The rain that started yesterday continued until late this afternoon. It’s gotten cold enough that it’s hard to get by without a heater, though maybe it just felt that way because of the rain. I got back to work today and spent the whole day in the workshop. The humidity stayed high, so I set aside the jobs that needed fine adjustments and worked on other things instead.
This morning, I made the Aruki (sliding panels) for the Mame puzzle boxes. These are the smallest boxes I make, so the Aruki panels are very small too. At this size, differences in humidity don’t make much of a difference, so I made the panels to fit the frames I had already finished. This batch opens in 14 moves. The top and bottom Aruki panels have two steps cut into them, while the side panels have three. Even so, I didn’t want to leave the panels in the humid workshop for too long, so I put them in a humidity-controlled case.
After that, I prepared the wood for the side panels of the 3-sun cube puzzle boxes I mentioned the other day. As you can see in the photo, I decided to use walnut and agathis again, just as I did last year. This time, though, I may use a little more agathis. I haven’t decided which wood to use for the top panel yet. Walnut makes the sliding key hard to spot, and agathis does too. I think I’ll be able to hide it well again this time. When I first combined these two woods, I was a little worried about how different they are, especially in hardness. Walnut is fairly hard, while agathis is softer and is also used for the main structure of the box. Last time, I paid close attention to whether I could finish both woods the same way on the side panels. It worked without any problems, so I decided to use the same combination again. In the photo, you can see three pieces of wood lined up: agathis, walnut, and agathis. I glue the three pieces together first, then cut through the middle to make two panels, each with both colors. If you look closely, you can see pencil marks on the wood. I use these marks to line up the pieces so the grain of both woods runs in the same direction.
