Puzzle puzzle

[johnbs]

Many years ago we bought a rather lovely wooden puzzle from a craft fair. It was a gift for the in-laws, and one piece is now missing. I don't currently own a scroll saw.
The pieces are 8mm thick, the puzzle 82mm in diameter, and from what I can deduce, the kerf of the saw must have been about 0.25mm.
Two questions;
1. Does anyone recognise who mght have made this, as it has no makers mark.
2. How should I set about making a replacement part? I have some applewood which is very fine-grained and pale, but wondered if it would be possible to cut a piece with a fret-saw?

John

 

[Bungalowbill63]

it should be easy to do, lay out that section on a photocopier, take a print ,cut a test piece on ply to check the fit if it fits which it should, then cut your applewood replacement

 

[Cabinetman]

You could do it with chisels, it wouldn’t take long at all. Ian

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Many ways to do it, it just depends what tools you have.

I would remake it by hand using carving tools and saws.

CNC would be easy; the process would start the same as any other; scan/photocopy/photograph it (all with reference marks e.g. a ruler so that it can be scaled).

Even with the same species of wood, and even the same board there will be variation, you will not get it to match unless you tint it to colour match. I have only seen that done on guitars and marketry. You could deliberately make it out of a contrasting wood, as it is part of its history.

It certainly is a nice design though! If you do work out who designed it, I would be interested in buying their patterns (if they publish them).

 

[AES]

Nice looking piece, nicely made.

NO expert here, but personally I'm not sure that I'd want to attack a piece like that with chisels, not even VERY sharp one.

Without a scroll saw I think that I'd try that with a fret saw, jewellers saw, cpoing saw, something similar, but fitted with a scroll saw blade. You could either buy Pegas blades from Axminster Tools (they sell by the dozen and aren't terrribly expensive) or buy some blades from other sources such as Hegner UK, Hobbies, etc, or even your local DIY store.

If buying Pegas I'd go for their No 5 "MGT" blades for an 8 mm piece ("Modified Geometry Teeth").

There's a sticky at the top of this section with viewable/downloadable tables covering the various blade types & sizes available - mainly Pegas, but some other brands included too.

For a one-off job like this, the brand doesn't really matter, the better brands will tend to last longer though. But as a starter, you can fairly confidently prediict that you'll break a couple of blades. No big deal!

The most important thing is the blade "number" (as above, I'd suggest No. 5). It's the blade number that tells you the TPI and thickness of the blade - see tables.

HTH

 

[johnbs]

Thanks for the feedback. I've done my best using a circuar saw, pcb drill, sander and swiss file. It's very tricky given it's size and the precision of the original.

John

 

[AdrianUK]

I’d say you’ve made a good job of that.

 

[AES]

With "only" those tools, I'd agree. Well done that man!

About the only "problem" that I can see in your pic is that the gaps towards the lower & RH side of the piece are perhaps a little bigger than the gaps between the rest of the pieces - though it MAY be that the shadows in the pic make it look worse than they probably look in the actual piece.

Anyway, as said, I think you've done very well, and as many "prophets" on here have said before, if you're satisfied with the result, that's the main thing - the only thing really!

But IF you do want another go, as previously suggested, I'd suggest a fret saw frame (your local DIY place should have a perfectly adequate cheapo for a one-off job) plus some No. 5 scroll saw blades.

Well done.

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

If it wasn’t for the slight colour difference in the wood you’d be hard pushed to tell which one you made. Well done