Easy Name Puzzle

If you have a CNC router this personalized gift is an easy make. This project uses maple for the letters and Baltic birch ply for the cat and base. The font used is 'Life is Goofy' downloaded from one of the popular free font websites. This font was chosen for ease of cutting and to my eye it looks like something that would feel good to a toddlers hands. The cat was a Jpeg named 'peeking cat' found with a Google image search.

Inkscape was used for most of the design work.  I'll assume if you want to duplicate this project you already know how Inkscape handles bitmaps and fonts. If that's assuming too much the internet has plenty of tutorials on those topics.

The puzzle pieces should be a slightly loose fit unless the toddler is being provided with a hammer 👶.  To achieve this fit Inkscape's Linked Offset feature was used along with Guidelines to measure the amount of offset.  The Offset in this case was actually an inset of approx 0.025".  For the puzzle pieces delete the original outline (aka path) and save the inset. Save the original outline (aka path) as a separate file for cutting the pockets. 

The work in Inkscape results in 4 svg files:
#1 cat svg non-offset for pocket
#2 letters svg non-offset for pockets
#3 cat svg offset (inset) for puzzle piece
#4 letters svg offset (inset) for puzzle pieces

These 4 svg files are imported into Fusion 360.

Create the plywood base in Fusion 360.  Import and align svg files #1 and #2.  These files are cut with a pocketing tool path.  Outside contour  the base to it's final shape.

Create another file in Fusion and import svg file #3.  Cut the cat with an outside contour tool path.  Follow the same procedure for svg file #4 to create the letters.

The puzzle pieces should protrude far enough above the base surface to allow grasping by little fingers.  Paint the puzzle pieces on the top side only.  This will reduce confusion with those letters which appear to be reversible.

Btw: Fusion 360 can occasionally be stubborn when trying to extrude imported svg files.  If this happens try converting the svg to dxf using QCad.