3 dimensional puzzles

[Lloyd James]

Hi, I am relatively new here and do most of my woodworking in the snow these days, Jackson, Wis.:cool: I would like to know if anyone has ever attempted to do a 3 dimensional puzzle. I would like to make one that is not extreamly difficult, but is at least 5 parts. How did your puzzle come out and did you have any troubles. I am not interested in the scroll type of puzzles, since I don't own one, but I have a 14" delta band saw.

Do any of you know where some good plans of puzzle boxes or 3d puzz's are? Thanks for what ever you post here. LLoyd the Snowman

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have searched online for information about Puzzle boxes especially the Chinese type and found nothing of any merit. I rather suspect you will be best served purchasing a few books on the subject - assuming you can fine some.
I'd start with Taunton.

[Jeff Bratt]

If by 3-dimensional you mean burrs or polyhedral dissections, then a very comprehensive on-line publication - include a chapter on woodwork techniques for making them - is here (http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/default.htm).

[Alan Schwabacher]

I made some a few years ago using a 1/8" blade in a bandsaw. All I did was to take a block of wood about 2 or 3" in each dimension, and draw a picture on 3 sides. Simple things like a fish, a tree, a rabbit, or just a squiggle worked best for me. I cut each one out, taped it back together, turned to the next side, and repeated the process for each figure. They are so quick to make that it's probably easier to just make a few to see what works well than to try to find whatever it was that describes how to make them in more detail. I think the trick is to make sure you don't have any pieces that are too small. I don't have any pictures, and gave them all away to small nieces and nephews when I made them.

[Brian Kerley]

Bruce Viney has some plans for the "Japanese" puzzle boxes, as well as some others. He offers plans for free, as well as the solutions, and he keeps coming up with new ones, so there is quite a range of things you can try your hand at. I'm making one of the Japanese style boxes and all I can say is that you need to take your time, measure, cut, sand, fit, sand, fit, sand, fit until things fit loosely enough to move, but not so loosely as to be sloppy. In addition, when you glue things up, you have to make sure things are almost perfectly aligned. I can also almost guarantee that you will need to bust out some chisels to pare things slightly, but it's a lot of fun seeing it come together.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/index.html

[Don Orr]

http://content.jettools.com/content/jet50/wood/freebies/jet50_holidayknotplan.pdf

From the Jet Tools website.

[Eric DeSilva]

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but I thought the tutorial here was very interesting:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Precision-Puzzlemaking-Primer----Volume-1/

[Steve Mellott]

There is a book entitled "Crafting Wood Logic Puzzles" by Charlie Self with Tom Lensch. I've made several puzzles in this book - they range from fairly simple to fairly complex. I also occasionally receive 2 catalogs ("The Paragon" and "Bits and Pieces") that oftentimes include completed 3D wooden puzzles. They don't sell the plans - just the completed puzzles. You may also want to try this websiate - http://www.johnrausch.com/

Steve

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

And to think I only paid $6.00

Six Bucks and all this wealth of knowledge available here just for the asking. The mind boggles.

[Tim Phoenix]

John Rauch's site (http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/default.htm) is mostly about interlocking polyhedral puzzles (great online resource with links to other sites)

Also check out Lee Krasnow's detailed jig making instructions here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Precision-Puzzlemaking-Primer----Volume-1/. He is one of the very best in the world with advanced methods of producing the most accurate puzzles.

You will also find a bunch of cool japanese style puzzle boxes (the trick is to open them) on this site: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/gallery%20page%201.html (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/gallery%20page%201.html)
Click on the puzzle picture and then click on "Plans"

Stewart Coffin's books are great. Some excellent woodworking tips in his book "Puzzle Craft": http://www.g4g4.com/pc/pc92.pdf
as well as his Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections (http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/contents.htm).

[Myk Rian]

You want puzzles? How about puzzle boxes?
http://www.homemadepuzzles.co.uk/

[Dan Cameron]

Try "puzzle projects for woodworkers" by Allan J. Boardman