Triangle Peg Puzzle
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A fellow who belongs to a woodworkers guild in Kansas contacted me asking for an idea for a simple jig for drilling holes to make game boards for the triangle pug puzzle. The idea was to make it quick and simple to build and easy enough for anyone to use it. The guild had a building at the Kansas State Fair and were encouraging fair goers to try their hands at a variety of projects.
I came up with an idea for a base with locating pins and a template that doubles as the work-holding fixture. To make it easier and quicker to use, I chose marbles as the locating "pins" which means the template doesn't really need to be lifted to move to the next hole. It can just be pushed gently but when it is held down, it stays firmly in place.
I gave them a full sized pattern they could print and attach to the template for drilling it.
Here's the jig in action. And from my contact:@unknownuser said:
The triangle jig was a rousing success. It allowed visitors from 5 years to 85 to make a game. After drilling the holes (our littlest visitors would have assistance from Mom, Dad or Grandpa or Grandma) as well as our Guild member. After drilling the holes they used sandpaper to remove the nibs, a thumb plane to chamfer the edges and finally they picked out 14 golf tees from a box of multi colored tees for the game pieces. We had brought 51 blanks and after 6 hours we came home with 6. All the rest had found new homes.
It's kind of nice to be able to help a group of woodworkers try to bring more folks into the fold.
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Very elegant solution to the problem.Congratulations.
dh
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