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[Eric Fuller]

Here's the place to post .pdf's, links, and tutorials on any aspect related to puzzlemaking.  Please keep the thread free of extraneous chatting so people don't have to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Eric Fuller]

http://www.cubicdissection.com/knowledge/square_sticks.pdf

[Eric Fuller]

another gem from scott:

http://www.cubicdissection.com/knowledge/Coffin_Building_Blocks.pdf

[Scott Peterson]

Below is a link to The USDA Forest Products Lab Wood Handbook - a nice resource.  I have seen this book for sale various places, but it is available for free download from the FPL website.

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm

The Handbook is geared toward engineering of light frame and timber structures, but there are some chapters that are useful information for puzzlemaking also.  Here are several of the chapters that I have found useful for puzzles & understanding the pertinent wood behavior that goes with the puzzles:

Chapter 2 -- Structure of Wood

Chapter 3 -- Physical Properties and Moisture Relations of Wood

Chapter 9 -- Adhesive Bonding of Wood Materials

Chapter 12 -- Drying and Control of Moisture Content and Dimensional Changes

Chapter 15 -- Finishing of Wood
The finishing chapter has a nice Table 15-3 which lists the "moisture excluding effectiveness" of various finishes.  Paraffin ranks the highest - which explains some of my earlier comments to some of you via e-mail.  Anyway - the table gives you some idea of what finishes slow down (more or less than others) the transfer of moisture between the environment and the wood (impossible to stop this transfer, it seems).

Lots of goodies here.  If you have Q's about terminology or anything, please let me know and I can help figure it out.

Enjoy!

[Peter Wiltshire]

My day job is as a Freelance Cinematographer.  Most of my work is in the film and television industry, and lighting is one of my strong points.  I have put together some ideas to get great puzzle photos.  I will edit this post and add photos when I get more time, but this will get you started.

To take puzzle photos that will assist in selling puzzles, you want to have soft shadow less light that will show off the puzzle and not have any dark shadows.  I find shooting puzzles on white paper a great way to get nice reflections and show off the finish.  I use one piece of paper to place the puzzle on, and a second piece of paper behind with a bit of a curve up to create a background to shoot against.

A great way to get a soft shadow less light source is by using a silk frame.  This can be made out of plastic plumbing pipe with plastic elbows to create a frame around 3.5 feet by 3.5 feet square.  The larger the frame the softer the light source.  So even if your puzzle is small you should still use a large frame.  I find 3.5 foot square to be a good size and not be too unmanageable. Over this frame you want to stretch a white material (I would recommend  purchasing some white rip stop nylon from a fabric store.  You can get fancy and sew elastic cord to the corners to attach it, or just stretch it and tape it to the frame. Next you will need to come up with a method of suspending this frame over top of the puzzle your photographing.  It could be propped up on two boxes on either side of your puzzle.  I would mount this as low as possible, but just off the top of your photo frame. You then require a light source.

I normally use a 400Watt film light projected from the top onto the frame to fill it with light (If you don't have any strong lights, you could possibly use one or two bright flood bulbs in reflectors,  they sell these at hardware stores as work lights)  The brighter the amount of light the better off you will be when shooting smaller objects, because shooting smaller objects require you to use tighter lenses to get it full frame.  This means your depth of field (amount of focus) can be quite small.  With the larger amount of light you can iris the camera down which gains you more depth of field, that way it will insure the puzzle will be in focus from the front edge to the rear edge.

*Added note.  Because on my work the lighting I use is "always on" vs a flash which is only momentarily on.  If you have a remote flash you could use that in place of my type of light.  Some experimentation maybe require to figure out how far from the frame to mount your flash.  But either way the frame will create a shadow less light whether flash lite or always on lite*

A quick word on color temperature.  The film lights I normally use have a color temperature (measured in Kelvin) around 3200 degrees Kelvin.  They are tungsten based lamps, and are warmer than daylight which would have a color temperature of around 5600 degrees Kelvin depending on how overcast the day is.  Color temperature gets bluer the higher you get, and warmer the lower you get.  A home incandescent lamp would be around 2300 degrees Kelvin.  For puzzle photos it really doesn't matter about the color temperature, most cameras have an auto white balance feature which will correct the color temperature.  The only thing you don't want to do is mix color temperatures, i.e. the cameras flash (5600k) and an incandescent bulb (2300k), in this case I would recommend shutting off the camera's flash.  If your main source of light is 3200 degrees kelvin even a window in the room can put a blue reflection in the puzzle if its not closed. If all else fails there's always Photoshop that is great tool for helping color correction.

Well I hope some of this information is helpful.  I will add photos to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.  I will update this post as I have time.  If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to send me a personal message.

[Peter Wiltshire]

Bruce Viney has a great web site dedicated to his home made puzzle boxes.  He is a great guy to chat with, and his web site has plans in pdf form for many of his original puzzle boxes.  I would love to try one of his designs down the road.  Here is a link http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/plans.html

[Eric Fuller]

Another great .pdf from Scott:

http://www.cubicdissection.com/knowledge/rp_from_square_stick.pdf

[N. MCA.]

These are fantastic for someone who makes puzzles as a (rather minor) hobby (like me), but I was wondering if there was any documentation on the methods, other than Bruce Viney's, of making puzzle boxes? Is it all done on jigs on a table saw like standard puzzles or is there a different technique?

Thanks in advance,
N.

[Canuck]

Most examples of our jigs are scattered throughout the forum, if you have a specific question, go ahead and post and hopefully someone will be able to give details of their methods, hope that helps