How to make DIY wire puzzles?

For any child, solving various puzzles will be a useful activity. Nowadays, many parents make such designs on their own without buying them in the store. Such products can be made from a variety of materials. Today we will talk about metal wire puzzles.

There are a number of important things to keep in mind when creating metal wire puzzles. Do not forget that it is quite easy to get injured with this material, therefore, all sharp edges must be hidden or braided in such a way that the ends are not visible at all.

Also, when making such children's puzzles, remember that the material must be well fixed. It is better to take several wires at once. Indeed, in the process of work, the structure can easily deform, and the product will be damaged.

To create such puzzles with your own hands, you need to prepare the following necessary things in advance.

• Wire. Steel substrates are recommended but will be difficult to bend by hand. You can take aluminum wires with a cross section of 4 millimeters.
• Small nails. They will be needed in order to fill the contour of the product (about 30 pieces are needed).
• Iron blank. Its diameter should be about 12 millimeters. You will need it to create even rings.
• Puzzle template. Detailed diagrams and drawings can be found on the Internet and printed.
• Instruments. These include wire cutters and pliers.

Such puzzles for a child can be done in various ways. Let's consider the simplest option. First, select a suitable sketch for creating a product. Schemes with answers in the form of small animals (elephant, snail, cat), as well as in the form of hearts or stars are considered popular options. This sketch is carefully applied to a wooden plank. Small nails are stuffed along the contour of the drawing. It is important that they are on the existing bends of the contour. After that, the aluminum wire is gradually laid along the contour, while all the ends are well fixed.

Then you should start creating the removable part. To do this, you need to cut off 2 pieces of wire 15.5 and 14 centimeters long. At the ends of these segments, rings are bent around the iron blank. The longer part is bent so that a figure resembling the letter "P" is obtained. At the end, one piece is carefully inserted into the other. The task of this puzzle is to put the obtained removable part on a figure in the form of an animal, star or heart.

You can also make a simple puzzle with metal nails of the same diameter. For this we only need two nails. First, their upper parts are folded together with the cap. Do this in such a way that they are at an angle of 90 degrees to the remainder of the point. The gaps between the pieces in diameter should be slightly larger than the diameter of the nails themselves. When both parts are completely ready, they should be connected together. The tip of each nail must be threaded through the gaps. The solution to this puzzle is to separate the elements.

You can make a puzzle in the shape of an anchor. For this take a steel wire and cut a piece about 30 centimeters long from it. Then prepare a cylindrical metal blank with a diameter of 20 millimeters. On a blank, a ring is bent in the middle of a piece, so we get an anchor bracket. Without removing the part from the blank, twist the wire two turns.

Its ends are bent with round-nose pliers. This should be done so that the "shoulders" of the future anchor are obtained. Use another piece of steel material to make the frame. A pair of stem loops is bent on it. Anchor legs and horns can be crafted using discs and nails. The stem does not need to be tightened too tightly in the spindle.

You can also make the "Star with a ring" puzzle on your own. To do this, you need to take a wooden board of great thickness, draw 2 circles on it (it is better to use a compass). Their diameters should be 40 and 95 millimeters. Using a protractor, the circles are divided into ten equal sectors, a center is marked on each of them and small nails (3-4 mm in diameter) are driven in there.

As a result, you should have a five-pointed star pattern. All nail heads can be removed with wire cutters. The resulting irregularities should be cut off with a file. The contour is bypassed with soft aluminum wire, so the required length of the parts is recognized. The base is fully straightened, obtaining the original length for creating the workpiece.

Cut a small piece from the wire and make "ears" at the ends. Their diameters should be 10 and 20 millimeters. The contour is again bypassed with a metal base. As a result, you will get a star-shaped figure, which is the main part of this puzzle. The earring (30 mm) and the ring (25 mm) at the end can be made from the same wire. A slightly elongated piece of the earring should easily fit into the ring, into the large "eyelet".

How to make a puzzle of two nails with your own hands, see the video.

If you want to make metal puzzles for a small child, then you should select the most interesting sketches in the form of cartoon characters, small animals, designs with hearts and rings. It will be much more interesting for your child to deal with such objects. You can make a whole set in the form of puzzles in various designs.

When using steel material, the contour can be made with just one wire. In this case, it is better to choose steel of medium hardness and with a diameter of 2.5 or 3 millimeters. The craft will be durable and will not deform over time. When using an aluminum or copper base, it is better to take several wires at once, since they are too soft and can quickly lose their shape.

Straighten the material carefully before forming the puzzles. To do this, the wire is firmly gripped by hands and pulled several times over a cylindrical wooden rod. If this does not help, then you should straighten it with a wooden mallet on the board. After all this is cleaned with sandpaper.

Select all the tools correctly before starting work. For bending, a piece of thick board is best suited, into which nails are hammered into the places where the wire is bent. To make small "ears" or rings, you should use round nose pliers. It is recommended to cover ready-made homemade structures with a special colorless varnish. This should be done in several layers. This solution will prevent the appearance of rusty deposits on the products.