Egeskov Castle Puzzle

[chrispuzzle]

Here is my latest puzzle. This has been a minor disaster but a good learning curve! The problems all stem from using, for the first time, a 3mm light plywood of the sort used for r/c aircraft models. This cut so easily that I felt I had very little control using FD puzzle blades, and after a while I switched to a "Yellow Label" Niqua 2/0 which is much less aggressive.

The wood snapped once or twice across narrow parts when cutting - the blade lifted the wood and it tore. I had to hold it down firmly very close to the blade when drawing towards the end of a cut.

So there were a couple of tears where the underside of a piece got damaged and the original idea for the piece became two rather smaller pieces. Other than that, it's still a beautiful picture, taken from a calendar. 196 pieces, a little less than 12"x12".

Here are the figurals. The bear is in two pieces - the witch is too, but accidentally! I cut through the head of the broomstick...

Chris

 

[PowerTool]

Again,very clever work,Chris

Not surprised you cut through the broomstick,either (it's a little on the narrow side :lol: )

Andrew

 

[stevebuk]

lovely stuff chris, never seizes to amaze me your puzzles, love em.

 

[Gill]

Hi Chris

It seems to have worked out well enough from what I can see - and superglue can hide a multitude of sins !

I do like your puzzles and think you've got real talent.

Gill

 

[Anonymous]

I think half of what makes a good jigsaw puzzle is the choice of picture and you certainly choose good pictures for your puzzles Chris.
The figurals add that extra touch to make it even better.

Nice work.

 

[StevieB]

Hi Chris,

Looking good! I tend to use 6mm birch ply for the reasons you found, anything thinner has a tendancy to snap in my hands :roll: Glad its not just me - no offence!

Steve.

 

[chrispuzzle]

Alan, Gill - Thanks!

Steve: I am back to my 4mm birch ply, and I'll keep the really soft stuff for stack-cutting I reckon. Perhaps stack-cut puzzled business cards...? That's assuming I could make a small (but perfectly formed) business out of this.

Chris

 

[stevebuk]

Steve: I am back to my 4mm birch ply, and I'll keep the really soft stuff for stack-cutting I reckon. Perhaps stack-cut puzzled business cards...? That's assuming I could make a small (but perfectly formed) business out of this.

Chris

hi chris
just as an aside, what would it cost to get a jigsaw made, using someone's own jpeg pictures..

 

[chrispuzzle]

Steve -

I guess it depends on who is cutting it and how many pieces you want. Nearly all puzzle cutters charge by the piece but they often have different charges based on the type of cut and size of the piece. Carter says in the USA charges vary from $1 to $5 a piece, so figure 50p - 2.50p as an equivalent.

50p a piece at my rate of cutting would be about £30 an hour since I cut about a piece a minute but thst doesn't take account of packaging and preparation time to consider. I would add about 30 minutes for that - £15.

That would make an A4 picture of 150 pieces - nice big pieces, bigger than most cutters - come in at £90. That compares with Wentworth who do computer-guided laser cut wooden puzzles and will do a personalised one of about 140 pieces for around £20. Of course they are not hand-made and the cut is not unique.

Now I don't know much about the UK market. Maybe there's nobody who wants to pay that for a new jigsaw puzzle. But that price would be at the low end of the US market!

I'm considering, however, putting a few puzzles up on eBay with a much lower start price and seeing what they do. I'm also talking to a fantasy artist about making her paintings available as jigsaw puzzles.

Chris

 

[RobertMP]

lovely stuff chris, never seizes to amaze me your puzzles, love em.

We meet again Mr Boon

Hello Steve

 

[Carter Johnson]

Chris, please keep in mind that, if you want to make money at this, you are not making puzzles for the "UK market". The puzzle cutters I know who do well sell internationally. Mark at mgcpuzzles.com sends puzzles to the Far East, to Iceland, and everywhere in between. The secret rests with your www site and getting search engines to reference your site when searches come in that even remotely resemble "wooden jigsaw puzzles".

Have phun......Carter

 

[stevebuk]

lovely stuff chris, never seizes to amaze me your puzzles, love em.

We meet again Mr Boon

Hello Steve

hiya robert
nice to bump into you here, and what are you doing on a scrollsaw forum, i thought you would be in the lathe section.
catch you about..

 

[chrispuzzle]

Chris, please keep in mind that, if you want to make money at this, you are not making puzzles for the "UK market". The puzzle cutters I know who do well sell internationally....

Thanks, Carter. I will keep that in mind. Fortunately my partner is very good at the website end of things, so when the time comes there's help waiting. It is interesting to learn that the market is so international in nature. I would have thought American cutters were mainly occupied with American customers but obviously not.

In any event there seem to be very few people who want to cut puzzles day in day out, whether it is for money or purely for phun. I'm getting more addicted every day.

Chris