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Playing with wooden puzzles is a great way to spend leisure time, but one of the biggest challenges is keeping all the pieces together. We've done some research and found three ways you can keep your puzzle intact without any piece missing, and that is how you put wooden puzzle together!
An excellent way to ensure that every piece remains put is by using an adhesive-backed felt pad or rubber feet at either end of the mat. The bottom surface should be covered with felt if possible, which will help protect both the floor and the puzzle from scratches and provide some resistance against sliding.
For those who have a lot of puzzles to keep together at once, the adhesive-backed felt pads can quickly become quite expensive. Fortunately, it's not too difficult to make your own adhesive-backed felt pads, so you can keep your puzzles together without spending outrageous amounts of money.
To make your own adhesive-backed pads, all you need are some felt sheets, an ironing board, and an iron. To begin this process, cut the pieces for the individual pad you will be making. For a standard puzzle mat, cut four pieces of felt that are roughly 1/8th of an inch thick by 8 inches long and 3 inches wide.
Once the pieces have been cut out, place them on top of each other, with one edge lining up as closely as possible. Next, put another piece on top and press the layers together with an iron. A dry iron will not work for this process.
Once you have pressed both pieces together, use some good-quality scissors to cut around the edge of the pad to trim off any excess felt. This will help create clean edges and rounded corners that fold easily without getting caught or ripped. Once you have finished cutting, place the pad on a flat surface and smooth it down with your hand.
Super Glue
A few years back, I worked on a wooden train puzzle with my son and was very upset when we realized we were missing one of the pieces (good ole' dad didn't check the whole box before assembly). I did some quick Google searches and quickly learned that glue is an excellent solution for holding together wooden puzzles with missing pieces. We quickly found that insanely strong glue like Gorilla Glue will do the trick!
Shoe Goo
Shoe Goo has been around for years, and it is a great, quick solution for attaching metal or plastic parts. The great thing about Shoe Goo is you can paint over it, so there's no visible glue on the item you're repairing!
Tape
Many adhesives will dry out and come off over time, so we recommend wrapping duct tape around the puzzle handle. This way, if a puzzle piece does come loose, you can use the tape to secure it back in place.
This is by far the easiest option. There's no need for any fancy glue or anything fancy like that. Just place a small piece of tape on each edge of each side of the box, then cut it so that there's about an inch showing past both sides. Then put it back together, and voila, you have a sealed wooden puzzle!
Take patience when you finish your puzzle. The number one way to damage them is by being too rough taking it apart, and then once we're ready for that box again, maybe our lack of care gets the best of us--so make sure there's nothing fragile inside before launching into destruction!
Large puzzles often require an hour or more to disassemble fully. I have seen a lot of damage done when people try pulling pieces apart too quickly, and it's easy for connectors, knobs as well surface layers containing images on their puzzle boxes to get broken off due to this pressure applied by someone forcing themselves against them with great force which then causes further destruction onto what was already weakened structure in those areas since there are not enough stress relievers like weight distributed evenly across various points; nor does one item hold its own average amounts of Anything.
So be very careful. Just work slowly until there's enough room for both sides of each piece within this 3D world we've created together. Never force it.
