The New Square puzzle box
The weekdays have begun again today. I came to the workshop as usual in the morning and continued my work. The forecast had predicted rain for the past few days, but fortunately, the humidity hasn’t been too high and there hasn’t been any rain. So today, I decided to resume attaching the sliding key (kannuki) panels for the 4-sun 27-steps puzzle boxes, which I had paused midway through last week.
It looks like the humidity will be higher tomorrow, so I decided to work on the side with fewer gluing surfaces today. Once the sliding key panels on this 27-steps box are attached, the bottom (back) panel can no longer be removed. Therefore, it’s necessary to make the final adjustments to the movement of the back panel at this stage.
After attaching the panel, I placed the boxes back into the humidity-controlled case for storage. I plan to attach the other side panel tomorrow.
And today, I started a new project. The next work will be a square 18-steps puzzle box. This will be my first time making an 18-steps version in the square type — until now, I’ve only made 12-steps and 14-steps versions. Basically, the structure of this box is the same as the 4-sun boxes, just a different size, so I think the mechanism can be made without much difficulty.
This time, I plan to make about 30 boxes. A few of them (around seven) will use solid wood panels that I’ve already prepared, and the rest will be made with the random-grain design panels that I’ve been working on recently. I also plan to make a few limited-edition pieces (202510) using this random-grain design, and I’d like to create a slightly more complex combination of wood grains for those.
Today, I finished assembling the frame parts. I haven’t attached the internal parts yet, but if possible, I plan to start making the Aruki moving panels tomorrow.
It looks like the humidity will be higher tomorrow, so I decided to work on the side with fewer gluing surfaces today. Once the sliding key panels on this 27-steps box are attached, the bottom (back) panel can no longer be removed. Therefore, it’s necessary to make the final adjustments to the movement of the back panel at this stage.
After attaching the panel, I placed the boxes back into the humidity-controlled case for storage. I plan to attach the other side panel tomorrow.
And today, I started a new project. The next work will be a square 18-steps puzzle box. This will be my first time making an 18-steps version in the square type — until now, I’ve only made 12-steps and 14-steps versions. Basically, the structure of this box is the same as the 4-sun boxes, just a different size, so I think the mechanism can be made without much difficulty.
This time, I plan to make about 30 boxes. A few of them (around seven) will use solid wood panels that I’ve already prepared, and the rest will be made with the random-grain design panels that I’ve been working on recently. I also plan to make a few limited-edition pieces (202510) using this random-grain design, and I’d like to create a slightly more complex combination of wood grains for those.
Today, I finished assembling the frame parts. I haven’t attached the internal parts yet, but if possible, I plan to start making the Aruki moving panels tomorrow.
