Puzzle Stocking Stuffers

Dan Mooney

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Location
Portland, Oregon
Back in the '70's I was looking thru a wooden puzzle book, they had a picture, (drawing actually) of a puzzle piece. They said if you make 12 identical pieces, you could put them together into a cube. Took me about 2 hours to figure out how to put it together the first time, been making them ever since. they make nice stocking stuffers. This one the pieces are ¾" square and 4½" long, but you could use any size square stock, I still have to put a finish on these.


Make 12 of these...
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To make one of these.
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Dan, thanks for the edit on the sizes, it looks like the dados would also be 3/4" if the stock is 3/4" too, right?

You realize that if I make some of these I'll most likely spend a LOT more than two hours trying to figure out how it all goes together :eek: :D

Cheers!
 
That is very cool, can you give us some more details?

Sizes would be nice, looks like a job for the Dado set :D

I hope this will make sense, I'm better at doing than explaining :D

This gives the basic dimensions, but any size can be used as long as the stock is square.
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I made a sled and set the width of the dado blade the same width as the stock.
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I use a centerline on the sled and the stock.
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Cut the center dado
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Rotate the stock 90 degrees toward you cut right dado
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Then trim the ends to the length that suites your eye.
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I made a tray to hold all the pieces together for sanding, that makes it easy to use a random orbit sander
but be gentle with the sanding, if you go too far the fit will be sloppy when you put the puzzle together.
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Thank you very much Dan, I think this thread should go into the "Tutorials" forum, this is clear and easy to understand :thumb:

I'm going to have to make some of these for sure, maybe a touch smaller than 3/4" (you must have large stockings!)

Cheers!
 
Ok Dan now that you have us making them. Do you want to give us the tricks to getting them together as I really don't have 2 hrs to muck about figuring it out as Santas work shop is backed up already before christmas and those look like great gifts for the boys.
 
Great job. I think I remember seeing that puzzle as a kid. Used to love playing with those kinds of 3d puzzles... :thumb: :thumb:
 
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