Sliding Puzzle

What it makes

A three-layer wooden sliding puzzle: a base plate, the engraved image tiles, and a frame that holds them in place.

The word under the tiles

One cell is never cut. It stays empty, revealing a word engraved on the base plate underneath — so solving the puzzle is opening the gift. You choose the word and which cell hides it.

How it works

1. Pick a preset image, or add your own photo — drag it in, click to browse, or just paste.
2. Crop to a square. You decide which part to keep.
3. Choose a grid: 3×3, 5×5 or 7×7.
4. Type your word and pick the cell it hides in.
5. Preview it on birch, maple, cherry or walnut, then export.

What you get

• 1-base-plate.svg — the plate, with your word engraved
• 2-tiles.svg — the image tiles, laid out for cutting
• 3-frame.svg — the frame
• answer-key.png — the solved layout, for whoever assembles it

The number prefixes are the assembly order. Files are 1:1 real size in millimetres, so they drop straight into your laser software; cut power and speed are set there, not in the file.

Good to know

• Images: PNG, JPG or WebP, up to 20 MB. Short edge at least 300 px.
• The sliding gap defaults to 0.4 mm and needs calibrating against your material — too tight jams, too loose rattles.
• A 3×3 at the default size finishes at 147.4 × 147.4 mm.