“Half Cubes” Packing Puzzle.

Boys and Girls,

 

When I chortled I had 55 unpublished puzzles around 10 puzzles ago, I wasn’t kidding… and I’m still making more new ones regularly, so…

 

Another packing puzzle, for which I dared to abandon my beloved exotic MDF and laser, and ventured down the path of conventional tools… though I did laser cut these sizing templates,

and laser engraved the puzzle name and logo on the base of each box.

 

The “sizing”  templates were ideal to determine the fit from the various sized “cookies”… 

acceptable for sides indicated on the template, however, this one fails for front or back,

 

Great on paper, however, I made the fatal mistake of forgetting and using the actual template to set up the mitre saw (simulated hindsight on the Hitachi saw, as I didn’t want to change the Kapex configuration),

totally ignoring my maths,

which explicitly depended on the thickness of the stock. The templates were based on a max thickness of 6mm, totally ignoring the fact that my stock was approx. 5mm… which made for a loose fit.  This looseness did not jeopardise the integrity of this puzzle as there was no internal movement/rotation, however, some might consider the generous gaps unsightly,

After the templates were used to select an appropriate sized cookie, a flat reference edge was cut,

to permit 90° cuts, the template was used again to get a better centering of the following two side cuts,

and cry over the wastage,
 

I should have used the “doco template” 

to position the stop block, but not thinking, I used the front and side templates as mentioned above. 

Normally I would laser cut a prototype to test fit, but being out of solids, and setting up the mitre saw for each side type, all cuts needed to be made before I could assemble the first box for test fit... 

otherwise I’d have to recalibrate the setup for sides' size changes.  OOPS… the fit was a tad loose but the sides had been cut so I had to accept status quo and assemble all the boxes asis.

The pieces are made up out of 24mm x 24mm x 12mm pieces, cut out of maple lengths prepared on the tablesaw,

and cut to 24mm size on the Micro-Mark,

I had some 26mm x 12mm pine lengths that I trimmed further (2mm off) on the Micro-Mark,

... all my fingers accounted for. 

Now this puzzle is not to be confused with my “SIXMETRY” Packing Puzzle,  pictured on the right,

same sized box, but the pieces of the SIXMETRY (piece up front)  

are all the same and there is a gap visible on the top layer, while this puzzle has mixed shapes.  

The beauty of these two puzzles is that they can simply be disassembled by turning the box upside down,

The pieces ware easily glued up by aligning two along a straight edge,

however, one of the pieces needed a couple of 12mm spacer(s) for alignment,

 

My normal box making procedure of sanding, using my 30mm diameter air cups,

Aqua Coat for grain filling on the bottom, laser engraved with Timbermate backfilled (white)

and final buffing was followed.

 

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.

 
Thanks for looking...

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