Small Jigsaw Puzzle
Cutting the Blanks
First we need to cut the puzzle blanks to size. Most of the pictures I use for the puzzles I take using a digital camera. The camera generates a 4:3 aspect ratio. Scaling up, that means a 7x5-1/4" puzzle. Ideally I should try to crop off that last 1/4" so that all the pieces are 1"x1". My cropping skills aren't that good, so I compromise and leave the top and bottom rows and extra 1/8" tall.
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I take one of my cut-down pieces of 1/8" Baltic
birch (about 2' x 5') and run it through the tablesaw with the fence set
at 7". You'll have to take my word on the cutting--it takes two
hands to hold the plywood, leaving none to hold the camera
:-). After the slices are cut, I use a sanding block to sand
them down. It's easier doing it now then after the blanks are
cut. It's probably even easier to sand it while the plywood is in
sheet form...
Unlike the boxes the direction of the grain on the plywood isn't as important. The wood may still curl a bit, but that will be taken out when you cut the pieces. I still will cut the blanks so the grain is parallel to the long edge. Having the plywood lay flat on the scrollsaw makes the cutting easier. |
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The blanks will be 5-1/4" wide. Like the wooden box, I clamp a spacer to the fence. This piece of scrap was planed down to exactly 1/2", so all I need to do is move the fence to the right that extra 1/2". To avoid kick backs, the spacer stops before the blade. It really should be further to the front than it is in this picture. |
| Placing 2 or 3 of the slices butted up against the spacer, I use the mitre gauge to cut the blanks. |
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Using the spacer allows me to rapidly cut the blanks. Since the last cut doesn't leave enough waste for the mitre gauge, I flip the pieces around and use one of the blanks as a pattern. |
| We now have a stack of blanks ready to add the picture! |
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We've got the blanks finished. On the next page we'll add pictures to the blanks.
To tulip-tree.com.
