A Stainless Puzzle

Scott Fredrickson, a self-described "artist-without-a-beard," awoke one morning with the idea of creating highly complex, precision jigsaw puzzles from stainless steel. Years earlier, he had taken courses in welding, so he had a sense of how to speak to metalworking shops about bringing his vision to production. However, when he began circulating a wood prototype around shops near his New Orleans, La. home, Fredrickson learned that CAD was the best way to ensure the fit he sought from automated machines. Then he purchased a Vector-Works CAD package, spent time teaching himself via the software's tutorials and attended a seminar sponsored by the software manufacturer.

Still, 30 shops turned Frederickson away before he connected with BEGNAUD Manufacturing Inc. in Lafayette, La.

Don Begneaud's job shop serves local oil and gas industries, as well as customers in agriculture, medical, automotive and aerospace, among others. Within the state of Louisiana, Begneaud has a reputation of innovation for his ability to integrate sheet metal industry with fine art. The two men struck a contract and "Diabolical Puzzles" was born.

Fredrickson knew, from researching metals on the Internet, that he wanted to use two layers of 0.25-in. thick 316 stainless steel for the first series of puzzles, which would measure 8 in. by 10 in. In an unusual move, Begneaud allowed Fredrickson to spend time in the shop, familiarizing himself with the equipment so he could help achieve the quality he wanted.

From the CAD drawings, a 3000W Trumpf L2530 laser cuts the individual puzzle pieces and the outer frame. By not cutting an entire puzzle from a single sheet, the pieces fit with a .004 in. tolerance.

"We tried making the tolerance even tighter, but had to assemble that puzzle with a hammer," Fredrickson says.

The pieces are deburred in a tumble vibrator, and then are hand polished. Fredrickson specified each puzzle piece to be polished at a different angle, so each piece has a unique directional grain to its surface.

"The guys on the shop floor thought I was nuts for rotating each individual puzzle piece a different degree in the cutting skeleton," he explains. "But when they eventually saw how intricate the finished product looked, they understood."

The outer frame is then edge-welded to a second sheet of 316 stainless to create a tray. When Fredrickson later designed a smaller, pocket-sized puzzle to be executed in .0625 in. stainless, the shop had to switch from TIG to a Trumpf Profiweld laser welder to join the frame to the back to avoid warping the metal.

While Hurricane Katrina put Diabolical Puzzles on hold, Fredrickson was exploring designing 3D puzzles with his CAD program. In a few months, he and Begneaud will start production on the new products, using a five-axis Trumpf TLC 1005 Lasercell to cut and weld the pieces.

In addition to stainless steel puzzles, Fredrickson also offers 2D versions of his puzzles rendered in plastic and custom designs by request.