Puzzle Trays

[Sycamore67]

               I recently posted a project of a Baby Elephant Puzzle by Judy Peterson and received nice compliments.  Several people commented on the puzzle tray that I had made.  I have made a lot of her puzzles for my Grandkids and make these puzzle trays for each of them.  It makes it much better to keep things picked up and not lose any pieces.  I decided to put together some pictures showing how I make the trays.

They are made from a piece of ½” and ¼” plywood. I make an outline of the puzzle as a pattern and cut it out on the ½” plywood. 

I typically sand the cut out on the ½’ piece using a sanding mop. The ½” and ¼” piece are glued together, the assembly is recut to have clean edges and edges sanded or routed to have a nice round over.  

           I like to mark these on the back with my name and a year.  I have used a varied of methods but recently bought a very cheap laser engraver.

Now,  I take 1” diameter plywood disks and engrave my name and year on to them.   I drill a 1" shallow hole and push the disk into them.  

 

               I finish the trays normally with shellac.  I put the first coat on with a 1” foam brush which lets me get into the smaller areas.  I will sand lightly after that and then use 2 coats of spray can shellac. 

 

[Rockytime]

Thank you for the interesting photos. The laser inlay is clever.

[trackman]

I just got my copy of Judy’s pattern book today. Will be using your idea of the trays for the puzzles. Some very nice an easy projects.    PS: would you mind telling about your engraver? How easy to use, cost, buy it were? Thanks 

Edited November 19, 2019 by trackman

[OCtoolguy]

Thanks Trackman, I was going to ask the same things. I'm very interested in the "cheap" laser.

 

[meflick]

Thanks for sharing your “how to” information. As a mother, I definitely appreciated those puzzles with their own storage tray for sure!  I have two nieces expecting babies next year so at some point I plan to start making some similar puzzles but will wait for a bit until they are not newborns.

[NC Scroller]

Found the engraver pictured on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/engraving-machine-Engraver-engraver-7-5X7-5CM/dp/B07G6VBTKL/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=laser+engraver&qid=1574166193&sr=8-3

[don in brooklin on]

Nice idea and appreciate info on laser.

I would love to have my own laser so I could date the inscription or personalize scroll items.  At that price point will definitely pursue.

Steve Good sells personalized plugs too but won't ship to Canada.  A fellow at our club does them at $1 a piece and will do different pictures.

 

[Sycamore67]

The Laser I bought was on eBay and shipped from China and quite a bit less than the one from Amazon.  

It is about $90 and free shipping.  You can find a lot of them on ebay by searching for 'Laser engraver"

It will print on an area of about 3" by 3".  It can take several different formats of pictures but I have used JPEG. A clean image with sharp lines works best.  A lot of clipart can be used.  

The software is not great but not too bad and once I had used it a bit it worked fine for me.  

You have to fool around a bit with the settings but not too difficult.  It is not real fast.  The 1" diameter BB pieces that I engraved a name and date on took about 4 minutes.

A bigger graphic with more detail can take over an hour.  

You have to treat it gently especially the plug in connections which are a USB to your computer and a power connection.

Now, I am thinking if I want to buy a much bigger one that engraves faster and also can cut 1/8" BB.  

Edited November 19, 2019 by Sycamore67

[trackman]

Thanks for the information!