Mike, I did consider about an alternative way to lock down. But decided against it since I wanted the lock piece to come from one of the pieces from the puzzle without having to engineer something totally different.

I hear you! I’ve got several sheets of 3mm and 6 mm acrylic just waiting to be cut for two puzzle designs. My favourite local laser cutter is now retired — he was great because he and I would work together on getting the beam strength and track speed just right for each sheet of material. There is one local maker space club, but it is open just three hours a week, and those three hours coincide with curling during the curling season. There have been rumours that other maker spaces might open up locally and offer public membership, but nothing has developed yet. Since the tolerances have to be so precise, I have not contracted my designs to a cutting service — given the expense, I need to have some hands-on control of the process. So I wait…

George, tolerance of -/+10% is IMHO way too high…if its on the side of being thinner, you can probably still get a working copy of a puzzle, although the pieces would be rather “loose”. The other challenge is the tolerance of the laser cut itself. Even if the thickness of the material is correct, if the cut of the laser exceeds the tolerance (by being on the smaller size), the pieces end up not fitting…as in one of my two steel prototypes above. The other puzzle the cut was a bit too big…hence the puzzle feels very loose!

If you actually own a laser cutter, you can measure the material before cutting, and obtain a perfect fit. The problem is the companies that produce material do not control the thickness to a high enough tolerance.

Thanks very much Tyler!

Sounds like a line from a sci-fi novel