Puzzles

Early this year, I decided to make a bunch of puzzles.  I had a lot of ¼” and 1/8” ply wood so the plan was to put them on boards.  I painted 5/8” thick poplar on one side with the primary and secondary colors.  On the other side I painted them black.  Anyone that has done a wood puzzle knows that it is a pain because there is no real indication which side is the top.  Then I adhered all the patterns to the colored board.  I cut them all apart making sure that I need not cut on the lines.  I needed to tape them on to the ¼” plywood to cut out the negative space. Once the negative space was cut out I took a piece of 1/8” ply and painted the puzzle color on that and then glued the ¼ and 1/8” pieces together.  In the end I had a puzzle that had a place on board with its matching color.

The main lesson that I learned is never trust only double sided tape.  Sometime it moves and my double sided tape left a residue.  I fixed that by putting painter’s tape where I taped it.  I also taped around the part to make sur  Over all I did not screw up on too many.  I think I did around 90 puzzles on 34 boards. 

e it did not move.

Custom Puzzles

I was asked to do a couple of custom puzzles for some people.  It has been a fun little challenge to take either line art from a stock image or an actual picture and make it into a puzzle.  The baseball player came from line art.  The player itself stands about 12" tall.  I was originally just going to cut out the shapes but they did not look right.  Making them into puzzles slowed me to add the detail of fingers and pants.  It was a good challenge and one that I look forward to doing more of.

The dog is came from a picture sent to me by a friend.  From the picture the puzzle was made.  I think it is a nice way to remember a pet.  I am pretty sure that I can make a puzzle out of any side profile of an animal.  Faces would probably be a little more challenging.

More Puzzles

It may seem like I have only been doing puzzles for a while.  The truth is that they are things that I can work on in the evening after work.  The other reason is that I have a couple of spray cans of finish that I need to use before they go bad.  I have another big finishing day coming up but I am not sure when.  In the mean time I make puzzles.  The unicorn is from a book.  I just liked it, so it now sits in my office at work.

The two dogs (dachshund and corgi) are custom puzzles.  I took line art from the web and made them into a puzzle.  The neat thing about this is that I can make custom puzzles of items.  It is always fun to try new things.

Teacher Gift

 It is the time of year that we thank the teacher that put up, challenged, disciplined, and help teach our kids.  This year we planned a little bit earlier than previous years.  I found this in one of the puzzle books.  It came with 18 pieces and it was easy to modify to 14 so it was one per kid in class.  Each member of the class wrote their names on one side and drew a picture on the other.  My son's teacher didn't know what was going on even though she did a piece.  It was a nice little project glad we did it.

We did find out before finishing colored pencil does not run but marker (all including sharpie) ran when the finish was applied.  So the names got a several light coats.  In the future I would use a water based finish but still use colored pencils for the drawings

More Puzzles

A borrowed a book of puzzles from the local chapter of the scroll saw association.  There are still a couple more that I need to do that I picked out.  These are the ones that I have completed.  I have been doing a lot of puzzles lately.  I have forgotten that they take a little more care in the set up than the toys that I have been making.  When I first started, I did not set my table to my blade.  I don't usually move it out of square but for some reason it was about a degree off.  It took me an entire puzzle to get the blade right.  I was using the trick I learned but did it backwards.  There could be many reasons for this, one I am dyslexic so backwards comes naturally or I am left handed.

The phoenix made in cherry and poplar

Happy dragon made in purple heart

Hippogriff  made in maple

Griffon made in maple

Dragon made in cherry

A Little Personal Touch

I never did post this project.  I do not know why but I just never took pictures of it, probably because it is so simple.  A few months back I made a "giant" Jenga set.  It can be called several different things but it is a bunch of blocks that are stacked on top of each other.  This set currently sit in my office and every once in a while blocks mysteriously move.  My set is made out of 6/4 lumber (1 1/4" thick).  It stands a little less than 2 feet tall.  The set is slightly shorter than the 2X4 versions that are popping up on the web.  These literally are 2X4's cut and sanded with all the imperfections included.  I made mine out of poplar.  This really isn't the purpose of this post but it is useless information about a very simple game to duplicate.
I am learning that there is a draw to the hand crafted or antique piece.  It may not be the aesthetic or quality of the piece.  The main draw for me is the story behind the piece.  That is becoming more and more interesting to me.  So back to the Jenga set in my office.  A coworker wanted to have me make one for their son in college.  Not a problem.  The blocks were easy to make.  It took a little bit to finish them because I sealed and oiled them.  I wanted to do something thing more than just had over a box of blocks so I made a box, a cardboard box.  It wasn't much but it was a little bit about the presentation and a little more about making something a little more special.  Most of my things have a story behind them.  There might be a skill I learned or a a change in a common design.  I am beginning to understand why it is important to write the story. 
This coworker was the person who introduced me to the sand paper vendor that I currently use.  It is a poor correlation but I obviously used this sandpaper on this project.  Honestly, this sandpaper (Uneeda) is far superior to the other stuff that I have used.

New puzzles and a new year

I finished a couple of new puzzles.The first is a motorcycle.  I realized is it is very hard to cut straight lines and oak is not my favorite to scroll saw with.  The blade is thin and oak does not have a very consistent density so the blade likes to bend.  This makes it so the puzzle does not come apart.  The first was in oak and it failed so this one is out of alder.

The second is a star that will never come apart because it will be a pain to put back together.  Each point is almost cut the same.  I had a hard time putting it together when I was cutting out each piece.

The last is a puzzle I made for my wife for Christmas.  Yes, she like pigs and I found the pattern off of the Internet.

This past year is one where I never had enough time.  I didn't get some of the things I wanted done and several unfinished projects still sit on the shelf.  However I never have enough time and there are always new projects that keep coming up.  I am satisfied with the things I was able to accomplish.  I have a couple of furniture pieces I love. My kids have not destroyed the bed yet, and they have tried.  I still have two may poles that I wanted to finish along with a couple of trucks and planes.  I love the construction equipment that I have made so far.  I just wish the kids were old enough so I do not have to worry about them destroying it when they play with it.

This year was a lot about puzzles.  I will be focusing on toys again in the future will a little bit of a twist.  I am looking to buy a lathe, not sure where I am going to put it.  So what does than mean, I am not going to be giving away as many toys this year and my prices will start to reflect labor.  I am thinking I will try the craft show route this year.  This should be a good year and at least I will learn a little about being in business.  If you would like to just donate to my lathe fund, check or cash is fine.

The Gerbil

This will be the first puzzle that I created.  I stole the basic design from a picture on the web and then put the letters in.  If you would like to take the design, please do.  Copy the picture and print it out.  Trace the lines with a black pen and enlarge or reduce to the size you want.  This one is about 7" long. 

Spooky Old Tree

If you are wondering where this title came from, it is the title of one of the short stories of the Berenstain Bears.  My oldest has the story almost memorized or he can read.  So this puzzle was cut.  It is another pattern, but I can honestly say my scroll saw work has become a lot better.  It is out of walnut.  I cut the pieces out of a number 2 blade which is the smallest blade that I own.  There is no binding in the pieces and I am happy with it.

The next puzzle was something that I wanted to make out of poplar.  It was easy and shows the thickness of 5/4 material.  It goes in my board library at work.

I have another bucket of blocks to give away.  So this is how it is going to work.  I am taking nominations on who to give them to.  You cannot nominate yourself or a member of your immediate family.  You can email me or put the name in the comments a long with why they should receive the blocks.  In two weeks I will create a poll on this blog and viewers will be able to vote on the nominees for one week. The person who nominated the winner is responsible for shipping.

Please remember these blocks are from scrap lumber.  They have a coat of mineral oil.  If they are thrown they can do some serious damage.

More puzzles

 I have completed some more puzzles.  The first has been done fora while but needed to be sanded. This is is the dinosaur one. It is very similar to the barn and safari puzzles done earlier.  This is also a Wood Magazine plan.

This is the complete set.

The brontosaurus and the two trees

This is the Triceratops and one with the fin like back

 Then the background

These are from the puzzle book I received this year.  I am having a lot of fun with them and I can do these at my house because the tooling is there.

Yes it does say "MOOSE"  It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Big dinosaur and little dinosaur

An elephant. not particularly interesting but it is made out of aspen

This next one is the alphabet snake.  The hardest part of making this was finding a piece of wood that was wide enough.  It was an easy cut out. The instructions said to paint the pieces several colors.  I was told not to by my significant other.  I had a problem getting enough ink on the stamps for the first part of the upper case letters.  Other than that it turned out nice.

The reason I decided  to do stamps was because they were clean and I can use them again.  The book suggested stencils but I have not had good results using them.

The nice thing that these puzzles are teaching me is:

• I can not rush them.  Too  much pressure or faster blade speed tend to break blades and burn wood
• There are major differences in the size of blades.  A lower number blade in the puzzle makes for tighter fitting pieces but it takes longer.  While the outside of the puzzle can be done with a higher number blade with out sacrificing the detail
• I have to push the wood straight into the blade.  When doing curves and tight radii it is very easy to push from an angle.  This causes the blade to bend just slightly.  Even though it is slight it causes the pieces to come apart in only one direction.  I have to be more aware of how I am pushing the piece into the blade. 

As a side note I am working on a wood library for work.  They do not realize it but I feel it is going to be useful as we start talking about substitute wood species for oak and maple.  I am doing this through puzzles.

Completing a few long time projects

This past week I was able to complete a couple of projects and a puzzle.  Remember the Alien Nativity?  Here is the stable that goes with it.

 The pieces were cut a forever ago and then put together last year and finally finished and hinges added this week.  It was not hard but it was a lot of parts that are just glued together.  Then to add to the problems, the parts are only 3/8" thick.  The screws are for 1/2" material.  Yes, they went through.  I backed them off so they don't show as much.  It will be interesting where we put it up this year for the holidays.  (It will probably left up year round.) It is a decent size Nativity.

Here is another installment of the the construction set through Wood Magazine.  Now I am only two trucks and a skip loader behind. The other parts can be found under the trucks label.  I did finally finish the bulldozer.  It was complete just needed to be finished in the last post on it.

This is not my favorite in the series.  I really like the movable parts on this series but I do need to get some Loctite Red to weld the nuts on the threaded rod.  Kids have pulled off a couple of them.  The blade rotates and moves up and down.  If I make another one I will probably make the back wheels bigger.  I think that is my problem with this grader.

Last of all is the shark puzzle. It came out of my last scrap of yellow heart.  Thank goodness.  I hate the stuff.  It is too hard for me to work with.  I burned three scroll saw blades with it and it still came out with all the inside edges burned.  The puzzle also does not work well because the blade curved inside the wood while cutting.  It is done.  I wanted to use the yellow heart for something and now it is gone.

Motivation

Motivation has been on my mind for some time.  I have needed to find out for some time what motivates me.  Recently my company held a weight loss challenge.  It was a biggest loser style competition and this was the second that they held.  I did not participate in the first one due to project load, stress and a general lack of interest.  So what convinced me to participate in this one?  The simple answer money. There was a $100 gift card to the winner.  The last winner lost about 12% of his body weight.  I figured I would have to lose around 25lbs match the percentage. I figured $100 dollars was worth the effort.  So I signed up and was ready to go.  My first weigh in was a 201 lbs.  I never wanted to be over 200 lbs but there I was.  So the competition started.  My wife and I planned the meals a little better, cut out snacks and I started running again.  It also helped that the mud run was in the middle of all this.  It was a good motivating factor to start running again.
Long story short, I won.  I am the biggest loser at work.  Yes there are a lot of things you can comment on in that sentence. I choose a $100 gift card to Wal-mart.  I think they allow you to buy other gift cards with them.  I was going to purchase Visa and by wood.  They gave me a Target gift card and Target does not allow you to do that type of thing.  So we bought things we needed for the house and clothes for the boys.   But I did get this nice little plaque:

So now what?  I ended up losing about 28 lbs.  My pants don't fit and I have the need to continue being healthy.  I have found out a few things about me that I have forgotten.  I have more energy and I feel lighter.  After completing something like this I find the question is "Now what?"  Does it end?  Many times it does.  What is the motivation to keep going?  With the weight loss I like how I feel and that I can now run two laps around our table chasing our sons before getting tired.  I can fit in some clothes that I have had for a couple of years hoping that I would fit in them again.
What motivates me to to continue at work, continue at woodworking, self improvement, religion, being a friend.  These are just a couple of things that I have been thinking about.  The motivation is different in the different areas however there has to be something driving one to do things.  I have also thought about is there better types of motivation.  I would have to think yes.  I could have lost weight to be healthier but my initial drive was the money.  It has been interesting to reflect on the motivations in my life.

Yes that was a little to abstract, not about woodworking but I needed to get it out.  I have been working a lot with some puzzles.  Here is my latest one.  It is a unicorn on hard maple.  It turned out nice.  I am getting better at the scroll saw.  My wife said it looks mean, so it is at work.

 On a side note, I just purchased a mattress for the bed and found out it is the same size as the other one.  The internet lies, but the bed still looks great.  My son loves it.

The Barn

Here was last scroll saw project for last year.  I finally finished it.  It is barn with a few animals.

Cow, pig and goat

Horse and sheep

Tractor and cart

I thought I was done with these and Wood Magazine had a dinosaur puzzle in their latest issue.  My discovery on this one was that sanding off the paper pattern will gum up the sand paper.  The patterns are adhered to the wood with spray adhesive.  The spray adhesive attaches to the sand paper and ruins it.

One scroll saw project

I had two major scroll saw projects I wanted to do last year .  Both of them are puzzles because I thought this was the best way to learn how to use a scroll saw.  One is finally complete, minus the base.  This one is the safari.  The pattern came out of the Wood Magazine.  A while back I purchased some board feet of exotic wood.  It was for these two scroll saw projects.  Here are the pictures.

Zebra and giraffe

Tree and rhino

Lion and elephant

There were some things I learned from this experience.  All I could do is learn because I am new with this tool.  There are several different saw blades for the scroll saw and I used what was the standard blade #5.  after cutting most of the parts out I finally read the instructions and it said to use a #2 blade which is much thinner. I broke several of these blades and went back to a #5. 
Making the two different woods fit together (the trees and mountains), they are  first double sided taped together and cut out together.  Two things can happen with this method:  First the tape does not hold and parts shift during cutting. The second is that the wood can be forced so hard into the blade that bends inside the wood and the parts do fit together.  I had both happen.
The nice thing about a puzzle is that it was had to screw up but I managed to do this several times.
They came together well, just took longer than I expected.  I think I could complete one in a day but it does take a lot of focus. The scroll saw was also time filler projects. I would work on them an hour here and there to work on these projects. 

On a side note, I mentioned I would like to share the wooden toy I have made with out giving them away.  My wife and I have talked about opening our house up every fifth Saturday for kids to come and play with the toys at our house.  We are going to try for January 29th from 11:00-1:00.  We have a 6 kid limit and we will provide lunch - pizza.  We will not provide transportation.  Please e-mail me your child's name and they will be put in a hat for a drawing.  Drawing will be held on Saturday January 22.  Think of it as free baby sitting.

This fish does not get water

I spent four weeks on a few complex projects and post a picture of a fish that took me a couple of hours to make two of them and everyone comments on the fish. I am finishing this fish tale on this post. The plans wanted me to use a aniline die. at $7 an ounce, I don't think so (There are nine colors). I read in one of the books that food coloring is a good way to stain wood. So that is what I used. Well water makes wood swell and these were tight fitting pieces anyways. The good thing is that the fish is now colored and I only colored one of the fishes. The bad new is if the fish gets wet the colors will run. This is not a good puzzle for kids that put everything in their mouths. It would be like sucking on a permanent marker. I need to clear coat it still and with the weather I don't know when I can do that. Not bad for a weekend project that was purely experimental.