3d wooden puzzle (novice)

My son has been getting more and more interested in wood working. He's in 9th grade and has been getting pretty good at using the scroll saw and he's finally learned to watch his finger tips on the sander :-)

He saw some of the 3D wooden puzzles and would like to attempt one. I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone beginner level free ones online?

thanks

-dave

Reply to
Dave Chamberlain
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These suggestions involve straight cuts, not curved cuts like a lot of the 3d puzzles...

Could he prototype some puzzles with legos? I think if you started experimenting, you could come up with some decent cube puzzles designed around a 3x3x3 breakup of a cube. Those would also be easiest to cut.

I guess you could actually mill some square stock and crosscut 9 small cubes off of it, and prototype with those. To make a puzzle piece, temporarily hold the small cubes together with headless brads on adjacent surfaces? Or maybe with hot glue?

Maybe even start with flat puzzles, using pieces made from squares.

I think it would be a good exercise for a teenager to design the puzzle himself anyway :)

-Mike

Dave Chamberla> My son has been getting more and more interested in wood working. He's

Reply to
Mike Reed

I don't know of any free plans but here are a few sites with lots of ideas.

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Reply to
CGroth

I have a 3x3x3 block puzzle of irregular shapes. If you like I can take some pictures of the pieces and post them in abpw. Each 1x1x1 section is an exact cube so it shouldn't be too difficult to replicate the entire puzzle from picture examples.

Reply to
Upscale

This message is for Son of Dave:

Hi, how ya doing!

This NG your dad posted at does not have a lot of Scrollers because of the general nature of this NG.

If you are enjoying the hobby of scroll sawing, why not go on over to a couple of forums just for people who like the hobby. This site is hosted by a scroll saw magazine Scroll Saw Workshop:

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site is also a good site:
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are about 5 or 6 other sites for scroll sawers where your question about 3-D puzzle for a beginner might be answered. Go ahead and visit and read some post. You might just like the company there and want to join.

BTW: I know this is not at your level yet, but someday it will be:

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Reply to
Another Phil

I use masking tape when cutting two sides of a table leg taper on the bandsaw. Works pretty well- I'd be a little worried about using brads simply because they're likely to mess up the blade if you slip. Then again, if you're cutting something like a puzzle piece on several different orientations, it might hold together on it's own, provided you don't slide them apart.

Maybe, but sometimes it's easier to use a plan or make a copy of something the first time around to figure out the things to watch for first.

My vote would be to buy one of those cheap plastic puzzles, take it apart, and copy it- then go from there with your own design. I've got one that makes an apple when assembled, and the technique looks like it would be relatively simple. Basically, you could slice a cube into several thin slices, cut those into flat-style jigsaw pieces, and then glue adjacent peices together to make many two-layered pieces (assembling the finished parts after each glue-up to make sure there is nothing in the way for the next two pieces). When all that is done, and you've got the cube back together, carve the finished block to the shape you want. The one I've got just has a little plastic dowel with a flair on each end to hold the thing together when assembled.

It's a big project, but it could be awfully interesting to do!

Reply to
Prometheus

Some years ago, I had a pile of thick ivy (4" diameter) and a friend had a new scrollsaw. So we made lots of things from the pair, including "Slide-apart ring" on this page

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same idea works for all sorts of puzzle boxes - you just saw out progressively larger "keyholes" from the piece, starting with the smallest and first to open, then turning it round 90° between them - I think one puzzle had seven parts.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Thanks for the suggestions!

The

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site looks very helpful, as do the other sites. This was allows you to design it and test it on the web.

He's been having a great time experimenting and I think that having to plan things out before jumping in is helpful to him.

Thanks again!

-davec

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Reply to
Dave Chamberlain

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