Today the wood taught me how to make a hinged flange locking system. Essentially, the dowel runs through a core piece of material that is glued down and allows the dowel to rotate within. Now, you can create a hinge with this, or making it part of a locking system. I keep material on hand that is the same thickness as the kerf cut from my tiny table saw. Imagine the possibilities... This type of mechanism would require the input from another dial that uses a cam so that it opens and closes the hinged flange consistently when under under spring pressure. Cutting the dado into the dowel can be tricky and dangerous without a jig. I took some 1/4" material (about and inch wide) and glued down some tabs on top of them so that the gap remains consistent and tight. You can do this for any sized dowel. At the bottom end of the dado, I glued on an end piece on so that it would always hold the dowel in place. On the top of the middle tab, I drilled for a tiny pointy screw. This pokes into the dowel just enough to keep it from wanting to roll within the dado when being cut. I like the screw because it can be set exactly where you want it. All there is to do now is rip a few pieces up for stock and see how you can use it. I will likely make this a more complete module in the near future. Good luck.

Hmmm, how about a push button combination lock? I have done a few versions in the past, time to create another one. ...just as soon as I complete a special pair of puzzles for this summer. ☺️ I added a pic of the cigar box style we will need for this operation. Ideally, any lid depth can be used, but a flush/hinged lid is what I will be using for this demonstration. It is also good that this box is wider as it will allow for more push buttons!

As we begin to create an identity around being a puzzle maker, do you have little ways of mirroring that? I am pretty sure pens and mugs have been done to the hilt. Over the last few years I began making little stickers that are 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square. It turns out that this size fits perfectly around a BIC lighter. Even if people don't smoke, there is usually a lighter around for candles or whatnot. Business cards get lost, and this sticker has no other info, so they will have to google, what a fun little search they will do. Additionally, I get to include a local artist in helping create the image too, keeping as much as I can in my community. The artist I engaged with for this year is Remy de Boer from near-by Milton. What innovative ideas are you using or brewing?

Mechanical design doesn’t begin in the hands. It begins with your intentions. Before wood is cut or mechanisms are drawn, the designer must first listen—to forces, to constraints, and to the quiet intelligence already present in matter. A puzzle box isn’t invented by imposing will, but by recognizing how physical laws want to express themselves and then arranging conditions where those laws reveal meaning. This is where the mental and spiritual meet. Listen to the wood. The mind learns to hold multiple truths at once: freedom and limitation, movement and restraint, simplicity and complexity. The designer isn’t forcing outcomes, but aligning intention with reality—allowing form to emerge through patience, curiosity, and respect for unseen relationships. In this way, mechanical design becomes a practice of manifestation. Thought becomes structure. Attention becomes function. Awareness becomes form. The box works not because the maker is clever, but because they listened well enough to let the system teach them how it wanted to exist. But what does this step by step process look like? More to follow.

I would like to join ;-) I already have a hexagon puzzle, but just today I found some hexagon pieces that I'm making a new puzzle from. The AI ​​images are also really inspiring to me.