Interlocking Jigsaw Puzzle of Any Size [Week 1 Task]
Richard
1198
10614
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Design Files
Bird's nest puzzle.xcs
5 x 7 jigsaw cuts.svg
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Comments
Remixes
Contents
Introduction
Basic Information
Instruction
Step1
Step2
Step3
Step4
Step5
Design Files
Shortly after I bought my xTool M1, a friend of mine suggested I should look into creating jigsaw puzzles. It turns out that creating a jigsaw puzzle is pretty straightforward—with the help of some very brilliant programmers and endless sources of creative images on the Internet. And what a perfect gift for Children's Day. Processing time for this on the M1 is about 45 minutes, depending on the image and settings you choose. But honestly...the hardest (and longest) part of this project might be deciding on an image!
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Step 1
Pick an Image
First off, you need to find an image for your puzzle project. For the Gifts Challenge, we can't use copywrited images, though many companies—Disney, Crayola, Warner, and more—offer freely available and downloadable coloring pages that work great for making puzzles. Alternatively, many public agencies also offer fun and educational images that would make great puzzles. I searched on the National Park Service site for "coloring pages" and found hundreds of images. I ultimately chose something from the Redwood Forest coloring challenge. Use your preferred image editing program to modify, crop, and/or export the image into an allowable format for the laser: PNG, JPG, BMP, WEBP, DXF, or SVG. In many cases, this may not even be necessary.
Step 2
Design the Puzzle
Now it's time to create the puzzle pattern. This step is quite simple, thanks to developer Manuel Kasten, who created and made his web-based puzzle generator available to the world at no cost. You can choose between rectangular and round (or round-ish) puzzles. Choose how big you want it to be, how many pieces you want, how you want the tabs to look, and more. You can even change the "seed," which randomly generates different puzzle patterns for you.
For this project, I decided to create a 5 x 7 puzzle. The dimensions are in mm, so this requires a little conversion. Your search engine or digital assistant should be able to help. The resulting size for mine is 127mm x 178mm.
As for the pieces, a good rule of thumb on a puzzle is to start with 1 piece per square inch and adjust from there. I just went with 5 x 7 tiles, matching the puzzle size to get 1" pieces.
You may lose time just playing with this incredibly cool utility. The round puzzles are even more fascinating.
Step 3
Prepare the Job in XCS
Place your material on the engraving platform. Since we're cutting, you'll want to make sure it's raised from the bottom plate. I'm using the honeycomb grid in my M1 riser base. I'm not even sure if this would work using the triangular prisms since pieces might start falling as they're cut. For material, my recommendation is to use something that's 2-3mm thick. I'm using 3mm Basswood plywood, and I'm using the reference settings for that.
Don't forget to click to auto-measure the height of the material surface before you start placing images in XCS. This will ensure that XCS represents positioning as best it can.
Import the jigsaw puzzle SVG file first and position it. A sharp eye will note that I positioned mine beyond the edge of my honeycomb grid, which caused some scorch marks behind the top cut. So make sure your material is clear of anything that could impede cutting or engraving like pins, borders, etc. (I corrected this in the attached project file.) Select All and set the processing type to Cut. I used the reference settings for my material.
Now import your drawing. For raster-based images (BMP, GIF, PNG, and JPGs), set the processing type to Engrave. You can adjust the bitmap mode and other settings as desired. I left all mine at the default values. For a line-based vector image, you may want to just Score it, which will make the process go much faster.
Size and adjust the drawing as you'd like it. To make this easier, I took advantage of XCS's new Layers feature and moved the drawing to its own layer then sent it to the back to verify how it would look on the puzzle.
Step 4
Process the Job
First run Framing to ensure your puzzle will end up where you want it. If you're satisfied with the framing, Start the job!
In my project, the M1 cut the pieces out first, then it did the engraving. The engraving is what takes the most time. For me, the job took about 45 minutes. You might want to play with different settings to reduce that time.
It turns out that one of the hardest things to do for this project was removing the puzzle from the machine! Remove the outer sheet leaving just the puzzle, then carefully slide a thin card or something similarly firm under the pieces of the puzzle. It may take some wiggling and adjusting to get it fully under the puzzle without dislodging pieces. Carefully lift the sheet, and keep your puzzle on the sheet as you do any final cleanup, light sanding, etc.
Step 5
Package and Enjoy!
Package your puzzle as desired for gifting. Take care in moving it around—I sandwiched mine between two pieces of cardboard to avoid having to reassemble the puzzle myself before giving it away.
Tips:Consider printing a copy of the image and packaging it with the puzzle so your child can use it as a reference when they're assembling the puzzle themselves. And packaging it with some markers will turn it into a puzzle and coloring gift in one!
Learnings & Conclusions
This turned out to be a fun and straightforward project, and I learned from it along the way. A few points worth considering:
Use Air Assist if you have it! My puzzle pieces have pretty severe scorching since I don't have Air Assist installed yet. Ultimately, these distract from the design on the puzzle.
Xtool users have posted numerous tricks for enhancing the appearance of engraving through solutions, marking, or fill. Most of those should work here, though you may want to separate the engraving and cutting steps so you can apply those enhancements before cutting up your engraved image.
It may be worth taking some time to test and optimize the engraving or scoring settings for your material. I went with the default settings, but the resulting time to process was pretty long. If you have the tools (and skills) to do it, consider converting your drawing to a vector-based image if it's not already. Scoring a vector image will be much faster than engraving.
With freely available software to map out the puzzle pieces, making a jigsaw puzzle is incredibly simple. And not just as gifts or toys, but think about clever corporate brand swag, photo puzzles, and more. Consider different types of material, depending on what type of device you use. The possibilities for this are endless!
Update: I didn't like how stained my final product was, so I've gone back and cleaned it up a bit, reposting the final pics but leaving both shots in the final step to show the comparison. Spoiler: Cleaning trick coming to Tips&Tricks! :)
Pick an Image
First off, you need to find an image for your puzzle project. For the Gifts Challenge, we can't use copywrited images, though many companies—Disney, Crayola, Warner, and more—offer freely available and downloadable coloring pages that work great for making puzzles. Alternatively, many public agencies also offer fun and educational images that would make great puzzles. I searched on the National Park Service site for "coloring pages" and found hundreds of images. I ultimately chose something from the Redwood Forest coloring challenge. Use your preferred image editing program to modify, crop, and/or export the image into an allowable format for the laser: PNG, JPG, BMP, WEBP, DXF, or SVG. In many cases, this may not even be necessary.
Design the Puzzle
Now it's time to create the puzzle pattern. This step is quite simple, thanks to developer Manuel Kasten, who created and made his web-based puzzle generator available to the world at no cost. You can choose between rectangular and round (or round-ish) puzzles. Choose how big you want it to be, how many pieces you want, how you want the tabs to look, and more. You can even change the "seed," which randomly generates different puzzle patterns for you.
For this project, I decided to create a 5 x 7 puzzle. The dimensions are in mm, so this requires a little conversion. Your search engine or digital assistant should be able to help. The resulting size for mine is 127mm x 178mm.
As for the pieces, a good rule of thumb on a puzzle is to start with 1 piece per square inch and adjust from there. I just went with 5 x 7 tiles, matching the puzzle size to get 1" pieces.
You may lose time just playing with this incredibly cool utility. The round puzzles are even more fascinating.
Prepare the Job in XCS
Place your material on the engraving platform. Since we're cutting, you'll want to make sure it's raised from the bottom plate. I'm using the honeycomb grid in my M1 riser base. I'm not even sure if this would work using the triangular prisms since pieces might start falling as they're cut. For material, my recommendation is to use something that's 2-3mm thick. I'm using 3mm Basswood plywood, and I'm using the reference settings for that.
Don't forget to click to auto-measure the height of the material surface before you start placing images in XCS. This will ensure that XCS represents positioning as best it can.
Import the jigsaw puzzle SVG file first and position it. A sharp eye will note that I positioned mine beyond the edge of my honeycomb grid, which caused some scorch marks behind the top cut. So make sure your material is clear of anything that could impede cutting or engraving like pins, borders, etc. (I corrected this in the attached project file.) Select All and set the processing type to Cut. I used the reference settings for my material.
Now import your drawing. For raster-based images (BMP, GIF, PNG, and JPGs), set the processing type to Engrave. You can adjust the bitmap mode and other settings as desired. I left all mine at the default values. For a line-based vector image, you may want to just Score it, which will make the process go much faster.
Size and adjust the drawing as you'd like it. To make this easier, I took advantage of XCS's new Layers feature and moved the drawing to its own layer then sent it to the back to verify how it would look on the puzzle.
Process the Job
First run Framing to ensure your puzzle will end up where you want it. If you're satisfied with the framing, Start the job!
In my project, the M1 cut the pieces out first, then it did the engraving. The engraving is what takes the most time. For me, the job took about 45 minutes. You might want to play with different settings to reduce that time.
It turns out that one of the hardest things to do for this project was removing the puzzle from the machine! Remove the outer sheet leaving just the puzzle, then carefully slide a thin card or something similarly firm under the pieces of the puzzle. It may take some wiggling and adjusting to get it fully under the puzzle without dislodging pieces. Carefully lift the sheet, and keep your puzzle on the sheet as you do any final cleanup, light sanding, etc.
Package and Enjoy!
Package your puzzle as desired for gifting. Take care in moving it around—I sandwiched mine between two pieces of cardboard to avoid having to reassemble the puzzle myself before giving it away.
Tips: Consider printing a copy of the image and packaging it with the puzzle so your child can use it as a reference when they're assembling the puzzle themselves. And packaging it with some markers will turn it into a puzzle and coloring gift in one!
Learnings & Conclusions
This turned out to be a fun and straightforward project, and I learned from it along the way. A few points worth considering:
With freely available software to map out the puzzle pieces, making a jigsaw puzzle is incredibly simple. And not just as gifts or toys, but think about clever corporate brand swag, photo puzzles, and more. Consider different types of material, depending on what type of device you use. The possibilities for this are endless!
Update: I didn't like how stained my final product was, so I've gone back and cleaned it up a bit, reposting the final pics but leaving both shots in the final step to show the comparison. Spoiler: Cleaning trick coming to Tips&Tricks! :)