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[brownti]

Hello everyone.  i am new to puzzle making, in fact about 5 days old.  i came across Lee Kransnow's instructable while surfing around Fine Woodworking.  I thought his crosscut sled that he created was pretty impressive and thought that that was something i would like making.  So i planned for a couple of days and spent most of the day saturday building my own.  I had intended to start with a couple of simple cube puzzles but couldnt get my my setup dead accurate (i dont know enough to know if i should worry about .003" or not...some help in that respect would be nice too).  Once i did get some sticks to where i was happy with them i had a difficult time cutting them into cubes.  i got the size correct, but when i would slide them through the blade and pull the sled back they would catch resulting in a damaged cube.  how is this corrected?  Do i need to clamp the side that buts into my stop block as well as the long stock piece?  In other words have at least two clamp downs one on each side of the blade?  My cubes are about .45", is there a clamp down head that small that would hold the cube?

I think that once i get a couple of simple cube puzzles worked out i would like to move onto something like the Cubey on Bruce Viney's website.  What i dont get about that (let me remind you again i am very new to this) is cutting such small dados and also how to cut out the center of such small pieces.  i am assuming you all have created very intricate jigs and such for these things, but i havent seen enough to have a really good feeling on any of it.  Any pointers anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks a lot guys, you all see very helpful from what i have been reading.

[Canuck]

Hi, it's definitely essential that you have the piece between the stop block and the blade clamped, even if it's a sacrificial piece to hold the block, please work safe!   Lee Krasnow's instructable is very nice but a much simpler sled can be made from Tom Lensch's book, widely available in bookstores as well as online through amazon.com...

[Kerry Verne]

That's a common (unnerving) problem we've all faced.  I'd suggest making a hinged hold-down arm that's mounted near the middle of your sled (cutoff side) or behind your back stop reaching over it.

[brownti]

Thank you for the advice, i kinda figured that was what i was going to need to do.  i only have a couple of toggle clamps laying around the shop, both of which i was using on the non stop block side of the fence.  neither of them have heads small enough that they wouldn't get hit by the blade, i guess i will have to rethink my stop blocks and make them a bit smaller so that i have clamp a sacrificial piece on the cut piece first.

Thanks for the tip on the simpler sled, although i am one of those people that likes to get the best i can to start versus starting with the easiest or cheapest and struggling my way through it.  I am pretty happy with the way my sled turned out, i am not happy about not having any real gauge blocks or parallels, the plywood route just doesn't seem to be very repeatable.  I, like most of you, have already found numerous things to change on the next one.  i initially didn't use bearings to run in the miter slots and instead used some Incra miter sliders i had laying around.  I remembered why i didn't use them for the reason i bought them, they were too difficult to fine tune to my miter slots.

Any tips on cutting dados or from the middle of small piece?  i feel as though the dados may be accomplished on the router table with an elaborate jig, but as far as the other cuts i dont know.  Any tips or pictures of your setups would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks again for any input you can give!  I hope to be able to repay you at some point.

[Kerry Verne]

B grade gage blocks are reasonably priced on Ebay, $40-60 for an 81 piece set. Decent protractors are also $30-40. I've not needed a set of parallels yet. Use-enco.com also carries decent tools such as set squares and such.

Eric taught me his method for dadoing multiple pieces and I'll try to do it justice. I've only used it to do stick-style puzzles, but it can likely be adapted.

 The basic idea is to make another small (disposable) sled that you run along the fence. It looks more like a tray than a sled. A piece of mdf on the bottom, with more pieces on the top perimeter to contain the pieces you're cutting.
Put the pieces in the middle, press down with a jointer-style push block and run it down the fence over the dado blade.

I do mine by gluing two same-sized pieces to each other with CA glue just around the outside and four passes on the saw at one thickness depth pops the center out making a nice little tray. I have to glue more pieces on to make it stonger, but it's quick and easy.  MDF does change with humidity, so don't rely on it staying true for more than a project or so.

I'll try to post a pic tonight.

*edit* - Already disposed of it.

[brownti]

after thinking about it, i supposed a scrollsaw would be the tool of choice, (rather a laser would the tool of choice, but for most of us a scrollsaw).  Anyone have ideas for someone without a scrollsaw?

[Kerry Verne]

Chisel. It's a hidden hole with straight sides.

[Scott Peterson]

Below is a photo of the jig I use for cross cutting cubes.  The view is from the front of the jig, rather than from behind it as you would see it from standing behind the saw to use it. 

I only use 2 toggle clamps, and this has worked well for me for quite a while  Note the carriage bolt - I use this for fine tuning the gage distance - and further finer tuning using feeler gages between the head of the carriage bolt and the spacer block (if needed).  I also back up the 2 faces on the stick where the saw exits the cut with UHMW PE plastic - this material works great for backing up an exit cut.

I have used a router to cut dados for burr-type puzzles.  I like the solid carbide spiral bits for this - it makes a nice smooth flat-bottomed dado and doesn't chew up figured woods.

[Eric Fuller]

Looks like you're getting a lot of good advice here.  Just stopping in to say welcome to the board and good luck!

[brownti]

Well thank you!  I am getting a lot of good advice.  i have been planning my dado jig in my head all day, and i think everyone has gotten me straightened out on the crosscut setup.  The pictures are also greatly appreciated.  One other thing i did have a question on was materials.  I have been looking at a lot of the Bruce Viney plans and he always says to use plywood.  Does it make sense to resaw larger boards and plane them down to 1/4" and 1/8"?  If so, what species works well for my first boxes?  i was thinking a very tight grained wood, but dont know for sure.

[Kerry Verne]

He probably uses plywood because it doesn't move. If you resaw hardwoods down to 1/8, (if your planer will cooperate) most flat sawn wood is going to warp.

You seem to like Viney's boxes, but there's tons of other designs out there that can be made with pure hardwoods. Check out Ishino's website: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rh5k-isn/Puzzle/index.xml

[brownti]

i have been partial to all of those puzzles because that seems to be the only place that i can find any kinda of plans.  Thank you for the website, although i dont really understand what it is all about.  It seems to not have any plans, but just pictures of a lot of different puzzles.  Am i missing something on it?

[Kerry Verne]

Unfortunately, it's refusing to load for me tonight.

Each puzzle listed should show the complete puzzle and also display a set of pieces. There aren't any plans or dimensions, as everything is listed in reference to your stock thickness.

Hopefully it will be back up tomorrow.
*edit*

I'm fairly new to the puzzle world, but I started with Altekruse and a couple of Coffin's work.

For an example off Ishino's site:

Coffin's Wookey Hole puzzle (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rh5k-isn/Puzzle/555/WookeyHole/)
Final solution looks like this:

This piece has 9 blocks and 4 copies are needed for the puzzle. (9 units x 4 copies) There are two other required piece types with 4 copies each. There are 17 ways it looks like it goes together, but only one works, and it requires twisting a piece (non-linear movement). (For a starting puzzle, this one can be made of just cubes glued together. Lots of cubes, but just cubes to cut.)

For assembly, (if you don't want to take the time and enjoy assembling the puzzle yourself) there's BurrTools, a great app developed to assemble/disassemble puzzles like these.
http://burrtools.sourceforge.net/

[Johan Heyns]

When I started way back when, I used to buy dice to glue together.  Example of a Soma Cube below.

[brownti]

alright i think i get it now.  i was looking at a lot of the put together puzzles and they show different angles on a lot of the pieces without any explanation.  i think that all the Chinese was also just intimidating me, i hadnt realized i needed to also learn Chinese to make puzzles