2-sun Cube Aruki Thickness
The forecast said it would get a little cooler starting today, but that didn’t happen at all. Instead, the temperature went up even more and reached 31°C today. The humidity was also very high, so it felt a bit dangerously hot. Even so, I had lunch plans that I had promised to keep, so I went out for about two hours around noon.
So before going out, I spent the morning working on the 2-sun cube puzzle boxes. Today I made the Aruki panels and the top and bottom panels, and by the evening I had already glued those panels on. The 2-sun cube boxes are coming along nicely now. As for the 5-sun drawer puzzle boxes, I finished the base coating, moved the mechanism once to prevent the paint from sticking, and then put them back into the case. I’m planning to move on to the final coating while watching how the progress goes with my other work.
The photos show the Aruki panels for the 2-sun cube puzzle boxes, and you can also see the top and bottom panels in the background. The panel I am holding is the Aruki panel where the sliding key panel will later be attached. The cut section will be filled with a small wooden piece at the end, shaped carefully, and then the sliding key panel will be glued on top of it. This Aruki panel had a small problem in the past. Because the 2-sun cube boxes are quite narrow, making this kind of cut leaves only a small amount of wood on the side of the panel. In the photo, you can probably see that the remaining part beside the cut is actually shorter than the cut itself. In the past, this remaining section sometimes cracked. Since it is so short, it makes sense that the strength there is weaker. To make it stronger, the only options would be to change the inside mechanism size or make the whole box larger. But because of the fixed 2-sun cube size, neither of those is possible, so the only thing I could do was make the panel thicker. Over time, I slowly increased the thickness little by little. Last year I made them 5 mm thick, but I still had one case where a panel cracked. Maybe too much force was applied. So this time I decided to make the panels 5.5 mm thick. Today I pressed on that section with quite a lot of force, and it already felt much stronger, so I believe cracking should no longer happen. It would still be possible to make the panels even thicker, but visually it would not look very good. If I made them 6 mm thick, they would become the same thickness as the 4-sun boxes. So I hope this will become the final version of the panel thickness.
Besides that, this evening I also worked on making the side panels and the axis panels for the 4-sun 21-steps puzzle boxes. It looks like it will rain tomorrow, and by the evening today it had already become much cooler. Well, I guess the daytime was just way too hot lol...😅
So before going out, I spent the morning working on the 2-sun cube puzzle boxes. Today I made the Aruki panels and the top and bottom panels, and by the evening I had already glued those panels on. The 2-sun cube boxes are coming along nicely now. As for the 5-sun drawer puzzle boxes, I finished the base coating, moved the mechanism once to prevent the paint from sticking, and then put them back into the case. I’m planning to move on to the final coating while watching how the progress goes with my other work.
The photos show the Aruki panels for the 2-sun cube puzzle boxes, and you can also see the top and bottom panels in the background. The panel I am holding is the Aruki panel where the sliding key panel will later be attached. The cut section will be filled with a small wooden piece at the end, shaped carefully, and then the sliding key panel will be glued on top of it. This Aruki panel had a small problem in the past. Because the 2-sun cube boxes are quite narrow, making this kind of cut leaves only a small amount of wood on the side of the panel. In the photo, you can probably see that the remaining part beside the cut is actually shorter than the cut itself. In the past, this remaining section sometimes cracked. Since it is so short, it makes sense that the strength there is weaker. To make it stronger, the only options would be to change the inside mechanism size or make the whole box larger. But because of the fixed 2-sun cube size, neither of those is possible, so the only thing I could do was make the panel thicker. Over time, I slowly increased the thickness little by little. Last year I made them 5 mm thick, but I still had one case where a panel cracked. Maybe too much force was applied. So this time I decided to make the panels 5.5 mm thick. Today I pressed on that section with quite a lot of force, and it already felt much stronger, so I believe cracking should no longer happen. It would still be possible to make the panels even thicker, but visually it would not look very good. If I made them 6 mm thick, they would become the same thickness as the 4-sun boxes. So I hope this will become the final version of the panel thickness.
Besides that, this evening I also worked on making the side panels and the axis panels for the 4-sun 21-steps puzzle boxes. It looks like it will rain tomorrow, and by the evening today it had already become much cooler. Well, I guess the daytime was just way too hot lol...😅