Ladybugs

The aim of this puzzle is arranging six tiles for obtaining 7 shape pair. This puzzle is my arrangement for vintage “Matador puzzle”. You can see the original puzzle from Rob’s puzzle page. The original of this puzzle instead of shapes contains half of domino tiles. I like share here my unusual and simple method for making this puzzle. I made puzzle tiles from 3 mm plywood. Each tile is 50×50 mm. Approx. 2×2 inch. For funny looking shapes I used baby dress buttons.

This buttons are cheap and you can find a lot of different shapes. I was bought a lot of them for making game pieces and puzzles. But their back sides aren’t flat. For this reason I cut their back sides with a miniature side cutter. Unfortunately after cutting their back side, still a little plastic remains and I melt this excess plastic with a soldering iron and I obtain nice flat back shapes. Finally I glued them with hot glue to wooden tiles. I applied varnish to wooden tiles after gluing all pieces. If you want make your own puzzle, puzzle pieces are here. You will need to seven different shape.

You can make also this puzzle on cardboard or if you want make a print and play copy of this puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file (223 KB on secure server box.com) including black and white and color print and play versions of this puzzle.

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Penguin board

Another peg solitaire board. Mr. George Bell advised me this “Truncated triangle board“. Thanks again from here. When I saw this board I was think an owl shape but after drawing the board I decided for a penguin. A very small but very nice board. You can read more from George Bell’s triangular peg solitaire page and find problems for this board. Rules are same with peg solitaire but diagonal moves also allowed. You can play online from here.

This board dimensions is approximately 110×160 mm. I used 18 mm white pine. Marbles are standard 16 mm marbles. For penguin eye I used two 7 mm glass bead. I drilled marble holes with 13 mm drill. Hole depth is about 6 mm. Black lines are made by wood burning. I painted black parts with ink and I applied a very thin varnish.

If you want make your own penguin board I prepared two free PDF file. One of them include cutting, drilling and painting  template, other file is problem cards. I prepared 35 card from easy to difficult. You can preview or download them from links given below.
Template PDF for cutting, drilling, painting etc.  ( 65 KB on secure server box.com) 
Problem cards PDF ( 11.4 MB on secure server box .com)

Nine queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle was one of my old puzzles. When I shared this puzzle I saw nine queens chess puzzle on wiki page.  This was a good puzzle idea and I decided to make a nine queens puzzle. Unfortunately all the solutions that I found on the web was including empty tiles. I tried to find a solution so each tile include a queen. After a few hour my sister found a solution. As you can see from photo there are three type of piece. One piece has a queen on center square. Four piece has a queen on the corner square and four piece with a queen at the center of the edge.  The distribution of tiles looks interesting.

The aim of this puzzle is placing eight chess queens on an 9×9 chessboard so that no two queens threaten each other. For solving this problem, you must place nine wooden tiles so no two queens share the same row, column, or diagonal.For making this puzzle I used 6 mm cherry wood. I cut first a 30 mm strip and after 30×30 mm tiles. I made saw traces with a hand saw. I made spots with my wood burning tool. Tiles are two sided.

This is a very easy to make puzzle. But if you don’t have woodworking possibilities you can download or preview  print and play PDF file including solution from here. (0.4 MB on secure server box.com) You can print and play or you can glue them on thick cardboard. Another easy and durable puzzle making method is printing them on full sheet label and putting them on plastic tiles.

Eight queens puzzle

The aim of this puzzle is placing eight chess queens on an 8×8 chessboard so that no two queens threaten each other. For solving this problem, you must place four wooden tiles so no two queens share the same row, column, or diagonal. You can read more about this puzzle from here. This classical chess puzzle was produced by different companies. This is a very easy to make puzzle and fun to solve. I made this puzzle by using four 40x40x10 mm wooden tile. I made saw traces on each tile and I added spots with a wood burning tool. You can make also by drawing lines and spots with a pen. There is only one important point that the tiles are two sided.

This is a very easy to make puzzle. But if you don’t have woodworking possibilities you can download or preview  print and play PDF file including solution from here. (0.4 MB on secure server box.com) You can print and play or you can glue them on thick cardboard. Another easy and durable puzzle making method is printing them on full sheet label and putting them on plastic tiles.

Dragon puzzle box

After long time finally I made another puzzle box. Some time ago I watched a video about an antique Chinese puzzle box. There is a sweet competition between China and Japan. I like this. Chinese has tangram and Japans has Japanese tangram. Japans has Japanese puzzle boxes and Chinese has Chinese puzzle box. The mechanism of this Chinese box was very nice and I decided to make one. I made some changes and the result is this box. The name of this box is dragon box. I am planing to make a dragon ornament to side panels in next days with wood burning. Here my video about this box.

For making this box I used cherry and mahogany. Additionally some small padauk scraps from my workshop. This puzzle box is a complex box project (at least for me) and require a lot of drawing and explications. If you want make your own “Dragon puzzle box” you can download or preview free PDF file including photos , explications, plans , drawings etc from here (2.3 MB on secure server box.com) 

African ball puzzle

African ball puzzle is a classical string puzzle. This puzzle has different names. African string puzzle or African ball and string puzzle names also used for this puzzle. There are different explications about the origin of the name of this puzzle. I found a nice article about this puzzle by Yutaka Nishiyama.  You can read full article from here.

The aim of this puzzle is taking four ball to the same side of the loop. This puzzle has also different variations. The fifth ball in the middle of the rope is optional. You can use also one ball on each side of the rope instead of two. Here another version of this puzzle that I made long time ago.

For this version the aim is taking the ring to the other side of the loop. If you decide to make this version I advise making two ball (balls at the end of the sticks) in different color. Because when you start to solve you can confuse starting and ending sides of the loop. “Sleeper stopper” is also a vertical arrangement of this puzzle. This is a very easy to make puzzle. You can find easily some beads and you can make this in a few hour. You can download PDF solution from here. Or you can watch this video for solution.

Ariel puzzle

Another old puzzle from Victorian era. This puzzle was in my “do it list”. Finally I made this puzzle according the drawing from the book “Puzzles old and new” by professor Hoffmann. A nice but forgotten puzzle. You can see an original antique example from here.  The aim of this puzzle is to free the red rope and big bead from the system. If you are good about solving string puzzles, this puzzle may be easy for you. But for a lot of people may be very confusing.

I made some small changes for making this puzzle easily in my workshop. I made the base of the puzzle from olive tree and other parts are from beech. You can make this puzzle with a few hand tools. You can find beads from craft stores. Sometimes I visit craft stores and buy beads, wooden rings, metal rings etc. This small things are very useful for puzzle craft. In my workshop I have a big box of beads, rings etc. The big yellow bead is an imitation amber bead from India. This is only for fixing ends of red rope. You can find some thing decorative or you can make a small decorative object from wood. If you want make your own Ariel puzzle you can preview or download my free PDF file including drawings, cutting templates and solution from here (1.6 MB on secure server box.com)

Architect’s dilemma

A crazy businessman find ten billionaire and prepare with them a dream office plan for each one. And this businessman comes to the architect and want them to build a tower according to this ten plan. Architect make a model for each dream office and try to put them in his tower. This is my funny story for this puzzle.

The aim of this puzzle is to place ten piece inside the frame. For this puzzle I am inspired from “Campanile” of Naefspiele.  I made my own design. My design is different then campanile. Pieces are different and in my design the center of the frame is empty. According to my computer analysis campanile has 256 solution and this puzzle has 56 solution.

For making this puzzle I used 20x20x20 mm ready beech stocks and my hand miter saw as usual. I painted frame with colored varnish for a better appearance. If you have possibilities you can use different woods for frame and puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces are here,

The only part difficult to make of this puzzle is the frame. I prepared a document for making your own puzzle with craft tips. If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download my free PDF file including craft tips and solution from here (0.6 MB on secure server box.com)

Japanese puzzle box

This is my small Japanese puzzle box. A lot of people look for Japanese puzzle box plans with detailed instructions. Unfortunately Japanese puzzle boxes aren’t beginner projects. All of them are difficult to make because they require a precise work and they have a lot of parts. This box is one of the most simple Japanese puzzle box. For this reason I decided to prepare a document with plans and instructions.

This puzzle box has four removable sliding panel and a box frame. Box frame contains box compartment and top, bottom pieces. You can open or close the box by moving each panel one by one in turn. According to computer analysis this box opens with 10 -12 move but after 8 move this box became open. I prepared my document for a 12Tx12Tx12T box. All dimensions are according to material thickness. If you use a 5 mm thick wood you will obtain a 60x60x60 mm box. If you want you can change dimensions of this box and make some rectangular box for dimensions that you wish. If you want make your own puzzle box you can preview or download free PDF file with plans and instructions from here (1,2 MB on box.com secure server)

The box mechanic is same with the “Modified Matchbox” design of Bruce Viney. You can visit his website. You can see his art works and find some useful information about making puzzle boxes. You can download some free plans for beginners, or if you have experience about making puzzle boxes you can buy more complex box plans for very low prices.. You can read also experiences of Brian Pletcher about making his first puzzle box.

After making a cube puzzle box, you can make anything that you wish . I made my old movie camera puzzle box with this cube. A cube with clock , thermometer and barometer, cute robots, an old TV or radio are some ideas.

After sharing this puzzle box project in this blog, a puzzle friend Mr. Peter Stranks send me a spread sheet for calculating box dimensions as you wish. You enter wood thickness and additional dimension that you wish to add to 12T and you obtain easily all dimensions. Thanks from here to Mr.Stranks for this spreadsheet and for sharing this with us. If you want you can download this spreadsheet from here and you can make easily your custom dimension boxes. (12.5 KB on secure server box.com)

Three disk puzzle

A simple but nice puzzle. I made this puzzle according to an old patent. This puzzle was designed by A.H.Wheeler in 1910. You can see original puzzle patent US0968218 from here. I made some versions with different art works made by my sister. The aim of this puzzle matching each body with a head. Discs are two sided. I prepared a print and play version of this puzzle with a different art work. If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF print and play file from here. (0.6 MB on secure server box.com)