Blue Frogs Puzzle

[MikeDingas]

Here's my second attempt at a jigsaw puzzle. It's 8x10 on 1/4" BB. I made this as a gift for the neighbors 5 yr old son. I elected to go with a more traditional cutting and glued the pattern to the back so no free-hand work here.

The pic was printed on an inkjet using photo glossy paper. Adhered to wood with 3M 77 and one coating of tripple thick after afixing pic to wood.

The one complaint I have is that the pic side (face down while cutting) now has slight raised ridges and white on most of the kerfs. I smoothed these out as best as I could.

[chrispuzzle]

Love the picture Mike! And a very neat strip-cut too.

Why did you cut with the picture face down? When I cut with puzzle blades there is hardly any fuzz on the underside and nothing that a couple of minutes light sanding by hand won't fix.

Chris

[MikeDingas]

Face Down because in another post about glazing the pic, it was said to glaze before cutting to protect the pic from scratching. So...I figured that meant cut face down.

[utbva]

I like the picture and the puzzle looks good. The only times that I have cut a puzzle using a pattern I did not have a photo on it. I am not sure how they attach a pattern to a puzzle with a photo. That is one reason I decided to do puzzles free hand. I do want to start doing some figurals in my puzzles so I think I can just attach a pattern of the figural to the face of the puzzle while it is being cut out and then remove the pattern either with heat or mineral spirits. I use Aleene's tacky glue to attach my photos to the plywood.

Did the 3M 77 hold the photo to the plywood ok? I tried it once and it didn't seem to hold as good as the Aleene's tacky glue does.

[lucky788scroller]

this would have been a good time to put your blade in upside down.looks good though. Dale

[chrispuzzle]

Face Down because in another post about glazing the pic, it was said to glaze before cutting to protect the pic from scratching. So...I figured that meant cut face down.

Hmm. Glazing the picture helps protect against scratching after it has been cut, ie when people are trying to do the puzzle, and it helps protect against fingers rubbing at the picture while it is being cut. If the glaze is thick enough I suppose you could have a very low-tack pattern stuck to it. You don't need to bother much about the strip-cut pattern lifting occasionally, after all you don't have to cut it precisely as marked. But however it's cut, you want any tearout or lifting to be on the rear, not the picture side.

I suppose ultimately it's better to strip cut by eye, not by pattern. It isn't very difficult as long as you are a good judge of distance. You could also start with a board a little larger than the finished puzzle and mark off points at, say, 1" intervals (or the width of the pieces) along the edges as a visual guide.

If you make a few small squares, say 3" square, and cut them into strip puzzles - first four pieces, then nine, then sixteen etc - you should soon be able to do a strip cut without a pattern.

Chris

[MikeDingas]

Did the 3M 77 hold the photo to the plywood ok? I tried it once and it didn't seem to hold as good as the Aleene's tacky glue does.

Yes, it's holding pretty good. I generously sprayed both wood and pattern and allowed them to tack up a bit before attaching the pattern.

[MikeDingas]

Hmm. Glazing the picture helps protect against scratching after it has been cut, ie when people are trying to do the puzzle, and it helps protect against fingers rubbing at the picture while it is being cut.

Another reason for my confusion: I glazed another puzzle cutting AFTER being cut. I re-assembled the puzzle, glazed it and was surprized that the pieces did not 'stick' together. Another dumb mistake I guess.

[PeteB]

I use Krylon Easy-Tack to hold patterns on, and it works pretty well, only letting go at the worst possible times.

For strip puzzles, I mark the divisions with little dabs of blue tape at the edges. but there'd be nothing wrong with running strips of tape all the way across if you'd be more comfortable with that.

Nice picture! You should cut it again using what you've learned from this one.

Pete

[utbva]

After the glaze is cured you can cover the whole puzzle with blue painters tape or some other low tack tape then put the pattern on over the tape. After the puzzle is cut you should be able to lift the tape off of each peace without harming the puzzle pieces or taking off the glaze. I think this will work. At least that is what I am going to try with the figurals on my puzzles. I will just put the tape where the figurals will go.

[LouF]

The puzzle looks great Mike you did a great job on it. Something like that would be nice to make for my grandchildren.

Lou