So I’ve seen a few variations of a type of puzzle kicking around lately called lattice puzzles. One look at the design and I thought “I can laser that”. Rather than reinvent the wheel I figured I’d find out if anyone else had done it, and found a basic model on Thingiverse[1]. I modified that model to have slightly rounded corners, it went perfectly.
The puzzle consists of 12 identical pieces, which is part of why I thought it was so clever.
Tolerances are tight on this one, you don’t want your slots too loose. I included a thickness gauge in the SVG with basic instructions of how to use it. This file uses clones in Inkscape, if you open it in AI I’m not sure how well that will translate. Let me know if you try it.
I made these last year with proof grade plywood, but they were really brittle and easily broke apart. Are the acrylic prints stronger?
The problem with this design is that it requires the thickness of the weak parts to be the same as the thickness of the material used. It would work great with metals, if we could cut them, but for wood, I found it frustratingly fragile.
Oops…I did the 8 piece one and just realized I posted this in the 12-piece one…but, the result is still the same.
I just opened the svg in Affinity and this is what the clones looked like. Not sure why the ‘solid’ red ones are even there…and they don’t even fit exactly inside the lines of the other row. I made the gauge and made the proper adjustment, then just made my own line of clones. Everything cut out just fine and fits together very well…although I have not solved the puzzle yet, so will need help from the video.
The red ones are unadulterated shapes — there’s no rounding of the corners. I included it sort of by accident, but once I realized they were there I figured it would be a good starting point if anyone wanted to remix it.
