Continuing on our series of wood puzzle cube plans, here are wooden pentomino puzzle plans. What is a pentomino puzzle? First you have to understand what a pentomino is. A pentomino is a made of five equal-sized cubes connected edge to edge. There are 12 different pentominoes, if you aren’t counting reflections or rotations of the shapes. A pentomino puzzle is simply a puzzle consisting of these 12 shapes with the objective of arranging them in as many ways as you can. There are literally thousands of ways to arrange these as rectangles.

Much like our original DIY wooden puzzle cube plans and our latest wooden puzzle cube plans, these wooden pentomino puzzle plans are made up of uniform cubes. In this case, 60 cubes.  These 60 cubes will be separated into 12 groups of 5 cubes, and glued together in shapes representing the letters R, I, L, N, P, T, Z, U, V, W, X, and Y.

Tools Required

• Table saw
• Planer or drum sander
• Sander

Materials Required

• 1 – 1×6 at 6′ or multiple smaller pieces
• wood glue

Precision does matter when making the cubes, the width and height all need to be exactly the same.  You can make them any size you wish, and I typically do 3/4″, but they need to need to be exactly the same.  When I make these, I typically make enough for more than one cube because the setup and preparation takes the majority of the time.

The first step is to decide on the dimensions, and find the piece of wood you want to use – which should be slightly thicker than the desired dimensions.  For example, I may start with a 1x6x6 board.  Then I plane the board down to 3/4″ – and I leave my planer set to that setting.  Next, I rip the 1×6 down into 7/8″ strips so I wind up with five 6′ strips, each 7/8″ wide.  Now, I turn those strips on their sides and run them through the planer as a group so that all five strips are each exactly 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 6′.

NOTE: You can also make this puzzle without making cubes and instead cutting the pieces from solid blocks of wood. If you choose this method, you will still need to ensure precision in measurements and cuts.

The last cutting step requires setting your table saw fence to exactly 3/4″ as well.   Now, take the first 6′ strip and put it on your table saw sled (if you have one), and nip off the end of the 6′ strip so that you can be certain the end is square to the rest of the strip.  Throw that piece away.  Now cut one more piece of the 6′ strip and use your calibers to ensure that all dimensions of the cube are exactly 3/4″.  You may have to micro-adjust your fence, if you do, make certain to repeat the setup and test until you have it 100% dialed in for perfect cubes.  Once you have your table saw dialed in, then it is just a matter of cutting as many cubes as you can (or want to) from the 6′ strips you’ve prepped.

So now you have a lot of perfect cubes.  Depending on the quality of your table saw blade, you may have to do some light sanding – but don’t over sand and change the dimensions or take them out of square.  Once you are satisfied with your cubes, the last step is to glue them into the 12 different shapes. Don’t feel like you need to glue up each piece in it’s entirety, I like to start by gluing pieces into groups of 2 or 3. Then I let them dry, and then glue those pieces together as needed.

That’s it!  Once you have those 12 pieces glued up and ready, it is time to start arranging them in as many ways as you can. The images below provide a little starter, showing a basic rectangle and a 3D cube. I also like to build a rectangular tray in the same dimensions as the rectangle for easy storage. I hope you enjoy these wooden pentomino puzzle plans!

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