A Handmade Router Table

Today's topic is a router table that is one of the important tools for woodworking. A router is a power tool used to hollow out an area in the face of a workpiece. We mainly use the router for rounding the edges of puzzle pieces.

Juno bought a router table from a local hardware shop. It seemed all right but once he used it, he noticed that the router couldn't attain precision. He wanted to increase the precision and decided to make a router table by himself.

 1. The router table
Firstly, Juno made a box and attached it at the end of the workbench (The red legs are the workbench in the picture below). This box will be the base of the router table.

2. The router height adjuster
Juno bought a cheap router and attached it to the inside of the box upside down. Underneath the box, there is a star knob screw. This screw is connected to the wooden block that is placed in the box. The wooden block is holding the router and it can change the height of a router bit by rotating the star knob screw.

3. The dust collector
Behind the wooden block, there is a hole which is connected with a dust collection pipe. This dust collection system works really well, we won't be bothered by saw dust.

4. The air assist
On the workspace of the router table, there is another tool to get rid of sawdust, it's an air assist. The air assist is connected to the air compressor. We use this plastic flexible nozzle which is very convenient.

5. The changeable melamine boards
We use various types of router bits and depending on a bit, we change the board on the router table.

6. The fence of the router table
Depending on work contents, we need to change the position of the fence, therefore Juno set two aluminum T tracks and two star knob screws on the table. It's easy to use and stable.

7. The mitre track for mitre gauges
The long mitre track on the router table is for mitre gauges.

8. The switch
The last article is about the switch of the router. As you see, the router is inside the box and the box has a door. It is awkward to open and close the door when we use the router. For this reason, Juno uses the power outlet on the workbench as an on-off switch.


Preparing a good environment is key to making good products, we believe. Before we start the woodworking, there are plenty of jobs to do, aren't there?

Reza 6-8 (QLD silver ash + Jarrah)

We have started selling the second batch of Reza 6-8, polyhedral shaped interlocking puzzle made of QLD silver ash + Jarrah.

One of the pieces is branded by the handmade branding iron that Juno has made from an M8 hex-head brass screw using a cheap Chinese CNC router.

The Safety Measure for the Jointer

I'm going to write about one of the safety measures of our workplace today.
We make wooden puzzles and have some machines that have to be used carefully.
This is a jointer.

This machine makes one side of timber flat and also makes 90 degrees of a corner of timber. It is one of the important procedures of sawmilling. If you cannot make timber really flat or 90 degrees cutting accurately, the pieces of puzzle would be uneven shapes.

This picture shown below is the jointer knives. These knives rotate with a high speed, and level the timber surface. As you can imagine, this part is very dangerous therefore the jointer has a wing shaped part which is called a spring return cutter head guard. This guard can be rotated and is always being pushed on side of the wall of the jointer to cover the knives for safety.

However, this guard can be moved easily and there would be a chance to touch the knives. If it happened, that would cause serious injuries to the hand. Better safe than sorry!
Juno bought a magnetic tool named "Magswitch" and attached an aluminum angle on the side. Magswitch is a very useful tool, it can be attached easily.

When Juno uses the jointer, he measures the timber width and attaches magswitch onto the surface of the jointer with a little wider than width. As you see, the aluminum angle covers the knives. This cover prevent the knives touching accidentally.

The last picture is not a jointer, it's a table saw. Table saws are a very dangerous tool. I know several people who lost their fingers. Juno also arranged Magswitch for a table saw. He attached an aluminum angle in a different way.

The most important thing is to prevent touching the blades of machines. We human beings are geniuses to make mistakes, aren't we?

Yukari

A Handmade Branding Iron

We have started our puzzle business and the first products were released late last month. The products we made were really good but actually one thing was missing, it was a branding mark. We have been thinking that we would like to have a branding iron but at the time we started selling the first puzzle we didn't have one and my husband signed his name instead. As our customers who bought Reza 6-8 knew, his signature was in a notch of one of the pieces.

It's easy to order and buy branding irons. However, Juno had decided to make his branding iron by himself. For making a branding iron, he bought brass screws, a 100w soldering torch, and 0.8mm (0.0315in) and 6mm (0.236in) milling bits. Brass screws were for the head of the branding iron.

The tool he used was a CNC router and of course a computer that was connected to the CNC router.

As you can see, one of the milling bits was very thin, it was only 0.8mm (0.0315in). It was scary to use it because it seemed to be broken easily. Juno took the bulk of the branding with a 6mm (0.236in) milling bit and curved the detailed lines with a 0.8mm (0.0315in) milling bit. After finishing curving the brass screw, he fitted the brass screw to the soldering torch. Then, the job was done!

The next step was testing. It was an exciting moment, you know? Well, the result was very good! These pieces are the first pieces that have got branding iron marks on them.

From now on, we will put Juno's mark on puzzle. There are plenty of ideas in Juno's head and we will make them as a puzzle in order. I know it's worth waiting!

Yukari

Interlocking burr puzzle Reza 12-20 on eBay Auction

We finally started selling the second puzzle "Reza 12-20" which is the shape of a puzzle based on a compound of dodecahedron and icosahedron. Reza 12-20 is made of Queensland silver ash (white) and Jarrah (dark brown).

This puzzle is difficult to solve and also it's difficult to make.
As a matter of course, we made a prototype of this puzzle. (The picture is shown below)
The prototype was made of pine and there are many marks on the ends, so it doesn't look good but you can play with this puzzle.

We don't think we will use the prototype, therefore we have decided to put it up for eBay auction. If you would like to play with this puzzle, this would be a good chance to get it. The starting price is AU$1.00 (postage excluded). Please take a look at the page of eBay.

eBay : Prototype Reza 12-20 - Interlocking burr puzzle
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201748457098 

How to put rubber bands for assembling polyhedral puzzles

Dear customers,

We are sure that you need rubber bands to assemble our polyhedral shape puzzles. The inner octahedral part of the Reza 6-8 puzzle is not self-standing. It has to be supported by the outer cube part of the puzzle to hold it together.

When you assemble the puzzle, you will probably need at least three rubber bands, maybe six or even more. Juno suggests you give an extra twist for a rubber band on each vertex of the octahedron. (Refer to the pictures)

This method makes it easier to retrieve rubber bands when you assemble the outer cube part of the puzzle.

In case you put rubber bands in an ordinary way on the puzzle, it becomes difficult to pick rubber bands once the cube part is assembled because those pieces are so cramped and there's almost no room for your fingers.

The method in the last picture is also a recommended way to put rubber bands. By twisting rubber bands several times, it gives good holding support for the pieces.

Reza 6-8 is now available on eBay, but we are also preparing to sell the puzzle on our own site. A more complex version of the polyhedral shape puzzle Reza 12-20 will also be available soon.

The Sanding Workstation

I am going to introduce our workplace. We have a shed where we make puzzles. Inside of the shed, there are some island workstations that are made by Juno. This time, I will show you one of the island workstations, the sanding bench. (The picture shown below)

This workstation has two disc sanders, one belt sander and one drill press. Underneath the bench, there are drawers, shelves for convenience and four small casters with a frame called a mobile base.

We make puzzles, that is, the most important point is accuracy. Juno focused on the small tables that were fixed to the disc sanders. The angle of the tables can be changed, but we normally use 90 degrees and there's no need to tilt. Therefore, Juno took the table on the right hand side away and made a table that cannot be tilted. He re-used the original table of the left hand side table and fixed it. Maybe you think that the table whose angle can be changed is more convenient. The reason that he got rid of the table is that the tables were not stable. They were a little rickety and he thought they are not stable enough for making puzzles. It's also easy to change the sanding disks on these disc sander's tables. If you have an experience using a disc sander, you may know how it is awkward to change sanding disks.

This picture below is the grit board sanding disks and belt. We sometimes forget the grit number of paper we are using. The grit number is printed on the backside of a sandpaper, so that once we attached the paper to the disc, it is not easy to make sure. That is the reason he made this board. Unless we forget to change the little dowel to the right number (This is very important), this board works well.

This is a belt sander that was customized. As we already tweeted on our twitter account on 11th October, 2016 Juno ground the base of a cheap belt sander using a Dremel (a dremel is a hand-held tool that can be used for cutting, grinding, sanding, buffing) and filed it to make it flat. We use this belt sander for sanding puzzle pieces and needed to make a flat surface, otherwise the pieces will be distorted.

Here is the last picture showing several shutters and a hose. The two levers behind the box are connected to two disc sanders. When we use the disc sander, we pull the lever and open the hole that is inside the box, then the dust from the disc sander is vacuumed to the dust collector. The upper lever of the box is connected to the belt sander. All the dust comes from disc sanders and the belt sander goes through the big hose joint on the right of this picture and goes to the dust collector. We have two dust collectors that are placed in different positions. This workstation has a mobile base with four casters and can be moved easily by one person.

I am going to introduce other shed equipments someday.

See you then.

Yukari

Our first Puzzles are Available on eBay

Since we have established our family business, we finally finished making our products" Raza 6-8." "Raza 6-8" is our first puzzle product as Pluredro (our family business name). "Raza 6-8" is named after our friend who was a mathematician and loved polyhedra, Reza Sarhangi. Unfortunately, he passed away on 1st July, 2016.

This puzzle is a polyhedral shaped interlocking puzzle, and designed and made by Junichi Yananose in 2016.
The materials are silver ash (white) and American Walnut (dark brown). These two colours' combination is really beautiful and also you are able to see which one of the colours is cube and octahedron.

The shape of the puzzle is based on a compound of cube and octahedron. The inner octahedron itself is not self-standing. Once the outer cube is assembled containing the inner octahedron, the entire burr puzzle becomes stable and self-standing. 10 types of pieces are used for both the cube and octahedron to make the puzzle tricky and difficult enough even to serious puzzle enthusiasts.

We hope puzzle lovers will love our first product.

eBay: Reza 6-8 - Polyhedral shape interlocking burr puzzle