UPDATE 7/31/2025:

Hello puzzle friends,

I got a bunch of responses from my query about how to proceed with this project and most folks are pretty eager to see it come together in some manner, although a few did ask for their money back. As for the rest of you, the majority seem to be of the opinion to keep proceeding forward as previously planned yet raise the price slightly. I called this "Plan B" in the query email. Not enough folks were interested in an extra-fancy version to justify the extra work that would be involved to set it up. That was "Plan C" in the last email.

"Plan D" was not very popular (fully 3D printed) although it will still be possible for anyone who wants to go that route to save some money on the final invoice.

After tabulating those results I dove deep into Plan B this past month. It's going really well so far, as you can see by the attached photo of a full size (mostly) working plastic prototype sitting on my desk. I am almost done with all of the design work, and anticipate it will only be another week or two before I have it all worked out and ready for some play testing, followed by perhaps a few revisions, and then I can start running the printers in unattended production mode and move over to the woodshop tasks.

I estimate that it will take another month or two worth of woodshop setup work to get the tools ready to make those parts. I designed it so that the wooden parts are relatively straightforward to fabricate in order to keep the cost down. I've attached some new screen-shots of the current state of the design file that I've been working on so you can see the evolution of the "furniture" concept. It still stands 11 inches tall however I've refined the shape of the feet and added some more decorative woodwork to the outside edges. I'm planning to use maple for the light wood and walnut for the dark wood, just like I did for the wooden ring on the GITS.

Another change that I've made is that now the drawer knobs and bottom drawer lock will be made from aluminum in order to match the exterior of the GITS. This is pending my ability to get these made at a reasonable cost.

Now that this project is moving forward I can say that one of the things which I am particularly excited about is the kumiki aspect of how the whole piece of furniture disassembles once you open the final drawer. It comes apart into well over 200 pieces, and I think it's a pretty fun process to take it all apart and build it up again.

From an R&D perspective it is also pretty nice how it breaks down into individual parts because I can incrementally upgrade one section at a time as I am working on this. The mechanisms that I've come up with for the drawers are very clever and so far everything is working out great, and I'm really proud of the work that has gone into it so far.

In addition to the custom metal parts (knobs and bottom drawer lock cylinder) there are lots of special hardware components that go into each puzzle (pins, screws, bearings, springs, etc) several of which will require custom order from my vendors due to quantity that I'll need in total and also because these items are the very smallest sizes that they even sell. I've spoken on the phone with a couple of the vendors in question and it's looking like a 2-3 month lead-time to get those special orders processed. Hopefully by the time those custom orders arrive then I will have a good supply ready of the plastic and wooden parts to start building complete units.

I'd like to put in orders for these parts and for the other materials that I'll need but have exhausted my resources and need to ask for another $200 deposit to keep the project going. That will bring your deposit up to $400 total. I am still aiming for a final price in the $400-$600 range, although admittedly that low end number seems unlikely at this point. This is truly turning into an epic puzzle and I think you all are going to be very pleased with the result. I'm definitely excited to see it all coming together and am looking forward to getting started with the production work in earnest with the help of this next fundraising round.

As mentioned earlier, if you want to save some money on this there is still the Plan D option which would be the fully 3D printed version. If you want this then please just send an extra $100 instead of $200. A fully 3D printed version would look similar to the attached photo of my prototype, but I'd probably use some different colors for the outside pieces instead of black & white like my current prototype.

Thanks again for all of your patience as this project has unfolded.



UPDATE 7/2/2025:

I sent out an email last week asking folks to vote on how they want this project to move forward. I got some varied responses back, but an overall theme emerged which was that most folks want me to keep the original vision for the project even if it means a moderate increase in cost. Some folks wanted fancier woodworking but not enough folks thought it was worth the extra money.

So now instead of an estimated cost of $250-350 each, I've raised my cost estimate to the $400-600 range. I'm still planning to use a mixture of wood, metal, and 3D printed plastic pieces. Just like with the GITS, if a part is visible from the outside then it will be made from wood or metal, but the inner workings of it will be 3D printed plastic parts plus various metal hardware items for the mechanisms.

I've begun work on the mechanism design and prototyping now and have put in some orders for some of the hardware components that I'll need to have on hand to get a working prototype of the whole puzzle. Once I have that working prototype I'll send out some updated photos and CAD models that show how it will actually look with all of the final details figured out.