“Communication Box” Packing Puzzle.

Boys and Girls,

 

I apologise for the influx of puzzles and other crappy postings lately, but I didn’t want to repeat a past 13 hour wait in ER due to a TIA scare, for my latest workshop oopsie where I ripped a few chunks of flesh out of my right ring finger tip… being a two fingered typist, I found solace in the capability of drafting projects that I’ve held back on, out of sympathy to yazall.

 

Jumping the gun, 

decided to publish this latest packing puzzle I’ve recently finished working on… the rest will just have to wait till tomorrow.

 

During the design phase I usually design the puzzle pieces, model the box around and formulate the solution in SketchUp, before any wood or laser work takes place. This was an “tuoba esra” design as I initially cut out the pieces in the workshop using nominal measurements before any attempt to dimension the box.

 

Based on my 18mm³ cube measurements, I dressed a piece of timber to approximately 36mm x 54mm x length, which then had an approximately  18mm dado routed down its center,

I keep saying approximately as the pieces finished up 54.2mm x 35mm x 18.55mm... and when assembled, these discrepancies get extrapolated.  

Unfortunately, to “supplement” my bad eyes, I couldn’t rely on my drum sander as it needed tuning 'cause it kept dropping height during each pass… and my hand planing is as unreliable as my drinking is (reliable).

 

The “U” block was then dissected on the mitre saw into ≈ 18mm slices,

yielding enough pieces for 6 puzzles (7 per puzzle),

 

The pieces were assembled to the solve configurate, stand alone, 

v

to determine the desired inside proportions of the proposed box. Based on those measurements, the box was designed accordingly in SketchUp, starting with what I call a “pseudo-box”,

and the actual box is designed around that, providing a little wiggle room inside for the pieces… around 1.5mm to 2mm larger ID, 

 

I do it this way as in the past, I’ve always found that my tape measure is a habitual liar and I could never cut pieces using tablesaw, mitresaw, bandsaw, router, thicknesser, jigsaw, scrollsaw or any other cut processor to exact dimensions and found the pieces never fit inside the box… that’s why many of my puzzles are built up of 18mm³ cubes… this one had its own quirks… everything abnormal is done for a reason. 

The first prototype box was laser cut out of MDF, 

to ensure that the “finger” held, and pieces 

fit,

 

Based on a max of 6mm thickness, appropriate BOOMBY “cookies” were picked for all the sides, 

These were also laser cut as I needed to use my “finger joint” technique to provide sufficient glue up surface for the top’s fiddly “finger”.  I like the pattern of the wood and the scraps, off the laser, 

welled up tears to my eyes,

 

As with my normal practice, the inside surfaces were sanded using my air cups. While the cut was smooth off the Kapex, the cookies were masked due to porousity and holes and checks in the timber, 

to ensure that the vacuum held,

(OOPS, badly posed picture... reversed mount).

 

The boxes were assembled,

and the protruding fingers sanded off using my upside down sander,

buffed, except for the bottom,

with careful attention to the “finger” using my Dremel,

mounted with small buff wheels.

The proposed engrave area of the bottoms were coated with two layers of Aqua Coat,

to fill up any grains/voids, before backfilling with Timbermate and subsequent engraving,

and thereafter hitting it with the ebony Timbermate,

 

The bottoms were finally sanded, buffed and prepared for packaging

For packaging, the puzzles were baggied with the following instructions 

and pieces place loose to ensure the “finger” is not broken by frustrated recipients during unpacking,

 

FAIW, be warned… while this puzzle is rated as 9 out of 10 degree of difficulty, I think it’s solution is one of the easiest to remember once it’s solved or the solution “cheated”. 

 

The SketchUp model can be viewed/downloaded from the 3DW,

and click on the A4 PDF solution to download/view.

 

I create my laser jobs in CorelDraw, however, for anyone interested I can make the CorelDraw CDR file available… it can be read/processed by freebie Inkscape to create SVG files to be processed by laser programs like Lightburn.

 

For any 3D printer enthusiast, I could make the STL files available on request… just tell me how you’d like them presented.

 

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. ***
 
 

If  no other time, when Christmas comes, puzzles make a great stocking stuffer... for all ages.  
Kids love ‘em and most of us are still kids.

 
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