scolba Entry 3 - Family Puzzle
The Process
This one is for my Mother in Law (all of these entries are for my Wife’s side because we are celebrating tomorrow 12/23. My side doesn’t celebrate until new years, so I have some more time for theirs! :D). I wanted to make her something that means something to her, and to me as well. This one sort of hit me in the middle of another conversation. Kind of a eureka moment.
She really enjoys puzzles. She isn’t the type to sit in one place for more than a couple of minutes. So she almost always has a puzzle out on their big island in the kitchen. And as she walks by from doing one thing to another, she will always stop and find a few pieces, and then move on. Well…turns out, I like puzzles too! I just didn’t know until recently, when she started bringing her puzzles back out after a kitchen reno there. So my enjoyment is directly from her, so you can see the tie in there.
So the rest is fairly formulaic, and seems like is an Etsy staple. Each family is a piece, the pieces fit together, etc. Originally it was going to set into a round base with a 1/2" pocket, that would have a keyhole for haning on the wall. Then I was planning on setting neodymium magnets in the base and into each piece so you could remove them. However after making the base, and cutting the pocket, it turned out to be scaled incorrectly. So it got scraped in favor of time.
I didn’t want to just buy and Etsy file and go nuts…though in retrospect I would have saved myself a lot of headaches if I had - but I also wouldn’t have learned as much as I did. I googled, found a suitable file, converted it in Inkscape, imported into CC, and then went through probably 4 different versions, and after a series of CC crashes, me not saving correctly, learning how to actually manipulate nodes, I finally had my files for my pieces and base.
Mistakes and Lessons Learned
This is probably my most frustrating experience so far. For design I made some stupid mistakes and didn’t save when I should have. For the cutting part…my machine kept disconnecting several times during the cut, and so I would have to start over. I had to start over 3 separate times. Additionally, the router was revving up and down like it was running super rich…and eventually would almost completely shut off before spinning back up. The TL:DR version of this story is…its not static (though I do plan on adding grounding wires), its not the brushes, it was what I thought was a good heavy duty power strip from Stanly. So the lessons learned for me on this one are:
- Save Often
- Use directly connected outlets
- If cutting parts that are meant to nest together, print out paper versions of the plan first to make sure you scaled things correctly.
- Don’t just add a chamfer without double-checking the text. (Facepalm)
Howie Puzzle Pieces Heart.c2d (644 KB)
Howie Puzzle Base.c2d (716 KB)
scolba Entry 4 - Love Multiplies
The Process
Ok last one for me, until at least next week! 
This one is for my wife. So we had our first kiddo 2.5 years ago. The little dude is just the best. As we found out we were going to have another one (surprise!) we had talked candidly with our families about how we were a little worried about another…we love our first kid so much, how could we possible love another one that much?! My wife’s grandmother had been asked that same question before and her response was, love doesn’t get divided. It multiplies. She is gone now, but the family choses to remember her with that quote. I don’t plan to point out many others have been attributed with it. 
So that’s the scope here…this is a representation of our little family, with that saying in a partial banner across the top.
So for this one, I don’t remember what inspired me to do it, but I was thinking about how cool it could be if you could undercut with like a t-slot bit for some different effects. I don’t even know if that is possible, but instead of going that way, I spit it into two parts. A textured pocket behind, and a contoured top.
I was hoping to use light wood, as maple is my wife’s favorite, but availability and time became an issue. My maple isn’t wide enough for the base I made first, and my thin birch plywood version just didn’t work - don’t have a down cut bit. So more resawn cherry it is!
Mistakes and Lessons Learned
I learned a lot with this one trying to get the different pockets to work. Even now as I look back at it after doing the puzzle project, I see how sloppy it is, and how much better it could be. The biggest challenge I had was trying to get the hearts to stay together for support, but still give them definition. I ended up using a vcarve bit on a contour pass, and then cut the negative space out afterward. It left something to be desired.
I actually screwed up quite a bit on this one, and it’s got a lot of blemishes (that are hidden in the photo!)
So here are my takeaways on this one.
- My 1/8 single flute doesn’t go all the way through 7/8 stock.
- A dull flush trim bit will cause tear out
- BitZero is awesome, but it does not set the angle of the stock along the Y (for some reason I had it in my head that if my stock isn’t parallel to the beam, when I probe with BitZero it gets the measurement, sees the angle and adjusts accordingly. No idea why I assumed that, but there’s not enough data gathered there to even tell, and that assumption, and careless angle with slim margins cased me to go off the stock)
- I need to get better at creating pockets along common pieces.
- Adding some sort of locating pin or slot feature to the top and bottom pieces would go a long way to gluing them together.
sign font family.c2d (316 KB)
sign back textured.c2d (132 KB)
Btw - in case you are wondering, it does indeed multiply. Our daughter is 8 months now and is also, just the best.
