The EveryDay Puzzle Tray

A conversation with Paul Jasper, PhD

Design and Construction Details:

The tray itself was my first version of what I call an EveryDay Tray, meant for people in the Every Day Carry (EDC) field to stage and store their gear (pocket knives, flashlights, bottle openers, watches, pry bars, etc).  You cleverly suggested a re-imagining of it as a puzzle tray, a place for you to keep track of your puzzle boxes, the parts, and taking notes re: solutions.  I thought that was a great idea.

 The Wood:

The wood is figured Black Walnut that I bought in 2020 when I was in Lancaster County, PA at a local lumberyard called Groff & Groff.  Black walnut is one of the few domestic species of woods we have in North America that has a rich dark brown espresso color to it.  Furthermore, once in a long while, you find a rare FIGURED black walnut tree that has  beautiful color variations and striations within the wood.  I remember seeing the EXACT board that made your entire tray, stretching nearly 16 feet into the air from the ground and being easily 2-feet wide with the most AMAZING color striations throughout.  With design, it is my strong opinion that the piece should match itself internally, meaning all components are from the same tree.  Wood coloring and patterning among various trees even within the same species is so individual, that using wood derived from different trees in one project can make the piece look disjointed or visually clumsy.  This introduces a problem, limited supply.  There's only so much of any one tree available and if you make a catastrophic mistake, it's game over and you'll run out of wood, adding to the stress and pressure of the overall project.   Some makers are constantly saving the BEST WOOD for that someday project that seemingly never comes, so through my experience I have learned to take the opposite approach, I use the best wood I have FIRST for every project.  This is why Steve, your puzzle tray was made from some of the most beautiful black walnut I've ever come across.   You can see it best when the tray is reversed and you're looking at the back view of the tray. 

The heartwood of the tree near the center is the characteristic dark brown color, while the wood just under the bark is called "sapwood" and is actually a light cream color, and there often exists a gorgeous gradient of colors between the two.  While many woodworkers dogmatically cut off the light colored sapwood and discard it, I think this is an immense mistake as it can be a beautiful design element when featured appropriately.  This heartwood-sapwood transition is evident in your coasters and the lidded dovetailed box which match each other , and in which you can immediately see an almost unspeakably beautiful color gradient going from cream, to light gray, to almost red, and finally to dark brown.  Notice the arching grain on the front of the dovetailed box flowing up and down like a nebula, that is present in both the front side and back side of the box (I sawed these from the same piece and carefully aligned them.

The last issue about wood is that it expands and contracts seasonally with environmental humidity changes as the plant cells swell and shrink due to water vapor in the air.  This expansion contraction introduces many challenges and considerations when building things out of solid wood such as this tray (most people use plywood, whose perpendicular grain glue structure largely negates expansion contraction).  I personally, love making my works out of solid wood.  To my eyes, it looks better and just FEELS better to me, knowing that decades to centuries from now, it's all wood no veneer construction will stand the test of time.  Not that I am against veneering, it's a wonderful technique, but where I can, I make pieces out of solid wood.  For your tray I had to make sure the grain direction of all the components was moving in the same direction (the grain of the tray is parallel to the grain direction of the drawer apparatus) and for all the locking mechanisms, that there was substantial "play" in their dimensions so that as things expand and contract throughout the year, the mechanisms still align and work.  While there are no absolute guarantees with wood movement, experience plays an important role in how to design properly for this important consideration (failure to do so results in broken glue joints, warping, and in many cases catastrophic failure).

To contrast the black walnut of the main tray, I paired it with curly cherry inside the drawer.  You can see on the drawer sides and divider the beautiful gently undulating pattern within the cherry, almost like water flowing (this is caused by the grain folding similar to an accordion in the tree for a variety of reasons).  Cherry oxidizes and darkens quickly, giving in contrast to black walnut, not in a jarring or striking way, but more in a subtle beauty way.  I simply love figured cherry and again, it's quite rare to find curly figuring in cherry trees.

Lastly Solid brass components complement the warm black walnut wonderfully (stadia box pulls, drawer pull, drop lock mechanisms, etc), adding a feeling of sophistication to the piece.  I believe mixing materials is an underexplored area of woodworking with incredible design payoffs.  In particular, brass and copper pair with black walnut giving the look and feel of leather bound books and bourbon in a velvet smoking jacket.

Description of each piece:

The Main Puzzle Panel Tray:

During some of my design explorations in the past few years, I came across the field of computer-generative art, in which computer code is used to generate beautiful artistic patterns.  One of the patterns I fell in love with almost instantly was based on a geometry known as a Truchet Tile. "Truchet tiles were first described in a 1704 memoir by Sébastien Truchet entitled "Mémoire sur les combinaisons", and have become a favorite geometry of computer generative artists such as my friend Rev. Daniel Catt  (@revdancatt on instagram).  Dan created a random truchet tile generator in which the user can change any number of input values and it will have an effect on some aspect of the randomly generated pattern and generously shares it with the world (it is also a centerpiece of his NFT based generative art career). I used Dan's generator to make the pattern you see in the center of the puzzle tray, but then manually modified it …. 

The tray panel itself is made from a piece of black walnut inlaid with brass.  The pattern was routed on my CNC machine one line at a time using a very small 1/16" bit, and then back filled with a slurry of slow cure epoxy mixed with a high percentage of actual brass powder (size of the individual brass particles is 44 microns or smaller!).  The higher the percentage of brass in the epoxy, the more it begins to take on a shine like solid brass.  The finish on the panel is OSMO polyX, an oil and wax mixture to make for easy repair ,buffing, and restoration in the future.  Also, the pattern being made from brass is key, because if it was ferromagnetic containing any iron, it would interfere with the … mechanisms underneath.  The panel is free floating in the tray (not glued) because once the brass pattern is solidified, the wood in the panel no long expands and contracts.  As discussed earlier, gluing something that doesn't expand/contract to something that does (the tray itself) is a recipe for broken glue joins, warping, or cracks.

The Dovetailed Box:

To contrast the modern-ness of a tray that is largely made using a CNC machine, as well as the modern Truchet tile panel, I decided we needed a piece of old-world craftsmanship to balance it, such as a beautiful traditional hand-cut dovetailed box.  There is something so quality and such feelings conveyed when you see hand cut dovetails included in a piece. Perhaps it is because you know that piece is going to stand the test of time, as dovetails stay together for centuries without issue. I love they way they look, I love the way they function, and I love seeing the marking gauge scribe lines, all of it.  The lid is hinged on two small fitted brass pins.  The floor of the box is hand beveled with a hand plane and free floating in the box floor again to allow expansion/contraction of the panel within the rigid box form.  Also, I decided to make the box floor out of cherry to refer to the cherry on the drawer sides.  Finally, the grain selection on the lid of the box is meant to tie it together to the coaster stack.  Underneath the box is a panel of wood that I upholstered in black waxed leather and inlaid 2 magnets to hold the little iron poker-majig which was fashioned from an old 10 penny nail by hand.

The Coaster Stack

Form and Function.  The coaster stack was a specific consideration for you, so you could make your incredible cocktails while you solve your puzzles. … I got the idea to tooth the coasters.  This solved the problem of slipping but also elevated the coaster off the table top so any liquid underneath wouldn't get trapped.  However the toothing introduced a problem:  If they expand or contract at all (wood movement occurs primarily perpendicular to the grain direction) they will take on an oval shape rather than a perfect circle and the teeth will no longer line up and connect.  Therefore, to solve this problem, I made a custom black walnut plywood (notice the plies on the side of the coaster) to negate the effects of wood movement.  The finish on the whole tray is shellac (the most classic of fine furniture finishes) with the exception of the coasters who have a coat of Osmo Polyx (drying oils and wax), because shellac is alcohol soluble and your drinks could eat through it if spilled on the coasters.  I loved the sapwood, heartwood color transition on the coasters.  It's magical and ties them into the box.

Stadia Boxes

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but stadia boxes were an experiment into the field of human innate preference. The question at hand was do humans prefer certain shapes more than others. Upon further investigation there's a large body of scientific evidence in the literature to suggest that humans prefer curvilinear forms over rectilinear and this bears out time and time again in empirically controlled tests.  To test this idea myself, I decided to make a curved box and see if I could tell whether it had an enhanced appeal to people. I call it a stadia box because the shape of it is geometrically referred to as a "stadium". Long story short, the minute I posted these curved boxes my Instagram, the response was overwhelmingly positive. While this was not any type of scientific test per se, anecdotally it was clear to me that this curved box shape had immense immediate appeal to people and I have since made hundreds of these and used the shape in various projects and forms. With respect to your tray I think they add a nice curved element that contrasts beautifully with the otherwise Square elements of the tray and drawer assembly. Moreover they are made out of beautiful black walnut with matching lids and hand turn solid copper pulls. Again the boxes sport a Truchet tile patterns underneath … in brass epoxy.

Drawer Assembly

The drawer is another opportunity to utilize hand-cut dovetails in the most classic construction. The front of the drawer features half-blind dovetails while the back of the drawer is through dovetails.  I decided to use curly cherry for the drawer sides and a floor of black walnut. I also had to add dividers and locking elements to the drawer so that it could be locked or unlocked as a function of the puzzle above. The drawer bottom is only glued to the front of the drawer allowing expansion and contraction along its length and a screw with some play engineered in the hole keeps it tight to the drawer bottom. This type of drawer construction comes directly out of the Fine Furniture literature from casework of centuries ago.  Also, when gluing up the drawer I used cowhide glue, the classic glue of Fine Furniture, which can be reversed and easily repaired in the future without the need to scrape or destroy the wood.  I decided to make the pull out of solid brass bar, again to pull the piece together and add some mixed media sophistication.  After the drawer is made, it is fit meticulously by hand to have smooth opening and closing action.  The wood on wood contacts have shellac applied to them and then are waxed to give a buttery smooth action as expected of a piece of fine furniture.

Internal mechanisms

The gears and belts were ordered from McMaster Carr.  The gears were 3D printed and then I created custom plywood discs that attached to the gears ….  The belt is nylon reinforced to avoid stretching however to get good contact between the belt and the gears I had to hand build a spring-loaded belt tensioning system that is low profile and can fit in the intervening space between tray and drawer.  That space was made through recessing both the tray as well as the top of the drawer assembly to make enough room for the mechanics to fit.  One of the trickier parts was synchronizing that the drawer opens with ….  This required precise alignment of things prior to applying the belt.  I was also worried that if the piece was jarred during shipping the belt might slip resulting in misalignment.  To realign things, the tray would have to be taken off the drawer assembly and then re-aligned before putting back together.  It's not really a big deal but also probably not something you want to be doing frequently.

Q & A:

What techniques did you employ in making this? What new techniques did you learn? 

This tray is so interesting in some ways because it combines elements of fine furniture from many centuries ago (hand cut dovetailed box) with absolutely cutting edge modern technology (the whole tray was milled on my CNC, as well as the computer generative art and Truchet Tile pattern).  Techniques include inlay, hand-cut dovetails, hand-planed surfaces, solid brass milling, brass epoxy inlay, custom plywood fabrication, classic drawer construction, classic box construction, etc.. 

New techniques to me were working extensively with rare-earth magnets of various shapes and sizes, gears, belts, and tensioners. 

What aspects were the most challenging? Did you ever feel like giving up?

The most challenging aspects were DEFINITELY getting the puzzle mechanisms fabricated and working.  I had never made any of them before and almost didn't know where to start honestly.  It was very frustrating to go out to the shop and not know where to begin and just start tinkering a step at a time to see if the idea would even work.  I had to do a mock up of the entire mechanism and top tray to work out ideas and stress test ideas.  Some ideas worked the first time and others required several revisions.  The fist sets of gears and pulleys I bought were great, but the belts they offered weren't NEARLY long enough and I only realized that after I had bought them.  So I had to ask Robert for more recommendations as to another robotics gear supplier to try.  The whole process was long and frustrating and I didn't really enjoy it because I was definitely in over my head.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the famous psychology researcher published a table that well describes when humans are in a highly content flow state:  See figure below:

When a challenge is high and our skill sets are equally high, we find ourselves in a state of "flow", what many refer to as being "in the zone", where hours melt by like minutes and there is a zen-like meditative singular focus.  However when the challenge is high and our skill sets are low (as was the case with me trying to build the puzzle mechanisms from scratch having no prior experience whatsoever), you can see we are in the worry, anxiety zone and that's where I found myself during much of the build of this tray.  Occasionally I crossed into the arousal part toward the end of the project as my skills improved with the mechanical parts.  The woodworking parts and design aspects, in contrast, were well under my control and I was in flow or control or relaxation zones the entire time.  Overall, it was a mixed experience.

Did I ever feel like giving up?

Well, that's just not something I even consider an option.  I'm a Ph.D scientist for my career so being confronted with difficult problems full of unknown parameters and coming up with approaches to solve them is something I have considerable experience with.  Maybe emotionally I might feel flustered one day but intellectually, I know I will ultimately find a solution.  Also my science expertise is building mathematical models of biological systems so there is a lot of engineering and mechanistic thinking involved.  So while I didn't know how to build gears or tensioners or any of that in practice, I do THINK mechanistically -- so I knew what I needed to do in essence and just needed to figure out how to get there with my hands.

How was it working with Rob?

Brilliant.  Rob was responsive, understanding, clever & creative, open-minded to revision or pivoting and helped me all along the way.  I couldn't have asked for a better experience working together and I'm sure we'll stay in touch from this point forward.  Robert is a gem in this puzzle community and what a fantastically clever individual.  We had phone calls together, long emails, video chats, he sent drawing of ideas and then a full parts list and links for where to buy them which was immensely helpful.  There is no way this project would be even 1/10 as cool as it was without his puzzle designs and help along the way.  A HUGE Thank you to my new friend Robert Yarger.

I was curious about the inscription I saw in the photos, which seems to be hidden under the tray top now.

The inscription is still there hidden away between the tray and drawer apparatus.  It is a message from me reaching across the generations to the next craftsperson who may some day, restore/rebuild/ this piece long after I am gone.  We craftspeople delight in knowing something about the individuals who came before us but share a common love of craft.  I tell the brief story of this piece, who made it, who designed it and who bought so some day, people may understand what this piece is and why it exists. 

What ideas did you have along the way?

Well of course the design itself evolves along the way, and the leather bound notebook with your embossed logo hit me along the way.  Also hiding the … came to me late in the game. And definitely the two-part … solution came right near the end.  I was building the mechanism and noticed the … I realized I could leave it like that to make the puzzle even more complicated or take it out....  I figured, why not leave it in!  It was a happy accident, not intentional at first.

Will you incorporate any new ideas in the future into things? 

Absolutely … are the coolest idea and I already have a plan to integrate one into my next cabinet piece.  What a cool idea those are and they work beautifully for such a simple mechanism.  I will definitely be using more magnets in general in my future pieces.  The magnetic attraction of these rare-earth magnets is reportedly to decay at only 1% per 100 years!  So they are essentially permanent which is important to me on pieces I make, as I construct them with methods and materials that will also last many centuries assuming responsible ownership.  It's a form of legacy for us makers.

Will you ever do this again?

I'm honestly not sure.   It was a difficult journey for me full of frustration, unknowns, and some successes.  My main emphasis in woodworking is original design, as I think beautiful design is exceedingly important (and I appreciate you telling me everyone found this piece visually beautiful!), and something the vast majority of woodworkers completely ignore.  What is my true creative voice? I'm still looking for it piece by piece over the past several years, exploring and  integrating other forms of art into the tradition of fine woodworking (like metal engraving, metal inlay, pyrography, marquetry, CNC innovations, patterns, carving, turning, etc).  I feel as though I've barely scratched the surface as to discovering who I am as an artist (although people do tell me they can recognize my style instantly when they see a piece of mine, which is funny because I can't see it as clearly).  I do think I have a good eye for design and I just innately know, instantly, what looks good to me, what doesn't, and why.  I think good artistic design is a natural aptitude of mine and I need to develop it further.  This is why I didn't want to get into puzzle furniture, because it adds an entirely new dimension of challenge and struggle on top of something that I'm only beginning to understand and develop (original design).  In many ways I just feel like I'm not ready for added challenge yet of puzzles on top of everything else.

I think that nicely tells the story of your puzzle tray and everything that went in to making it what it is, spanning generations of woodworking techniques from centuries ago (hand-cut dovetails), to modern innovations of today (CNC), from cow hide glue to modern epoxy adhesives, from 3D printed gears to the most beautiful figured air-dried black walnut, from friendships formed around computer generative art and puzzle mechanism design, to experiments in human preference with curvilinear design. So much goes into every single piece I make, which is why I choose which commission I accept carefully, as it takes a piece of my life with it. What I hope most is that the pieces I make bring daily joy to their owners and remind them of our shared connection, our mutual love of high-quality hand crafted, thoughtful, and deliberately designed craft.

With appreciation.

Paul