Jim's Woodworking Shop

Wooden Puzzle

Click on pix for a larger view

   Deborah found a wooden puzzle at a yard sale and gave it to me. At first glance, it looked like it was impossible to take it apart, however, after looking at it a while, I discovered the key piece. Each piece is a square bar of wood with a small peg on each end. The peg sticks out about 1/8" or a bit more.

  To the left is a closeup of the puzzle. If you look at the end of the top left piece, you will notice there is no peg in the end. There are 18 pieces, all identical, except for the key, which only has a peg in one end.

  To the right is a closeup showing the key being removed. I only went as far as removing one more piece. I realized, if I took it completely apart, how would I ever get it back together again. At first, I took several pictures of it, but they just didn't show enough detail. Then came an AH-HA moment,and I decided to try and make one, and keep the original for a sample.

  To the left is a closeup of the pieces. Like I said, there are 18 of them, all identical except for one. The dimensions are 2 3/8" long and 11/32 square. These sizes are critical! I spent a lot of time sanding the pieces of the first one I made to get them to fit! I The pegs are 3/16" diameter dowel rod, in 7/32" from the ends.

  To the right is a simple drawing of a piece and the dowel locations.

  Making the blanks wasn't much problem. With a narrow throat plate on the Table Saw, I set the fence to the right width, or just a shade over and very carefully cut out about 4 16" lengths. Then to cut them consistantly to length, I set a stop on the Miter Saw.
I needed a way to put the dowel holes exactly the same on each piece, so I made a small jig to use on the drill press.

So, now I have 18 pieces ready and need to figure out how to assemble them. Right!! The biggest problem was how to hold them until the assembly was far enough along so it wouldn't collapse by itself. It looked like it might be a 2 person operation.

   Then, I discovered something.

   Now, you have a choice. You can make these pieces and try on your own to get them together, or......... you can go to the Assembly page to see how it's done.