A new week starts again today. It has already been quite hot these past few days, so I’m feeling a little tired 🤣 Today, I worked on both the 3-sun boxes and the 4-sun boxes.
For the 3-sun boxes, I attached the sliding key panels as planned. This time, I am preparing two types: one with Ichimatsu yosegi sheets and the other with solid walnut. The production method is mostly the same, but if possible, I make the walnut panels slightly thicker—just a little, about 0.1 to 0.2 mm. A bit more thickness seems to help prevent warping. For the Ichimatsu yosegi panels, the yosegi sheet on the surface helps reduce warping. That is also one of the reasons why many Japanese puzzle boxes use yosegi. Since puzzle boxes are made by attaching thin panels around the box, they can easily warp with changes in the environment. This time, since it is a 3-sun size, it is more resistant to panel warping compared to larger sizes, so there is not much to worry about.
After that work, I continued making the 4-sun boxes. This time, I am making a double puzzle box with two 7-step mechanisms. Today, I assembled the frame parts that I had already prepared. As I mentioned last week, this box has a structure like two identical boxes joined together, so the parts are the same for left and right, and also for top and bottom. Because of that, the most important thing when assembling is the direction of the axis panels. If I attach them in the wrong direction, the box has to be discarded. As you can see in the photo, I use the same axis panels, but I assemble them with opposite orientations for the top and bottom. If I don’t check carefully, it is easy to make a mistake. When working with this kind of orientation, I usually make small marks with a pencil on the bottom or back so I can tell at a glance. Those marks become hidden as the assembly progresses. When making many boxes, even if I am careful at first, it is easy to make a small mistake. However, as I wrote last week, this box has no hidden areas on the top or bottom. So if I make a mark, it will remain visible, and I cannot do that. Today as well, I assembled the box carefully, paying close attention to the orientation.
