Block Puzzle   1                                             08-2019

 

I was between projects and thought I'd do something that was nice and easy, which is what I'll be working on this time. I got the idea for this one online...and you know how it goes, you're watching one video that is totally unrelated and the next thing you know I'm watching something else.

I'm going to make a 'wooden block puzzle' that I hope people will ask..."how did you get that ball in that wooden block?".  Well it looked simple enough to make so let's get started.

I went to my local lumber yard and was lucky to be given this one foot long pressure treated 4" X 4". That's the good news. However, this piece has some really bad cracks in it so I won't be able to use the whole thing (no wonder they gave it to me).
 

 

 
Machining

 

I cut three pieces that were about 3.00" long, which is all I could get because of how bad the piece was. Here I'm squaring each piece.
 

 

 
The size of the cubes are 2 1/4".
 

 

 
Next I put a 7/8" diameter hole through each side. I could have used a twist drill but an end mill is much more forgiving when you breakthrough the other side.
 

 

 
Ball Bearings

 

I bought some steel ball bearings that are 1 1/16" diameter. And come to find out, these are the size a pin ball machine uses.
 

 

 
Nice and shiny.
 

 

 
Assembly

 

I coated the balls with mineral oil.
 

 

 
And then I pressed the ball into the wooden block with the aid of a small piece of tubing and my milling machine vise.
 

 

 
There you go. However, the ball is 3/16" larger than the hole. So why didn't it break the wood?
 

 

 
Well, I did have one that didn't go as planned. This one had some cracks that went deeper than I thought. No big deal, the other two came out nice.
 

 
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