Today was a cloudy day. The temperature was still high as usual, and it reached around 27°C again today. It seems the weather will become a little worse from now on. From the morning, I worked on the finishing process for two different types of puzzle boxes: the 4-sun 21-step puzzle boxes and the 2-sun cube 7-step puzzle boxes. Since their specifications are different, I started the finishing work with the 2-sun cube boxes first. This time, the models use walnut wood side panels, so unlike traditional Japanese puzzle boxes, the corners are cut diagonally, and the side panels are also sanded at this stage. After that, I rounded the corners of the 4-sun puzzle boxes and sanded the entire surface again with sandpaper. Then, in the afternoon, I worked on applying the undercoat finish.
In between the finishing work, I also started preparing the side panels for the 2.5-sun puzzle boxes. This time, they are the same type that I made in July of last year, with natural wood side panels. Most of the wood is agathis, with a yellow urushi wood border along the edge. Originally, I thought about changing to a different wood, but since this production includes custom orders, I decided to keep the same specifications as last time. The panels are not made one by one. Instead, as shown in the photo, I first make a large block and then slice it into thin boards. The block in the photo is about 3.5 cm thick and around 5 cm wide. That 3.5 cm thickness is sliced into about five boards. This creates boards with a yellow border along one side. Each board is about 36 cm long, so from one board I can make five long side panels for the 2.5-sun puzzle boxes. This time, I plan to make around 40 boxes, so 16 of the panels will be used for the long sides, and the rest will become the shorter side panels.
While preparing these panels, I suddenly realized something important. Recently, my production method has been to glue the inner side panel and the outer panel together in advance. After gluing them and holding them firmly with a vise, I process them into parts. At that stage, I usually shave the outer panel a little to make all the panel widths even. This is necessary because some panels can shift slightly during gluing and need to be corrected later. However, this time I realized that I cannot do that. The outer panel already has a yellow line with an even width, so I cannot shave it any further. I wondered why I had only noticed this now, and then I remembered that when I made this type of box last July, I adjusted the width by shaving the inner panel, not the outer panel. From the second half of last year, I changed the method and started shaving the outer panel instead. The only solution seems to be to glue the two panels together as accurately as possible, with very little shifting, and keep any correction to a minimum. To do that, it may be better to cut the large panels into smaller pieces before gluing, instead of gluing them as one long panel. Since one board can make five side panels, I will probably divide it into two and three pieces. It looks like this will require very careful gluing 😅
