Production begins!

Dimensioning the Lumber!

I now have 90% of the lumber for the puzzle chests. Yesterday I finished milling the rough stock so now I can begin cutting the boards to width on the tablesaw. The Wenge looks really good! Seeing the wood all together and dimensioned really makes me happy and excited to keep moving forward. 
I will be laminating the maple shelves to hold the drawers so that there will be extra strength but most importantly more stability as the wood ages. This makes production of the basic chests slow but I'm happy to do it. 
Today I will be joining the Wenge pieces into 12" wide panels for the top and sides of the chests. I may be able to cut the dovetails for the cabinet tomorrow, but I'm going to take it really slow because I don't want any gaps in the joinery whatsoever. 
I just had a funny thought...making puzzles is like playing a game of chess; at first it's really easy to progress and make good moves but the longer you play the more likely you will make a mistake and the harder it is to fix faulty moves. So true for these chests and I want to make sure I'm thinking ahead and I've got to make sure that my methods are precise.


 

See the latest video!

I've continued to film the puzzle chest build for youtube.
I'm running full steam ahead! I know the real challenge is implementing the puzzle mechanisms so I've got to set aside enough time for that. Fine tuning the difficulty level will be interesting too, and I'm still redesigning elements. Next update will be about the cabinet construction and then after that it's on to the drawers!