This post should have come much sooner than this, but I ran into some difficulty. Actually, through my clumsiness, I broke the first puzzle and had to start over!
I had contacted the customer about the color variation between the two prints, and she was willing to accept it as is. So back to the shop I went to start cutting pieces out. One of the panels was precariously balanced on my saw table, and in an inattentive moment, it fell crashing to the floor. On the way down, it hit an obstacle or two. One of the tabs broke off and one of the corners of the puzzle was fairly scratched up.
Scraped up corner
Broken tab
Side view of broken ply
After a 10 minute search of the floor, I found the broken tab and glued it back in place, but the result left a lot to be desired. There is no way I could try to pass this off as satisfactory. There are actions I could have taken to salvage this puzzle. I could have cut off the border, or I could have made an irregular border. I may still do that at a later date and make a second puzzle, but my sense of craftsmanship would not let me do that. This puzzle is a first for me with respect to the size and the technique, and I want it done right, the way I intended it to be cut.
Time to start over. Overall, it was not as bad as it could have been. I had not really started cutting any pieces out other than the cuts to separate the panels into pieces. When stuff like this happens, I am better off if I walk away for a half day to ponder my actions.
The long delay came because of the weather. I printed two new images, but when I went to mount them, I discovered my inventory of plywood backing in this size was lacking. We had a week of pretty heavy rain, and I did not want to run to the store with my open pickup truck and bring wood home in the rain. Once the rain stopped and I had a free morning to run to Windsor Plywood, I was back in business. Since I had some color mismatch on the first set of prints, I replaced the ink cartridges in the printer and obtained much better results.
Better color match. Slight difference in picture is due to lighting and wood angle
Alignment of the images in the second set of pictures was as good as the first set.
Example of alignment of the merged images
So, on to cutting! At the halfway point, my rough count was 391 pieces.
Halfway done cutting
The puzzle is now 5/6 of the way cut, and my rough count of pieces so far is 615.
Five Sixths of the way done
Backside view – unsanded, so it looks rough
Backside with car keys for size comparison
One more solid day of cutting and I should be done. Then it will be ready for sanding. After it is sanded, I will count the number of pieces and box it. At that point, it goes to the house to be assembled and photographed in better lighting.