Thank you for all the help on cutting the chipboard. I’m a 90-year old known as the “Pilot Error Guy”.
Now collecting the materials needed for a try at photo-jigsaw puzzling. I found a site that makes templates for boxes of most any shape: https://www.templatemaker.nl/ Plan to use a rectangular box for the puzzle parts. Now if I can figure out how to use the Pass Through for some larger puzzles …
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If you make a pair of holes the shape of a hold down pin and break off the head they can be a key that each cut can make two more holes 11" down from the ones above. The result is not perfect but as close as you might get presently. I tend to make things that overlap but are not connected so I get tight packing and less waste. But millimeter accuracy is not needed.
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i’m going to second this. boxes.py has been my go to source for box making for a while now.
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I don’t think I’ve posted it here, but I just make two puzzles. Each print has a “gutter”, or an overlap. I design to size in Illustrator, cut a jig that is aligned to my crumbtray rulers and I’m done. Same effect as the passthrough but less tedious than aligning for passthrough.
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Perhaps someone commented on this above, but I didn’t see it in the last couple of days of discussion…
Regarding cutting larger sheets down, it really doesn’t matter because as long as the material is slightly oversize, you can simply use the GF to make the edges perfect. That’s what we’re doing with the big sheets of PG anyway, as the GF can’t work all the way to the edges.
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http://www.makercase.com/
will use browser to make boxes with Finger Joints, T-joints, or Flat Joints. I’ve have good luck with the kerf adjustment on finger joints here. I probably ran into this in the GF forum somewhere.
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This sounds like what I need to do. Could you give some explicit steps along the way? Confused about how to do the aligning and how/when to glue on the photos.
It can be a fair amount of set up the first time or two you do it.
I set up some Illustrator template files that have the pieces in place that I need. Everything broken up onto layers since there are a fair number of components to make it happen.
Basically, I start a document with (2) 12x20” artboards. I place my full puzzle image (let’s say 18x20) into the document. At 18x20” I need to rotate it so that it fits in the cutting space. I make a copy of the image and lock the copy.
I then place my puzzle template into the document, make a copy, and lock the copy. So I have 2 puzzles and 2 images, all aligned and on top of one another.
I then draw out guides on a guide layer. There will be two guides that I use to figure out where my image and puzzle needs to be broken. Basically, these guides will act as an upper and lower boundary, and they define the overlap / gutter.
I crop one image from the bottom up to meet my guide line. This is my first puzzle (I just call it top puzzle in the layers).
Then, I have an illustrator plug-in tool called a table saw. I use that to “saw” across one copy of the puzzle at the bottom guideline, which breaks all of the paths along that guide. I select and delete the broken paths below the guideline. This leaves me my top puzzle / file 1. I go through and delete the “overhangs” in the gutter, so that I can remove that piece in one big piece later)
I hide the puzzle one elements and work on puzzle two. Basically crop the image to the top guideline, run the table saw across the guide, delete the paths above the guide, and select the puzzle paths and image and move them down to the second artboard.
From there, I have two puzzles with a small amount of overlap built in.
Then I draw a rectangle with a unique color (to make it its own operation) the size of the image for both pieces. This is my puzzle backing.
I print the images (I actually make a copy of the images to a new artboard so that I can print them making max usage of my paper, since it’s a 24” roll).
I save the files as SVG using the artboard option, so that it saves two different files: Puzzle1.svg and puzzle2.svg. I upload puzzle 1, place a 12x20 piece of chipboard against my crumbtray rulers to act as a jig (the corner of the chipboard is at the 0” mark). I cut out the puzzle 1 outline and glue the image to the cutout piece.
I then do the same for puzzle 2. So I have 2 frames and 2 mounted prints.
I stick the puzzle one frame back in and put the puzzle one print into the frame. The frame in the original location as the initial cut (at the 0” mark) and cut the rest of the puzzle. Remove those pieces and do the same with puzzle 2.
You’ll have a strip at the bottom of puzzle 1 and at the top of puzzle 2 which is the gutter (if you deleted the overhangs - if you didn’t, the gutter will be cut into little pieces).
It sounds complicated, and it might be… but you get the hang of it after a couple of them.
The thing is, with the way I believe the passthrough is going to work when they release it, is you’re going to have to cut your puzzle design up into segments that fit the bed anyways.
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Thank you for your instructions writeup. So helpful for me. Still have question(s) …
At this point the image that has been printed on photo paper has not yet been cut to the outline (outer perimeter #1) of the puzzle. How is the image aligned with the cutout puzzle outline on the chipboard for gluing?
There’s a tutorial here that might help visualize what he’s talking about:
I trim the prints (just the extra paper) on a rotary cutter. Just trim the borders - since the rectangle you put in the design (which is your puzzle backing) is the same size as the image, it will be a perfect fit.
I align everything in my design file - so I move nothing at all in the GFUI. I just put my jig aligned to the crumbtray ruler and everything stays aligned properly. The puzzle is also aligned properly in the design software - so when the jig is placed correctly, the glued image is in the right place, the puzzle is in the right place, etc.
I have some to make this afternoon - so I’ll see if I can put something together with visuals.
I think my method might be a little easier than @jules since it’s just Illustrator and I don’t have to duplicate any individual components of the puzzle.
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I’m using Inkscape but I do have Photoshop. I had already figured out how to get the two-part perimeters for the two puzzle parts. But got stuck on alignment of the photo on these parts. Now maybe with all the help I can make it work without Illustrator.
This visual of how the file is set up might help:
You can see my layers on the right hand side. The main ones that are of concern are
Jig Cutouts - holds the rectangle cutouts that the image is glued to
Top Puzzle - the components for puzzle 1
Top Image - the image for puzzle 1
Bottom Puzzle - the components for puzzle 2
Bottom Image - the image for puzzle 2
You can also see my guides here. The guides at the top of the image are for me to initially locate the corner of the image, and then locate the puzzle in relation to the image. I choose to make the puzzle slightly smaller than the print (mostly so that I can round the corners) but it also helps if you are a hair off in your gluing.
The guides below that, at the bottom of the upper image were the guides that I placed to figure out
A. where to crop the images
B. where to cut the puzzle template
Now, this is post-cropping - but the top image was cropped to the bottom guide and the bottom image was cropped to the top guide (of that pair). This created an overlap. Here’s a close-up that should help visualize that - you might need to click the image to see the whole thing.
I chose that part because it has features (the people) that are easy to identify. See how it lines up perfect? The red lines would normally extend further up or down, but I go through and delete those so that I can remove the overlap as one large piece, instead of 20 smaller pieces.
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With all the help (fantastic!), I have a Workflow written for Inkscape and Photoshop. Plan to finish Puzzle 1 before moving the chipboard so template has no need for repositioning. Then repeat for Puzzle 2 part.
Just realized that my printer will accept a maximum width of 8.5"; length is unlimited. So can use 8.5 X 14" paper. Have to explore how to get Costco to print-to-exact-size, no scaling, using a digital copy of the images.
Thank you all!
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Hey guys, I’ve been reading lately about making a puzzle. So I decided to try it and it turned out pretty good. But how do I keep the photo on the chipboard first burning around the edges? There’s like a white line around each puzzle piece like the photo paper got burn some. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciate. 
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Need to experiment with settings. Not sure what paper and chipboard, but that definitely is a sign of too much powah.
if you take a bit of photo glued down and run it on this…
just change the numbers and values to test a wide range of options and masking,
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Hi guys, so I’ve been experimenting with all the tips shared in this topic and I have found the best settings that work for my chipboard (Eska) and photo paper. However, after cutting and playing with some of the puzzle pieces, the top layer of the chipboard gets loose.
I have tried different kinds of glue (3M Photo Mount, normal spray glue) but the problem still occurs. It’s not the photo paper that I can take off, it’s actually the first top layer of chipboard that I can take off (with the photo paper on it).
Does anybody know why this happens? I have let the glue dry for 24 hours before cutting, tried a light layer and a thick layer. Or am I using the wrong chipboard? I believe @jbmanning5 has used Eska board successfully in the past.
Not every sort of glue works for what you are doing, As well what will hold in place for the entire image might have no glue at all on some of the puzzle pieces. This is true for their glue also. I would talk to the folks selling it as what they think it should be used for and what you are planning could be very different.