Wooden knot 1

This is a well known 3 pieces wooden puzzle. This puzzle was published in a article by Jerry Slocum. Unfortunately this puzzle was difficult to make. Because most of the dimensions are related with material thickness and if you don’t have a thickness planer finding the right material was difficult. I decided to make a parametric design according to material thickness.

You can calculate your dimensions easily according to your material. I made mine from pine but I advise using a hard wood between 18 – 25 mm. (3/4 ” – 1″).  You can cut holes easily with a scroll saw or a hand jewelry saw. If you want you can make pieces longer or you can change their end shape. You can make rounded ends etc. This puzzle isn’t very difficult to solve but push you to think, for this reason I like this puzzle.

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Bottle safe

 

This puzzle is my craft. I made this puzzle for a Coca-Cola bottle. The bottle is the imitation of the first Coca-Cola bottle (1899) produced for 125. anniversary of the company. This puzzle is inspired from well known wine glass puzzles. The aim of this puzzle is solving the disentanglement puzzle at the left, taking the key and opening the padlock at the right. This is a very easy mechanical puzzle to solve. But I made it as a decorative coffee table puzzle for my bottle. I used two kind of wood. The base is white pine, and other parts are a kind of beech. Finally I made an oil finish.

This puzzle is different. The upper dowel is fixed and on the middle part there is a slot. For
removing the bottle you must shift the middle part, but you can’t remove it completely from the assembly. If you want make your own bottle safe puzzle I prepared a file that contains detailed instructions, dimensions, drawings photos etc. You can download or preview this free PDF file from here (1.2 MB on secure server box.com) 

The whale puzzle

This puzzle was designed by Carl Hird-Rutter and was published in the Fall 2006 issue #24 of “Scrollsaw” magazine. Normally I am not interesting with jigsaw puzzles. But this puzzle is interlocking. You must remove the eye for dismounting. I made it from 20×20 mm ready stock and it’s small as a key chain puzzle. I didn’t made the third cut shown on the puzzle plane and I made a small modification on the tail. I cut this one with a hand scroll saw.  I made this puzzle according to a free pdf file published in the web site of this magazine. But unfortunately they removed this file from their web site. If you want make your own whale puzzle you can find cutting pattern from here. For this puzzle you must use a square ready stock. You can scale and print this pattern according to your stock size. Top side of pattern show top view and first cut and bottom side of the pattern is side view and second cut. My eye piece is a thin 3 mm ready stock. You can drill eye piece and cut mouth first. Here there are some step by step instructions for making this puzzle. I didn’t made third cut for obtaining a small Jonah. This is your choice.

Wonder dog

I saw this puzle in an article by Allan Boardman. If you want make your own puzzle you can read this article and find “inch” plans of this puzzle from here. This is a simple puzzle but looks very funny. I made small changes according to my workshop capabilities and draw my own metric plans. A nice decorative object for my coffee table. 

Mario’s coin box

I like Mario game. I don’t remember now that I spend how much hour by hitting this cubes and trying to find some mushrooms or a few coin. I think this cube is a good theme for a take out the coin puzzle.

My firs design “Lost coin” isn’t a real cube. It’s a rectangular box and the slit for taking out is on a side face. I made this one in a perfect cube shape and the slit is at the top of the box. This shape is more confusing for occasional puzzle solvers. My friends try take out the coin by shaking the box in upside down position.

The internal mechanism of this puzzle is same with lost coin puzzle. I made this puzzle from plywood. Some puzzle enthusiasts can hate but plywood is a good material for box making.

If you want to see internal mechanism or make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file including dimensions, plans and all details from here. (1.2 MB on secure server box.com)

Lost coin

This is another small puzzle design from my workshop. This is a small cube. The aim of this puzzle is extricate the small coin from the horizontal slit located on the front side of the cube. This puzzle isn’t a blind maze for a coin. All external pieces of the cube are fixed. There isn’t any external moving piece or tricky button.

This is a very small cube with 50x50x62 mm ( 2 x2 x 2.5 inch) overall dimensions but inside there is a simple but tricky moving mechanism. After understanding this mechanism you can take out the coin in less than 10 second.

After the design stage, I made this puzzle in my small workshop in 6-7 hour from start to finish. This is a very easy craft project. But I found it funny. May be a gift puzzle for friends with less material and time cost or a pocket puzzle with small dimensions.

If you want to see internal mechanism or make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file including dimensions, plans and all details from here. (1.2 MB on secure server box.com)

Steam valve

I am sure you like read about this puzzle but first I like write a small explication about “Steampunk”. “Steampunk” is a new art style became popular after 1980’s. Some books define “Futurustic Victorian Style”. This art style is inspired from the books of Jules Verne and H.G.Wells. I meet first with this style by some Jules Verne movies and famous classic movie “Time machine”. Another movie “ Wild Wild West” is a very good example for this style.

In this style, art works ( drawings, stories, objects etc.) must look like made in steam age but also must look futuristic like a time machine. For this reason this style use mostly wood, brass and copper. Objects designed with this style are like movie decors. They must look realistic but technically may be impossible. With a google image search for “steampunk box”, “steampunk” etc. you can see nice art works and you can find a lot of online resources. If you like this style and read more also there are great books in online book stores.

This is my first attempt for a “Steampunk Puzzle”. This is not a puzzle box. The basic idea is from the book “ Puzzles old and new” by Hoffmann. The small coin on the photo is a pieces of this puzzle. You put this coin inside the brass pipe from the thin slot that you can see on the front side and you try take it out. The mechanism described in the book of Hoffmann is mostly a magic trick. For this reason I changed all mechanism and I designed my own mechanism. I used a brass pipe 50 mm diameter, mahogany and beech. Looks like a real valve but if you make a technical inspection there are a lot of impossible things. You can find also technical mistakes of this valve as another puzzle.

“Steampunk” is a new taste for puzzle enthusiasts. But wood, brass, copper, Victorian style are ingredients that we like. I am sure you will find or create good recipes for your taste from this kitchen. If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file from here (1.1 MB on secure server box.com) including dimensions and craft tips.

Coffee Love

I love puzzles,games, woodwork, books,cooking etc. I love also coffee. Coffee is a good companion for your other loves. You can drink a coffee when you solve a puzzle or when you read a book.

This puzzle is a tricky take apart puzzle and has some similarities with blind mazes. But blind mazes connect both end of the maze. In this puzzle you put the ball from the small hole at the top of the mug and take it out from the bottom of mug. There is a small trick and you can’t take back the ball out from the top of the mug.

This is an easy project. I finished in weekend with a 1,5 day work. This puzzle may be a good recycle project too. Inside bottom of old mugs generally cracks after long years. I use them as a flower pot for my cactuses. This puzzle may be a new use for old mugs. You can put this puzzle on your coffee table and have fun with friends. That kind of puzzles are easy to make and has low material cost. For this reason may be a good gift for your friends.  

The small difficulty of this project is drilling porcelain. With a glass drill bit (3-5 USD chip ones) and using water you can drill easily your old mugs. But be careful and wear safety goggles and gloves and read more about glass and porcelain drilling before starting.

If you like make your own puzzle , you can download from here free PDF file (1.1 MB on secure server box.com) or you can see step by step instructions from instructables.com