Name Puzzles Question

[shwestley]

Hello All,

It seems that name puzzles are all the rage this year. I have a friend who asked if I would make a name puzzle for her son for Christmas this year. He is still young and I wanted to make the name puzzle and put a backing on the puzzle so that the letters of the name would be placed it the outline and not fall out the back. However if I do this the letters will be hard to manipulate. I was wondering if anyone tried putting little knobs or handles on the letters or experimented with ways to make the letter pieces stick out of the top of the puzzle so that they could be grabbed or manipulated.

Really I am not sure what to do. I have thought about cutting the puzzle and then sanding down the board from which the letters were cut so that the letters would stick out. but that sounds like a lot of sanding.

Any ideas in the crowd?
Thanks in advance

[JohnB]

G'day,
This is the way I do it. If you like just substitute materials for what you have available.
I cut the letters from 6mm MDF and use 3mm MDF for the backing. I use finials with a 1/4" tenon as handles.
Finials

[determined]

Name puzzles

I first use MS Word to get the letters all the same size, then paste them on 1/4 in birch ply in the design I want. Once cut out. I then trace the inside of the letter onto 1/2 in. birch ply. This way the final letter is just a little smaller than the slot it fits into. I then use another 1/4 in birch ply as backing and glue them together. The 1/2 in letter sits high enough in the cutout so you can grab it easily.

[stephenD]

I used some 1/8" backer when I cut the letters. Then glued the backer into the letter holes onto the background. The letters stuck up enough to get a hold of

[shwestley]

Thanks everybody! I am going to try backing, finials, and tracing. I will let you know when I get one cut!

[NC Scroller]

Remember in the US you CAN NOT paint, stain or varnish those if you are going to sell them. We are still waiting on the CPSC.

[sqrlalrt]

I tried this for my grandbaby. What I did was stack cut 1/2" poplar on 1/4" plywood taped together. Then after cutting my puzzle I backed the plywood with 1/8" plywood and had a nice little puzzle with letters that stick up for little hands to handle.

[Hawaiilad]

Scott, I think you are wrong about not being able to paint the parts... I know the Goverment came out at first and said eveyone had to follow the same requirments, but if you read it real good you will see people like craft people are exempt from this.