Ménage à Trois
Free Me 9 – “Two Guys and a Gal”
Free Me 9 by Joe Turner
Joe Turner is getting frisky. The newest numerical addition to his ever expanding “free the coin” series of puzzles showcases his development as a woodworker and puzzlemaker over the many years that he has been honing these skills. Joe likes to take his time, think things through on his long walks, and surprise himself with what he can achieve. His clever creations have become beloved by collectors for their unexpected hidden mechanisms and “simple” objective to free a trapped but visible coin (or two, or three). Many of his puzzles contain multiple challenges in layers, and in fact his very first “Free Me” puzzle (and second) were quite literally a few puzzling ideas stacked one on top of the next until the coin could be finally released. His newest puzzle, “Free Me 9”, presents three coins which need to be freed, trapped in a long rectangular frame which is reminiscent of his earliest puzzles in the series, but miles apart in skill and craftsmanship. Joe shares the story:
9 lives
“A little history……I had seen a puzzle 20+ years ago made of wood. It had holes in it and you could see a $20 bill inside. The challenge was to remove the $20. After solving it I remember thinking this could have been made more challenging. I worked on some ideas and eventually made a 3-coin puzzle for the Turner Christmas puzzle gift I called Triplettts. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very happy with the way it turned out. The mechanism for getting the 3rd coin out did not work as planned and proved relatively easy. A couple years ago I started thinking about being able to create a puzzle with multiple coins. This brought me back to wondering if I could take Triplettts and improve on it. The end result, Two Guys & a Gal, retains about 5% of Triplettts, but it was the impetus for me.”
the whole 9 yards
Fans of Joe’s creations may have noticed that things got a little out of order after he released “Free Me 6”. What came next was number 8, notable not only for jumping the line but also as Joe’s first puzzle box, too. The box prominently features Escher lizards on the lid, so Joe gave it a second name in addition to the Free Me number. “With Free Me 8, I decided I wanted to give it a name beyond just “Free Me 8”. The name “A Reptile Puzzle Box” was an obvious choice. I decided I wanted to continue that trend with Free Me 9. Initially, since I was going to have 3 coins, I had come up with “Free Me, and Me, and Me.” It received some less than positive comments from my family. So, I tried a little harder, came up with “Two Guys & a Gal”.
gluing jig
trimming jig
courtesy of Joe Turner
Over the years Joe’s workshop, and tool collection, has grown. For this puzzle, “I used my SD100 CNC machine (12” x 13” working area) to help with the internal routing. And along the process, I used my bandsaw, jointer, thickness planer, table saw, router table 1 (for dovetails), router table 2 (for round-over and chamfering), drill press 1 (for drilling), drill press 2 (for sanding and pressing), hand drill, belt sander, orbital sander, and a home-made clamping jig for laminating parts. As you can see, power tools are critical in my creative process.”
trimming jig
cutting jig
courtesy of Joe Turner
Joe appreciates a puzzle that works the way he intends it to, every time. He therefore spends a lot of time perfecting mechanisms, which can present a different kind of puzzle. He faced “Several challenges, which I suspect is common. Ultimately, how to get the puzzle to work and look the way I wanted it to look. I can’t go into too much detail with some of them. I had to move internal components around so they wouldn’t interfere with each other as the puzzle was solved. I wanted all the puzzle parts to be from the same piece of wood, which was a challenge in both Free Me 7 & 8 as well. So, I had to number/renumber parts when I resawed the boards, when I cut the boards into blanks, when I cut the glued parts into three parts, and after I routed the dovetails on the end pieces. Getting parts the right size and shape was important, but since I laid out the routing for the puzzle body using Vcarve, I was able to size/shape the internal parts using Vcarve as well. This proved to be a very nice capability. There are internal components that I took a while figuring out how to implement. Eventually I found something online I decided I could use. That took a while and was why the puzzle languished for a year+ while I worked on other projects.”
hanging to dry and cure
courtesy of Joe Turner
Joe is constantly learning, which is a good way to improve in any endeavor. He discovered some unexpected issues with subtle precision errors on internal pieces that caused jams once glued up. That led to new process checks all along the construction, including the creation of a transparent plexiglass tester side he uses to see that all the internals are moving properly before final glue up. Having never worked with this material before provided new opportunities to understand it and how best to work with it, especially when it gets too hot! He has a picture of this clear version and it’s worth a look once you have solved the puzzle to see the complex internal mechanisms. “I also learned cheaper is not always cheaper. The router bits I used were less expensive, and it turns out for a couple of batches their shaft diameter was slightly smaller, resulting in movement during use. AND resulting in several lost puzzles. AND, as a result, I am a bit wiser.”
dressed to the nines
Joe had the great idea to number his puzzle series, so there’s always the possibility of another. Not surprisingly, he has already thought of a design for a possible Free Me 10, but needs to create a prototype first to decide if it will actually be fun versus frustrating, which is a very important detail to Joe (a greatly appreciated by those who experience his creations). One more subtle detail most may have missed on his puzzles is that the coins which need to be freed correspond to the year the puzzle was created – you’ll therefore find that the two guys and a gal trapped in FM9 are all from 2023, for example. “Although it took a lot longer than I had planned, I enjoyed the journey of making it. I hope folks enjoy the journey (short or long) of solving it.”
Cloud 9 by Jeremy Oertel
Jeremy Oertel, head bartender at Donna in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, recalls when Toby Maloney, another well known NYC bartender came into his bar one night and asked for a white Negroni. This was back at Mayahuel, a pioneering agave bar in the East Village which was opened in 2009 by Death & Company veterans Ravi DeRossi and Phil Ward (who invented the modern classic Oaxaca Old Fashioned). Mayahuel introduced the cult of agave to a generation of agriculturally interested consumers ready to learn about the origins of tequila and mezcal. Naturally, Oertel made Maloney a Negroni with tequila.
on cloud 9
It was also around the time that gentian liqueurs were newly available in the US market. Oertel recalls this may have led him to use Salers, a French bitter aperitif, in place of the typical amaro in the Negroni. Salers is distinguished as the oldest French gentian liqueur in production, since 1885, distilled from the wild flowering plant roots of gentiane lutia which grows in the mountain region of Puy Marie. Salers is a lovely, bittersweet liqueur which complements the tequila perfectly in this cocktail. Lillet, another French aperitif with a sweeter profile, is simply delicious, and is probably why this exquisite white Negroni takes you to Cloud 9. Cheers!
to the nines
Cloud 9 by Jeremy Oertel
2 oz blanco tequila
¾ oz Lillet blanc
¾ oz Salers
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a coupe. Lemon peel garnish.
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