This puzzle box is designed by Erhan ubukcuoglu 2015

Istanbul /TURKEY

Copyrights Erhan ubukculu 2015

This document is only for non commercial use. You can make some
copy of this puzzle for your own collection, gift, charity organizations
etc..

You can copy or share this document without changing this page and
document content. Please don't publish on web, if you want share give
a link to my blog.

Contact information
eacubukcu@yahoo.com

For more puzzles my puzzle blog

http://diypuzzles.wordpress.com/

This document can contain dangerous operations or some mistakes. Everything

is your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage.

If you find mistakes in this document please contact me by email that I correct
them for you and for other people.
Dragon box

After long time finally I made another puzzle

box. Some time ago I watched a video about
an antique Chinese puzzle box. There is a
sweet competition between China and Japan. I
like this. Chinese has tangram and Japans has
Japanese tangram. Japans has Japanese puzzle
boxes and Chinese has Chinese puzzle box.
The mechanism of this Chinese box was very
nice and I decided to make one. I made some
changes and the result is this box. The name of
this box is dragon box.

For making this box I used cherry and

mahogany. Additionally some small padauk
scraps from my workshop. Box dimensions
are 150x 76x 92 mm. This puzzle box is a complex box project (at least for me) and require a lot of
drawing and explications
How this box work

After pull backward the box cover. Box cover

For opening this box you must first pull back will go to back about 6-7 mm and this will give
piece up. But you can't take out this piece out enough clearance for turning rotating cover
because three brass pin will block this. piece. You must rotate cover piece

And now you can take out box cover

Now you can pull forward box cover pulling box
cover forward will give you enough clearance
for taking out back piece

And now you can take out box cover

How to make your own dragon box

I started to this box by making box base, for this I prepared this pieces,

Base piece 80 x 150 x 6 mm 1 pcs

Long side pieces 76 x 150 x 6 mm 2 pcs
Short side pieces 80 x 10 x 20 mm 8 pcs

I made short sides by using 8 pcs instead of making with less pieces. Because want that side panels
looks as made of small pieces and finding joint for opening box became more difficult. I prefer
cutting all same length pieces with one table saw setup. This make easy to obtain precisely same
dimension on all pieces.

I started by making fixed side of the box. For this, I made chamfer to side pieces. You must make to
two edge of center piece and to only one edge of other two piece.
For making fixed side you will glue four piece as shown on left side of the photo. For making other
side you will glue only 2 piece a shown on the photo. For now don't fix other 2 pieces.

Now you must drill holes for brass pins,

For drilling holes you must fix all three pieces to a scrap wood. Mark your drill points and drill two
holes. With this method you will guarantee that hole and pin locations became correct.

Now you can mount brass pins and glue two piece together. I used 4 mm brass pins. Pine lengths is
about 42 mm. You can use also wooden pins. But wood change dimension according to humidity.
This is your choice.

Now you can start to base assembly.

Before preparing and gluing your side pieces I advise to prepare your rotating box piece,

For this piece dimensions (you can see drawings) aproximately 80x30x6 mm. The end cut is 45
and require a table saw. For this small pieces I advise using a small desktop table saw. Push sticks
etc are also indispensable And the piece with hole is 78x10x10 mm. I drilled a 5 mm through hole
for a 4 mm brass pin. If you can work more precisely you can drill a 4,5 mm hole.

Glue both of them together according to drawings.

Now you can prepare your side pieces.

Important
After you can prepare your side piece. You must prepare small holes on both side panel
before gluing this on box. Otherwise you can't drill. Drill head don't enter to hole location
and drill bits aren't enough long.

Another important point. You will drill a 3-4 mm depth hole to 6 mm wooden board.
Don't use wood drill bits and be careful for not making a through hole

Before gluing side pieces mount your rotating piece between to side panels with clamps etc and see
that it works. Now you can glue one side piece to the box base

Mount rotating piece and glue other side,

This box has two rails. Box cover slide on this rails See drawings for correct location of the rails.
You must glue rails to side panels. This is my prototype work. I am going step by step. But you can
glue rails to their place before gluing your side panels. Rails are 6x6x75 mm.

Now your box base is nearly ready, yo can make box cover.
On the back side of the box cover there are two guide piece. This guides hold rotating piece in
perfect location and give clearance for rails. On the box cover there is an ornament. But this
ornament also has a function. For sliding box cover you can use this small holes as finger points.
Wood change dimension with humidity and sliding this kind of panels may be difficult.

I cut this ornament with a jewelry hand saw. You can make anything that you wish. After I glued to
back side a piece of mahogany. It was a scrap from my workshop. Dimensions aren't critical.
Now I returned back to my back side piece and added brass pins.
I used three 3 mm brass pins. Each has 12+6 mm length. This pins block the exit of this piece
before moving the box cover to forward. Finally I glued last blocking piece. A small piece
6x6x75mm.

Now your box is almost ready.

For hiding joint of box cover with rotating piece I glued two wood stripes. I glued one to the box
cover. This is for symmetry and only for decorative purpose. Other strip glued on the rotating piece
Wood strips are 80x10x6 mm

All drawings are 1: 1 scale if you print them without scaling you can use drawings for checking
dimensions etc.
 BOX BASE
80X150X6 MM

21

4
BOX SIDE 1 25

150X76X6
Hole depth = 3 mm

BOX SIDE 2
150X76X6
Hole depth = 3 mm
 20 80

6 6 3

5
10
22

12

20 40

BACK PIECE

24 80
45

10

10 78
4
30
4

ROTATING PIECE
 Cover guides 6x8x74 mm

Cover holder
79x65x6 mm

Ornament piece
40x40x6 mm

COVER PIECES
 94

20
80

8
7
Cover guide positions
0,5

20

Cover holder position