Puzzle Boxes: Fun and Intriguing Bandsaw Projects

by Jeff Vollmer

Unlocking the Secrets of the Puzzle Box Have you ever thought "inside" the box? These band-sawn boxes could be the most intriguing and fun projects you've ever made.

Author Jeff Vollmer describes his boxes as key-and-slide–cut a dovetail key, cut a slider piece, cut another key, cut another slider. That's the puzzle or "combination" you use to get to the chamber or heart of the box.

Then you cut out the guts of the box to create a chamber. But wait, there's more! Then you cut another box from the guts, then another box or drawer from those pieces, then another and maybe another until things get too small to handle safely.

Any type wood can be used to make these boxes–wood with holes, cracks, splits, insect and wormholes, spalting and burls. Jeff calls these flaws "opportunities" to become creative.

Please note that the digital version of this book does not include the accompanying DVD.

Genres: Woodwork, Nonfiction

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ame · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful boxes and some very good instructional material on setting up your band saw, but this book is not for beginners as you will need to know the basic types of cuts used in band saw boxes and puzzle boxes in order to follow his directions. He does give very pictures and step-by-step instructions for the boxes but you won't find any plans or how-to's.

[Smellsofbikes · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book, but its instructional technique was mostly showing pictures of him making boxes -- and that's fine, but it didn't offer a lot in the way of design or discussion of how to do things that weren't pretty much exatly like what he was doing. But good photography and some good ideas.

[Colette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't tried making any of these boxes, but he makes it look pretty simple. The directions seem to be detailed and sufficient. I'm definitely going to try making some.