30 minute puzzle

Very cool—I think I will definitely be building one (if not more) of these … but I have to ask a very simple question … you build and finish the cubes first and then glue long-grain to long-grain, correct? I’m not sure why but at the moment I’m having a moment very similar to the one the ape men had when they found the obelisk in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

Given that you can bet I’ll need the solution!

-- Dan M, SW Suburbs, Chicago IL

Great puzzle. I may build some. One question. How did you edge the cubes? Once you cut them down to individual cubes they are going to have at least 2-4 edges that you couldn’t edge before you cut them. Did you do it on a router table? If so, what did you use to hold the cubes as you ran them across the table?

-- Garyb6, “True simplicity does not reveal the tremendous effort it requires.” - Somerset Maugham

Fun project. Thanks for sharing.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Good project!

-- John

Nice project to drive me closer to the edge. I understand I’m very near it now.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Great work!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

i’m glad you guys like this so much. i guess i should have posted some of the production methods along with the pictures. i started with a 3/4” thick board about a couple feet long. i then cut it on the table saw into 3/4” x 3/4” x 2’ strips. just a little tip: put the board on edge against your saw blade, then set the fence up against the other side of the board. this will set your cut to the exact same thickness as the board’s thickness. i then cut the strips into 3/4” cubes on the miter saw. again, i placed the board against the blade. i then clamped down a stop block against the other side of the board. you’ll need a minimum of 27 cubes. however, i recommend making a few extra in case you ruin a few with the router or in glue up. to add the chamfer on the edges, i used a router table. since the cubes were small, i didn’t want problems with the gap between the bit and fence. to take care of that, i clamped scrap pieces of 1/4” plywood over the router table top and fence, and then with the router running, raised the bit up into the plywood so that just a small portion of the bit was exposed to cut the chamfer. after the cubes were all cut (and finished if you choose to do so), i just superglued them into the neccesary shapes. given shapes of the pieces, you can’t always have an end-grain to to end-grain glue up. it’s not really neccesary though, after they set up, i tested them and couldn’t break them apart by hand.

I have always loved wood puzzles. This looks like fun.

-- (You just have to please the man in the Mirror) Mike from Michigan -

Very cool… I like this idea a lot. I’ll be trying it in the future…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17) †

Did you cut these as individual blocks, then glue them up?

yeah, i cut the blocks individually then glued them together. i cut up a bunch of blocks and made 14 puzzles all at once.