Iggy's Animal Puzzle Assembly Line

[Sparkey]

Very cool Iggy. Thanks for sharing.

[Phantom Scroller]

I like your process I also use the same as Rob Re-positional glue spray on the pattern and stick it to the wood and cover with 2" sellotape never had any issues been doing it for years.

My question is you say you shrink wrap there and then I take it you have electric to heat it up or is there a magic way and is it on a roll or bags. Roly

[Iguanadon]

I like your process I also use the same as Rob Re-positional glue spray on the pattern and stick it to the wood and cover with 2" sellotape never had any issues been doing it for years.

My question is you say you shrink wrap there and then I take it you have electric to heat it up or is there a magic way and is it on a roll or bags. Roly

 

No magic, I use the bags 8"x11" purchased from Amazon.  I have access to power at the farmers market and use a heat gun.  I'm about to purchase this so that I will be sure to have power at any and all venues that I'm scheduled to work in the coming months.

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EIAADG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Edited August 24, 2016 by Iguanadon

[Phantom Scroller]

I'll search for one of those here with our plug sockets on good idea. Thanks for sharing.   Roly

[Iguanadon]

Hi Gang,

 

An update:

 

Moved into the new house almost 2 weeks ago (the day tropical storm Hermine was passing overhead) and the shop is taking shape although a lot of work still to do.  I got back to cutting this past Sunday and I had ordered a gallon of mineral oil so that I could try dipping/dunking the finished pieces rather than brushing on the butcher block conditioner/oil as I had been doing.

 

It's FANTASTIC!  Wow, what a huge time saver.  I did my first batch yesterday and let them sit overnight and this morning I didn't even have to bother wiping off any excess residue.  What used to take me 10 minutes per animal now takes me 10 seconds.  Dunk it, sit it, leave it.  I'm even able to dip the entire animal, assembled.  Shake off the excess oil, then set it aside to dry/soak in overnight.  This is a huge improvement in my process.  I'm now down to 30 minutes per puzzle from layout to completion.

 

I'm going to keep track of how many animals I get per gallon of oil.  It should be at least 200, maybe even 300 if I had to guess, which means the cost per puzzle would be as low as 8 cents.

 

PS, my plastic enclosed cutting area is working well so far.  I haven't even hooked up the Shopvac/Dust Deputy.  The dust is piling up in the enclosed area, which is fine, but I don't see that any of it is escaping into the rest of the garage.  Yet.  We'll see.

 

Iggy

 

 

 

[Frank Pellow]

Scott (Iguanadon) for showing us how one can set up to produce a LOT of scrolled items.  I don't want to do it myself, but I find the processes that you follow to be of great interest.

[jbrowning]

Good tutorial Iggy, I'm glad I came upon this. I'm looking at starting these of these after the holiday season.

 

Jim

[Iguanadon]

Good tutorial Iggy, I'm glad I came upon this. I'm looking at starting these of these after the holiday season.

 

Jim

 

Good luck Jim.  I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.  I just started cutting and selling them in June and had a blast selling them at weekly farmers market and holiday events.

[wombatie]

Thanks for that Iggy your instructions hopefully will come in handy next year.

 

Marg 

[jbrowning]

Question for you Iggy, when your dunking and letting the finish dry. Is the puzzle still put together or do you take them apart to do this?

 

Thanks

Jim

[Iguanadon]

Question for you Iggy, when your dunking and letting the finish dry. Is the puzzle still put together or do you take them apart to do this?

 

Thanks

Jim

 

I dip them in the mineral oil assembled and set them out to dry assembled.  I did rig up this make-shift "drying rack" so that they wouldn't be laying in a puddle of oil.  (I took the Corgi apart to show someone in that picture and the stacked Pelicans were already dry)

Edited December 15, 2016 by Iguanadon

[jbrowning]

I do like your drying rack. I will need to put together something like that. I wasn't sure if letting them dry still put together would cause them to stick together. That was my worry.

 

Thanks

Jim

[NC Scroller]

I have a couple similar drying racks. For those that do not know the wire mesh you see on Iggy's drying rack is called hardware cloth.  It is available in Lowes, Home Depot and most other building supply and hardware stores.  A 10 foot by 2 foot piece at Lowes is $12.00.  Just wanted to get you know what to ask for if you plan to build one.

[jbrowning]

Thanks Scott, I will keep that in mind next time I'm at Lowes. Definitely want to make one the dry things on.

 

Jim

[Iguanadon]

I had a roll of fencing laying around and used a piece of it, not sure exactly what it was called, but it was in the lawn and garden area at Home Depot.

[meflick]

Looks like I missed this post first time around Iggy.  Wanted to say thanks for sharing your steps and information and thanks as well to others who provided more help and insight. Need to investigate finding the "hardware cloth" and making a drying rack.

[Iguanadon]

Looks like I missed this post first time around Iggy.  Wanted to say thanks for sharing your steps and information and thanks as well to others who provided more help and insight. Need to investigate finding the "hardware cloth" and making a drying rack.

 

You're quite welcome, I try to give back to the community since I received so much great information and help when I first started.

 

As far as the drying rack, I simply used some wire fencing I had laying around.  Can be picked up at any hardware store usually in their gardening area.

[Montserrat]

For my drying rack I use a cake cooling rack over an aluminum turkey pan from publix. Nice and stable!

[Chunkthekid]

Thanks for the post. I have been cutting a lot of puzzles as well, trying to build up my inventory before doing some farmers markets this summer. I haven't been cutting very long and have no real process yet to speed things up. This will definitely get me headed in the right direction.