Aug 19, 2025
It is very hot again today, and the temperature has reached 36°C.😂 It’s impossible to work outside or woodworking machine, so I have been doing assembly work indoors with the air conditioner on.
From yesterday, I started making the structure of a new 3-sun puzzle box. Today, I made the frame parts and assembled them. The small inner parts are not attached yet, but I may be able to start making the Aruki panels (moving panels) the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will probably work on finishing a 4-sun box and a 2-sun cube box, so the Aruki panels will come afterward.
This new box is built a little stronger than my previous types. Specifically, the inner side panels and axis panels are slightly thicker. Because of that, the storage space inside has become just a few millimeters smaller. The thickness of the Aruki panels, however, is the same as before. This one will have a 12-step mechanism.
A long time ago—about 20 years ago—I made a 3-sun box with a 14-step mechanism. People who know puzzle boxes well will understand that 12 steps and 14 steps are almost the same. The only difference is that one more Kannuki (slide key) movement is added to one side of the Aruki panel. But with the current thickness of the top Aruki panel in my 3-sun boxes, it would be very tight to make it into 14 steps. That’s why I decided to stay with 12 steps. I don’t clearly remember, but perhaps when I made the 14-step box in the past, I used a thicker top Aruki panel. If I made it thicker, it would work, but then all the inner parts would also have to be changed in size.
Besides that, today I also packed some finished orders that are ready to be shipped. The shipping cost from here can only be decided after the items are actually packed, because the cost depends on the size and weight of the cardboard box. For a single box, the small carton is almost always the same cost, but when sending several boxes to a shop, the shipping fee can’t be known until everything is packed.
