Thomas Kinkade puzzle

[utbva]

This is my latest puzzle. My wife likes Thomas Kinkade paintings, so we have a lot of Kinkade calendars. This one was made from 1/4" BB ply. It is about 11-3/4" by 13-1/4" and has 145 pieces. It took me about 5 hours to cut out and 15 FD-SP blades. I'm going to have to change blades or wood or something. I can't be using that many blades to make a puzzle. The cost as well as everytime a blade breaks I practically jump out of my seat. I don't know if my heart can take that kind of excitement.

My wifes school students seem to enjoy doing puzzles, so this gives me plenty of practice making these puzzles. I hope to eventually develop a style that I like.

[Greenfield_Bob]

Cool puzzle Bill. You did a good job on it.

Bob

[Gill]

There's definitely some Carter Johnson influence there . Smashing job.

Gill

[PeteB]

Your style reminds me of that of an old outfit called Falls Puzzles, that were considered to be some of the best:

http://www.oldpuzzles.com/Examples/collection.php?creator=108

If you haven't yet, be sure to take a good look around Bob Armstrong's site, very good for inspiration.

Pete

[Carter-Johnson]

That's really a good one, Bill.....

I truly don't understand why you're breaking so many blades. With B. Birch I would use about three blades with that size puzzle, and none of those would break. Keep the speed high, notch the tension down one click and anayze your touch to figure out if you're pushing too hard. It's an old cliche' and perhaps not appropriate, but "let the saw do the work".

Looks great!

Carter

[workin for wood]

Cool looking puzzle pieces. You did a great job...too bad it's a kinkade "The art shyster" picture. Isn't he in jail yet???

Keep up the great work!

[chrispuzzle]

Bill -

I would use four or five FD/SP blades on that. I wonder whether you like to push hard into the blade? Alternatively you might have a really hard bit of ply there, full of glue. The puzzle I am making at the moment seems a bit tougher to cut than previous ones too.

Chris

[utbva]

Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions. I did decrease the tension to the point that the blade would start wondering and then increase the tension to where the blade would run truer. The blades did last a little longer, but they would still break. The blades all broke pretty much right in the middle. I am going to try some okoume ply and also I have ordered some Pegas puzzle blades to see if they work any better.

[Paul S WI]

Bill - I'm sure you have already checked but by chance could the blade be rubbing against something below the table to cause premature wear just in the middle of the blade?

[PuzzledMoose]

That looks great, Bill.

[workin for wood]

Okoume plywood is marine grade isn't it? If I'm right, that may be worse because it contains more glue, but maybe not. Pretty sure I have some of that stuff, it looks similar to mahogany and tears out really bad. I cut a puzzle from pine planed down to 3/16 and it cut really nice...minimal tearout and didn't have the plywood edges which I thought was a bonus.

[PeteB]

Okoume plywood is marine grade isn't it? If I'm right, that may be worse because it contains more glue, but maybe not. Pretty sure I have some of that stuff, it looks similar to mahogany and tears out really bad. I cut a puzzle from pine planed down to 3/16 and it cut really nice...minimal tearout and didn't have the plywood edges which I thought was a bonus.

Tear-out is no problem with puzzle blades. I bought three sheets today to make kids' puzzles with and need something with a wider kerf and lots of teeth. Guess I'll have to have a good look through the blade stock.

The glue doesn't seem any worse than in BB, unlike some Finland birch I had with very tough glue that burned and left black lines. Had poor blade life, too.

One big advantage ply has for puzzles is that the knobs are unlikely to split along the grain as they would with solid wood. I agree that solid would look very good, though. I saw some solid cherry puzzles recently, and they were very nice.

Pete