Hi all hope everyone is having a great day. I'm looking to make name puzzles out of wood for each of my 19 grandkids and am wanting a easy way to do it. I have done some things with inkscape but am still a beginner. This is what I wood like it to look like. Any and all thoughts would be appreciated
Water cutters can be totally automated and can cut through anything but my guess they are so pricy it's out of the question.
Laser cutters can also provide automated, yet they are not strong enough to cut through such a hefty block. Usually they are used on intricate plywood cutouts, then some could stack glue layers atop eachother. Not exactly what you are aiming at I guess. (Laser has also a limited focus and it burns the edges unlike the water cutters.)
Then there are various band saw machines and band saws. The saw machine has an infinite loop of saw teeth rotating in one direction only, keeping a straight cutting edge that you need to direct the material through to be cut to shape. Needs said machine or wood workshop (maybe there is something similar to a fablab around you?).
It has some limitations. There is the thickness of the saw providing about a 1,5-2 mm "gap" between the cut material and the "depth" of the blade determines the minimum radius you can still cut by jiggling the woodblock around.
Other factors, how sturdy you want the design to be. Keep some reasonable thickness in the design or parts can break off/more error prone to cut too.
The process would be selecting the wood you want to cut, laminateits sides with something that can hold the cut pieces in place.
-Some dutcttape can work I guess; needs testing.-
Glue the printed design onto the surface of the block and start cutting.
Depending on test results and on the design you may want to cut the pieces from the opposite side so you may print out a mirrored variation of the lettering.
Well, you'll have a bit of a learning curve for drawing in Inkscape, before you're ready to cut them out. And there are a lot of tricks to eliminate small errors, and I can't possibly spell out each and every one. But I can give you the basics, and you can practice and ask questions when you get stuck.
First I would suggest to follow these 3 tutorials. Even though some of them cover things you don't need, they also cover things that will be very helpful. And they definitely cover things you need to learn. Inkscape Help menu > Tutorials > Basic, Shapes, and Advanced (don't worry, the one named advanced isn't really - it's really to teach beginners some of the most important parts of Inkscape).
How you draw it will depend on how you want the puzzle to work. By the image you shared, it looks like each letter will be a separate piece of wood, and that it's assembled by putting the letters in the correct order. Is that correct? Or will there be little male and female edges to be connected where the letters meet, like a jigsaw puzzle?
To me, it looks like they nestle up to each other and share the same border where they meet, but it's hard to tell at that size.
Of course you would want to start by finding the font you want to use (or fonts, if you plan on using different fonts for different names). Install those on your computer. And of course next you want to type the names using the Text tool, and make it the size you need.
From here, there are different ways you could go, and someone else might prefer using a different technique. But this is what I would do.
Select the text
Path menu > Union
Path menu > Break Apart
Deselect everything
Now you probably noticed that all the letters with "holes", such as P, D, b, a, etc. have been filled in. So next you need to fix that. Here's how
Using the Selection tool, drag a selection box around the letter. Check the status bar and make sure it says "2 objects selected of type Path...."
Path menu > Difference
That should re-create the "hole" in the letter. Repeat for all the affected letters.
Next
Using the Selection tool, select the 2nd letter, and tap the left arrow key to move the 2nd letter closer to the first
When you get as close as you can get, without going too far, hold the Alt key while pressing the arrow key (divides one arrow key distance by 10)
Or instead of arrow keys, you could hold Ctrl key while you "manually" drag the letter over (Ctrl restricts the movement to perfectly vertical or horizontal)
I'm guessing you will want to have the letters overlap slightly, rather than just touch each other, in most cases, or else they will not nestle nicely together. Once they are overlapping slightly, and they're in the perfect position, and you don't plan to adjust them any further, duplicate the 2nd letter.
Select the first letter and the duplicate of the 2nd letter
Path menu > Difference
If you're zoomed in, you will see that this cuts the 2nd letter into the first, and creates the tightly aligned border between them.
Continue with that routine until you finish.
Let us know how it goes 🙂
Edit - oops, Lazur posted while I was typing....it seems we interpretted your question differently....
Beginners' Questions wood name puzzle
Inkscape.org
Hi all hope everyone is having a great day. I'm looking to make name puzzles out of wood for each of my 19 grandkids and am wanting a easy way to do it. I have done some things with inkscape but am still a beginner. This is what I wood like it to look like. Any and all thoughts would be appreciated
Hi.
It depends on the cutter you use.
Water cutters can be totally automated and can cut through anything but my guess they are so pricy it's out of the question.
Laser cutters can also provide automated, yet they are not strong enough to cut through such a hefty block. Usually they are used on intricate plywood cutouts, then some could stack glue layers atop eachother. Not exactly what you are aiming at I guess. (Laser has also a limited focus and it burns the edges unlike the water cutters.)
Then there are various band saw machines and band saws. The saw machine has an infinite loop of saw teeth rotating in one direction only, keeping a straight cutting edge that you need to direct the material through to be cut to shape. Needs said machine or wood workshop (maybe there is something similar to a fablab around you?).
It has some limitations. There is the thickness of the saw providing about a 1,5-2 mm "gap" between the cut material and the "depth" of the blade determines the minimum radius you can still cut by jiggling the woodblock around.
Other factors, how sturdy you want the design to be. Keep some reasonable thickness in the design or parts can break off/more error prone to cut too.
The process would be selecting the wood you want to cut, laminateits sides with something that can hold the cut pieces in place.
-Some dutcttape can work I guess; needs testing.-
Glue the printed design onto the surface of the block and start cutting.
Depending on test results and on the design you may want to cut the pieces from the opposite side so you may print out a mirrored variation of the lettering.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Welcome to the forum!
Well, you'll have a bit of a learning curve for drawing in Inkscape, before you're ready to cut them out. And there are a lot of tricks to eliminate small errors, and I can't possibly spell out each and every one. But I can give you the basics, and you can practice and ask questions when you get stuck.
First I would suggest to follow these 3 tutorials. Even though some of them cover things you don't need, they also cover things that will be very helpful. And they definitely cover things you need to learn. Inkscape Help menu > Tutorials > Basic, Shapes, and Advanced (don't worry, the one named advanced isn't really - it's really to teach beginners some of the most important parts of Inkscape).
How you draw it will depend on how you want the puzzle to work. By the image you shared, it looks like each letter will be a separate piece of wood, and that it's assembled by putting the letters in the correct order. Is that correct? Or will there be little male and female edges to be connected where the letters meet, like a jigsaw puzzle?
To me, it looks like they nestle up to each other and share the same border where they meet, but it's hard to tell at that size.
Of course you would want to start by finding the font you want to use (or fonts, if you plan on using different fonts for different names). Install those on your computer. And of course next you want to type the names using the Text tool, and make it the size you need.
From here, there are different ways you could go, and someone else might prefer using a different technique. But this is what I would do.
Now you probably noticed that all the letters with "holes", such as P, D, b, a, etc. have been filled in. So next you need to fix that. Here's how
That should re-create the "hole" in the letter. Repeat for all the affected letters.
Next
I'm guessing you will want to have the letters overlap slightly, rather than just touch each other, in most cases, or else they will not nestle nicely together. Once they are overlapping slightly, and they're in the perfect position, and you don't plan to adjust them any further, duplicate the 2nd letter.
If you're zoomed in, you will see that this cuts the 2nd letter into the first, and creates the tightly aligned border between them.
Continue with that routine until you finish.
Let us know how it goes 🙂
Edit - oops, Lazur posted while I was typing....it seems we interpretted your question differently....
I saw what you did there.
A close look at the OP's image shows there are jigsaw puzzle features linking the letters together.
As Lazur suggests, the easy way is to print an image on paper and stick it to the wood, before heading to the scrollsaw.
The fun part in Inkscape is adding a "key" feature to one object and removing the same shape from the next feature.
Have a nice day.
TD
This was perfect exceltly what I was looking to do. thank you.
All of you guys ROCK. Thanks again.