How are these 3D wooden animal puzzles cut ?

[dirk martin]

Please take a look at these pics.
At first I thought the pieces for these 3D puzzles were cut on a laser, but I don't see any burnt edges.
Can someone give me an idea as to how these are cut out?

Sure, you could do it on a scroll saw, but that would be very tedious.
Are CNC's accurate enough for delicate work like this? Maybe the small CNC's?
I need to make about 200 of them.

296267 296268

[Mike vonBuelow]

Laser beams :)

The right setting will have minimal burns - light sanding gets the rest

[dirk martin]

I don't think I've ever seen any wood cut with a laser, that doesn't have very prominent burn on the edges.
And light sanding on all those little pieces of wood?.......sorry, not an option.

[Bruce Page]

I think it was done by laser also but it could be done on a CNC router. It would be more tedious to do with the router.

[Max Neu]

You have to make 200 of them? Wow! ,I couldn't imagine making 1,my patience wouldn't hold out for something like that.

[John Lanciani]

I'm pretty sure that those are die-cut. All of the models of that type that I had as a kid were.

[Dan Hintz]

I'm pretty sure that those are die-cut.

This ^^^^^

It's fun to watch the stamping machine... for about 30 seconds, then it gets boring.

[Myk Rian]

They are cut with a press, with blades set in the correct positions. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, or cookie cutter.

[dirk martin]

Is there such thing as a small die cutting machine, or press, that can handle 1/8" thick maple?

[Myk Rian]

I've seen some pretty heavy duty press cutters in material labs that will cut through a whole lot more than that.

[Steve Peterson]

They are cut with a large hydraulic press and a die cutter. Search Google for "clicker press" and you will see many styles. They have a large metal plate that presses a die cutter through the thin soft plywood. The die cutter is probably a metal plate with sharpened fins in the shape that they want to cut. It cuts the entire sheet in one pass.

Steve

[Bill Orbine]

How about a water jet? No need to make expensive dies. No burning, either!

[Mike Circo]

From the purely mechanical standpoint, I'd vote that it was a stamping machine of some sort.

From the legal and ethical standpoint...
If you are asking this, I assume it is not your design or product. Isn't there some sort of legal/trademark/copyright issue around making 200 copies of somebody's design?
This has come up before as okay for personal use, but 200 seems above that threshold.

Not an expert in this area, and not casting stones, just wondering.

[Steve Peterson]

How about a water jet? No need to make expensive dies. No burning, either!

Similar dies for leather punching are surprisingly cheap. They are fairly low tech material. 1/2" by 1/8" metal bar stock sharpened along one edge, bent and welded to another metal plate. 6" by 6" dies would run around $80 to purchase in the US, even cheaper for the offshore factory to make their own. They are good for quite a few punches, probably on the order of 100,000 with a few sharpenings.

Steve

[dirk martin]

From the purely mechanical standpoint, I'd vote that it was a stamping machine of some sort.

From the legal and ethical standpoint...
If you are asking this, I assume it is not your design or product. Isn't there some sort of legal/trademark/copyright issue around making 200 copies of somebody's design?
This has come up before as okay for personal use, but 200 seems above that threshold.

Not an expert in this area, and not casting stones, just wondering.

Coming up with my own designs would be very little effort.