Hashimoto's Bucolic Cube

Hashimoto's Bucolic Cube: three identical pieces that can be assembled into 3x3 cube. How hard could it be? Harder than you think!

After being handed one the other day, and not being able to solve it before I had to give it back, I printed one of my own this morning so that I could solve it and move on with my life ;-)

Spent some time in the shop yesterday and made a wooden version of this puzzle out of some scrap wood.

Now that I have a process figured out, I might make a few out of some nice hardwood.

Back in the shop yesterday with some cherry hardwood, refining the process for making these puzzles. Tried ca glue instead of regular wood glue and it sure is a lot quicker for a bunch of small pieces like this!

Made a jig on the cnc to help with alignment while gluing up the puzzle pieces. It works great!

Trying out some Total Boat "Wood Honey" finish on these cherry puzzle pieces. It's easy to work with and doesn't seem to contain a lot of volatile solvents, so that's nice. I don't really need it to be food safe, but that's a bonus if it's true (I'd feel better about that claim if they disclosed the ingredients).

Assembling another puzzle out of cherry cubes. Keeping the jig, but switching back to wood glue (ca glue made for much faster assembly, but it's just too brittle). I put some paste wax on the jig to keep the glue from sticking.

Arts and crafts time! Mocking up a box to hold an assembled puzzle, designed to be made out of 1/8” material

Made a box out of some 1/8" cherry hardwood. I made a jig to hold the box bottom and sides while I cut them on the cnc and then cleaned up the corners of the joints by hand. I'm super happy with the result!

Made another box, this one out of maple. I like the contrast with the cherry puzzle.

Finally got around to writing this up http://www.grwster.com/projects/2024/bucoliccube/