Gentle Interlock burr puzzle

We have released our new burr puzzle, Gentle Interlock. The name was chosen because it is relatively approachable even for beginners who are not yet familiar with burr puzzles.

When we manufacture a puzzle, we are usually left with offcuts of timber in various sizes. While the leftover pieces from making just one type of puzzle may be minimal, continuously producing many different puzzles leads to a significant accumulation of leftover timber, which begins to take up valuable workshop space. From time to time, Juno looks at these offcuts and wonders if there might be a puzzle he could design using them. Gentle Interlock was born from that very motivation, and it successfully made use of a large portion of the accumulated American Rock Maple stock.

Alongside the production of this puzzle, we have also been continuing work on an SD puzzle. It has been nearly two years since our last SD puzzle release, so thank you for your patience. We expect to be able to announce the release of a new SD puzzle in the not-too-distant future. If you subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of the page, you'll be among the first to receive updates on upcoming releases.

Happy puzzling!

We have released a put together puzzle and a science toy today.

Linearsaw Puzzle

The "Linearsaw Puzzle" we've released this time is truly unique. Juno had never seen this type of puzzle before! The objective is simple: fit all the pieces into the frame. 

However, there's a twist - both the pieces and the frame contain strong magnets, which repel each other and make it challenging to fit everything in place. I've tried several times, but I still haven't solved it yet!  

The materials were carefully selected for their natural coloring.

The Helix Tree

Alongside the "Linearsaw Puzzle", we're also releasing a miniature marble run "The Helix Tree" with a 3D printer. I had been wanting to create something using a 3D printer, and now that dream has finally come true! After many rounds of trial and error, I finalized the design last month. The biggest challenge was ensuring the print didn't require supports. In order to reduce printing time, I had to redesign the green spiral branch - and Juno was a huge help in this process. Thank you, Juno!  

If you've ever used a 3D printer, you'll know how frustrating and time-consuming it is to remove supports - especially from like spiral shapes. Plus, using supports increases both printing time and filament consumption.  

Thanks to this new design, the printing time has been significantly reduced. The green branch alone still takes nearly five hours to print, but before this improvement, the estimated print time was close to eight hours! That's a huge difference.  

At the center of the tree is a spiral-shaped trunk that lifts the balls from the yellowish dish at the bottom to the top. The balls then roll down along the green branches and return to the dish. The design also features three gears: one beneath the yellowish dish and two shaped like snowflakes. The star topper is a small stellated dodecahedron.  

This set includes 30 stainless steel balls, but if you'd like more, you can use 10mm stainless steel or iron balls. At first, I thought marbles would be a great option since they come in various colors and look beautiful. However, after testing some, I realized that marbles aren't as precisely sized as metal balls, which can prevent them from being lifted properly by the spiral. So, in the end, I decided not to use them. 

I hope you enjoy this little marble run - whether it's Christmas or not!  

Yukari

New Puzzles, 33rd Auction Results etc.

The final puzzles we will release in 2024 are Tornado Burr and Juno's L8 Notchable. After a long hiatus starting in August due to home renovations, including the office room, this marks our return with new creations.

The production of Tornado Burr greatly benefited from the CNC router's rotary attachment and jigs made with a 3D printer. Since some of the pieces could only be machined one at a time, the process was extremely time-consuming, and many pieces were lost during production. However, we believe the results achieved would have been nearly impossible with conventional woodworking machinery.

One of the challenges we've faced with CNC machining has been power outages. Since we started manufacturing and selling puzzles, we've experienced an average of one power outage per month. Most of these outages last only a few seconds or minutes, but that's enough time to ruin a puzzle being machined. When an outage occurs, the piece being processed is usually rendered unusable, and the CNC router's origin must be reset, which can be quite mentally draining.

With the recent renovations, we've added two large Tesla batteries, providing backup power to the entire house, including the workshop. This upgrade allows CNC machining to continue for up to an hour during an outage. Moving forward, we're looking forward to more stable and uninterrupted CNC operations, ensuring consistent production quality.

The customary charity auction concluded the day before the launch of our new products. The total winning bids for the eight puzzles amounted to an astounding AUD $6,706.56, far exceeding our expectations. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in the auction.

This time, we donated half of the auction proceeds to The Salvation Army Australia. In a time when housing difficulties and rising living costs continue to affect Australia, we hope our efforts can help those in need.

May 2025 be a wonderful year for everyone. Thank you for your continued support!