Puzzle Box

[George Elston]

Well it's been a slow week, only job in house is a painted sign, so between coats, I played with these puzzle box plans. Learned a lot about how they are constructed, and am optimizing the cutting file. This one is a prototype, so I did not use good wood, and if you look close you can see some fitting problems, and some burns, but it works. Closed it's a solid block of wood. It takes 14 moves to open it, and the solution is not trivial. Had a bit of a problem when I finished it. Turns out the plans were wrong. It would not close properly, but made a few changes to the design and now it works like a charm.
Now I need to find a source of exotic woods in 1/8" or 3/16" to do some really nice ones.
I have included a picture of it open, so you can see it really is a box and not just an etched block of wood.:D

[Frank Corker]

Wow George that looks really good. 14 moves to open it.... even more intriguing

[Jerry Allen]

George, this might be of interest:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=44172

[Ray Mighells]

Lookin' good George, are the cdr file and solution forthcoming?? You're doing some really nice stuff.

[Keith Outten]

George,

Check out George Perzel's thin stock in this thread. Possibly he can help you acquire the material you need.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=68052

.

[George Elston]

Thanks for all the kind words and advice. I am really excited about building these. Frank, don't know how far you are from Washington U.K., but the fellow that designed this box lives there. Fellow by the name of Bruce Viney. You can check out his site with lots of plans at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/index.html

I was on my way home this afternoon from picking up a small job, when I passed a place that I hadn't noticed before. The sign said "Hardwoods". Anyway got to talk to the owner, they don't carry any thin stock, but do they have WOOD, everything from Purpleheart to that beautiful African wood who's sawdust is toxic (can't think of the name). He had heard of laser cutting, and was intrigued, I think he needs business cards made from some of his exotic woods, and I need his woods. There is so much work goes into one of these boxes, I would really like to hand pick the wood, and mill it down to size.

As far as the CDR files, I'm not ready to release those yet, :(and the solution, well I guess you'll just have to buy the book (or look at Bruce's site). The construction is not that complicated, but precision is critical.

Got an email from Bruce this morning, after sending him pics, he suggests I build a more complicated one next. Maybe I will.

Thanks for all the encouragement