It was sunny from the morning today, but it was also quite windy. It looks like it will rain tomorrow, and the weather already started to change in the evening. I worked on several things again today. Right now, I am working on 4-sun 14-steps puzzle boxes, 3-sun 18-steps puzzle boxes, and Mame puzzle boxes with 18 steps. The 4-sun and 3-sun boxes are still missing some materials, so I am working on what I can for now. Actually, for some of the 4-sun boxes in this batch, I planned to use walnut for the top and bottom panels. But it turned out that the wood sheet I had already glued was not walnut, but rosewood. So I quickly asked for walnut sheets to be made. They should arrive tomorrow or the day after, and then I can continue the work. The rosewood had a color very similar to walnut. Looking closely, I can see the difference, but I didn’t notice it at the time… maybe it’s just age catching up with me🤣
The 3-sun boxes are also waiting for the checkerboard yosegi to be completed, but I was able to make some progress today. I worked on making the side panels for the structure and the core panels. Since the side panels are not finished yet, I can’t start the assembly, but preparing the core panels in advance is something I usually do.
In the afternoon, I checked the movement of the finished 18-steps Mame puzzle boxes. I carefully separated the panels that had stuck together during finishing and adjusted the movement of the mechanism. In most cases, the movement feels a little tight, so I make it slightly looser at this stage. The photo shows part of that process. Since all of the panels on a Mame puzzle box can be removed like this, this kind of adjustment is easier to do. That is a bit unusual, because on a regular puzzle box, usually only the top lid panel can be removed. If the movement is too tight, I sometimes slightly flatten the legs of the Aruki panel to reduce friction. But the contact points of the Aruki panel are not only its legs. Sometimes the frame of the box is also the cause of the tight movement. So I look carefully at those points and adjust the mechanism as needed. Once it becomes too loose, it is very difficult to fix, so I do this very carefully. But even though the panels of a Mame puzzle box can be removed, please do not try to do this yourself. Sometimes people tell me they took it apart and could not put it back together again. Not only the panels but also the frame parts have directions, so if you remove everything and forget the direction of the frame panels, it will be very hard to return it to the original state. There is a video that explains this, so please take a look. However, that video shows the 14-step version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMfZyUGJEm8
