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo --------------------------------------------- 

 
Boys and Girls,
This project was inspired by one of Steve Good's scroll saw patterns.

Some of the pictures contain small nude silhouettes so if you are easily offended… toughen up Nancy!

For once SketchUp was given the cold shoulder and I went straight into CorelDraw. Imported Steve's PDF and proceeded to colourise the pattern,

Colourisation in the above diagram controls the cutting order… won't bore you with why, unless someone asks, and then I can ignore.

For previous puzzles out of MDF, I used to colour the bottom side with a texta pen (Sharpie to all you Philistines) to differentiate between the pieces' sides,

 however, I thought of engraving something on each piece to indicate the downside. Deliberately avoiding the alphabet, as not everyone speaks Australian, or numbers, as not everyone can count, I chose to use silhouettes, as there are a lot of perves. I made use of these silhouettes (that I intend to include in a future post),

Off to the laser and finished up with a 3 layer design,

(for you eagle eyes… the above pictures were taken after the engraving on the middle piece was filled

).
The bottom layer was the pattern, middle the base and the top layer the puzzle.

For design #1, alignment dowels were glued into place,

… as the outer pieces were not to be glued to the dowel, this permitted the dowels to be buffed permitting smoother fit.
The bottom layer was flocked,

There was a change of pace and the silhouettes were engraved and backfilled prior to cutting to facilitate sanding,

For the prudish, the pieces were then buffed and test assembled,

and as an afterthought for the more adventurous, assemble with the bottom side indicators facing up (which became the standard design),

For design #2, the bottom pattern layer was replaced by a laminated paper design of the pattern that can be used as a guide and then stowed under the puzzle for storage,

 
Design #1, uses flock on the bottom layer to prevent slippage,

however, when the pattern layer is removed it props on the 4 dowels,

Wasn't happy with that and that's the reason for design #2 which had rubber pads on the base,

These are the available options.

I was asked for a conservative pussy (not my word) theme. This is how the lamination is fed into the laser,

and this is how it comes out of production. Can be used in either mode (pattern up or down),

The two #2 designs in the revealing configuration,

One of the benefits of the laser, when you make a mistake and detect it too late, you can redo single pieces and be assured it will fit in place. This piece had one of the silhouettes too close to the edge,

For all you musing about the perforated base, you need muse no more. When using without the pattern (up or down side), if the piece is in the wrong place (usually discovered near completion), because of the small kerf of the cut, it would be difficult to pry out a piece so it can be poked out from under the base through an appropriate hole,

I didn't consider laying the puzzle flat was a great show piece, so SketchUp eventually came to the rescue to design a stand,

and off to CorelDraw for laser layout,

Stained, buffed and glued up (CA) ready for use,

 
Two sizes of stands were produces as the design #1 was 3mm thicker than #2 and I didn't want slop,

Furthermore, the stand provides a rest for the pattern while cheating assembly,

Had a friend recovering from a hernia operation so I gave him a girlie version while recovering. His 5 yo daughter commandeered it. She was going to take it for show and tell, which we both thought might be inappropriate, so I designed an animal based version,

It was a hit… begrudgingly I grinched on about 20 orders.

My copies now assist in filling my puzzle display cabinet,

Phew, that was longer than my anticipated few word post, but with home confinement, I had time to type.

I prefer to shy from construction/build videos as I only have two hands and none spare to hold the camera, however, for anyone wanting to see it in operation, I made a video of its use... so maybe you should watch that before you waste time reading this post.

 

 

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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