The Effort Behind the Finishing Process
Yesterday's intense heat eased a little, and today began with cloudy skies. Even so, it was not particularly cool, and by the afternoon we had heavy rain, probably because of the heat and humidity. Some areas have experienced serious flooding from the downpours, and many people are concerned about the damage.
As I mentioned yesterday, I started making the 10-step Mame puzzle boxes today. This batch will consist of about 40 boxes, so the production time should be a little shorter than usual. Today I first prepared all the materials, planed them to the correct thickness, and made the frame panels. These frame panels are the same size as those used for the 14-step puzzle box. In other words, by changing the way the Aruki panels are made, they could also be used for a 14-step version. This time, however, I plan to make only the 10-step version. Although I have not assembled all of the frame panels yet, I have already put together some of them. I will use these assembled frames to make the Aruki panels tomorrow. I have to go out for a while tomorrow, so I wanted to prepare everything in advance to make the best use of the time I have in the workshop. As I mentioned in a recent article, I also carefully selected the wood while preparing the materials today. The long frame panels already have Yosegi attached, so those are fixed. For the axis panels, I chose slightly harder and denser wood, while for the Aruki panels I selected the softest pieces I could find. Especially in Mame puzzle boxes, the Aruki panels need a certain amount of flexibility for the mechanism to work smoothly.
As I mentioned earlier, it started raining in the afternoon, the temperature dropped, and the humidity increased. That made it a good time to begin the finishing work on the 4-sun puzzle boxes, which had already been assembled. The finishing process includes rounding the corners, sanding each box by hand, and smoothing the surface. During this step, I also remove any dust, excess glue, or other marks left from the production process. The most important part, however, is carefully removing the tiny ridges left on the side panels after the corners have been rounded. They are extremely small—you can even see them in the photo, although they are probably too small to notice...🤣 You can feel them with your fingertips. I intentionally leave these ridges slightly proud when I first round the corners. They are then removed completely by hand, allowing me to make very fine adjustments. This takes extra time, but it is an important step. Many mass-produced puzzle boxes skip this hand-finishing process. Instead, the corners are rounded enough to remove the ridges automatically. As a result, the corners of the top panel or even parts of the Yosegi pattern are sometimes sanded away. The reason is simple. Every puzzle box is slightly different, so the final adjustment really needs to be done by hand, one box at a time. A box with part of its corner pattern sanded away simply does not look as beautiful.
As I mentioned yesterday, I started making the 10-step Mame puzzle boxes today. This batch will consist of about 40 boxes, so the production time should be a little shorter than usual. Today I first prepared all the materials, planed them to the correct thickness, and made the frame panels. These frame panels are the same size as those used for the 14-step puzzle box. In other words, by changing the way the Aruki panels are made, they could also be used for a 14-step version. This time, however, I plan to make only the 10-step version. Although I have not assembled all of the frame panels yet, I have already put together some of them. I will use these assembled frames to make the Aruki panels tomorrow. I have to go out for a while tomorrow, so I wanted to prepare everything in advance to make the best use of the time I have in the workshop. As I mentioned in a recent article, I also carefully selected the wood while preparing the materials today. The long frame panels already have Yosegi attached, so those are fixed. For the axis panels, I chose slightly harder and denser wood, while for the Aruki panels I selected the softest pieces I could find. Especially in Mame puzzle boxes, the Aruki panels need a certain amount of flexibility for the mechanism to work smoothly.
As I mentioned earlier, it started raining in the afternoon, the temperature dropped, and the humidity increased. That made it a good time to begin the finishing work on the 4-sun puzzle boxes, which had already been assembled. The finishing process includes rounding the corners, sanding each box by hand, and smoothing the surface. During this step, I also remove any dust, excess glue, or other marks left from the production process. The most important part, however, is carefully removing the tiny ridges left on the side panels after the corners have been rounded. They are extremely small—you can even see them in the photo, although they are probably too small to notice...🤣 You can feel them with your fingertips. I intentionally leave these ridges slightly proud when I first round the corners. They are then removed completely by hand, allowing me to make very fine adjustments. This takes extra time, but it is an important step. Many mass-produced puzzle boxes skip this hand-finishing process. Instead, the corners are rounded enough to remove the ridges automatically. As a result, the corners of the top panel or even parts of the Yosegi pattern are sometimes sanded away. The reason is simple. Every puzzle box is slightly different, so the final adjustment really needs to be done by hand, one box at a time. A box with part of its corner pattern sanded away simply does not look as beautiful.