'The Tumbler' became Jon’s soft start into the puzzle world. This puzzle was designed to resemble Wil Strijbos’s 'Aluminum Cylinder' puzzle but with some added internals to increase difficulty. As a fun gesture he gifted a couple copies of 'The Tumbler' to close friends following their undergraduate commencement ceremony, to his surprise they went bonkers and loved it!
Hello World. It seems you have found your way to KeegansCorner. This website was developed to help connect puzzle solvers, builders and collectors to some fun creations Jon Keegan has come up with over the years. Jon hopes to use this platform to showcase some of his past and future metal puzzles. Hope you like what you see!
Who is Jon Keegan?
Jon is a normal guy (his words not mine) living and working in the Southern United States. He attributes his current position and success to being exposed to a vast variety of different challenges over the years. Early in his working life Jon was given the opportunity to work for a local manufacturing facility where he learned a great deal about design for manufacture and manufacturing technology/engineering. His journey changed when he decided to challenge himself further.
Returning to school and focusing on coursework he found a passion for mechanical engineering. After completing his undergraduate and graduate degree in mechanical engineering he is now a young professional mechanical engineer working with a team of radar engineers. This team builds the most cutting edge and state-of-the-art radars in the nation and works alongside the best and brightest minds in academic radar research. He feels very blessed to be surrounded every day by great colleagues, friends, and family.
Puzzle background?
His puzzle story started following his first metal puzzle purchase, 'Aluminum Cross', designed by the ever so clever Wil Strijbos. This puzzle was bought as a birthday gift for one of Jon’s very good friends, Jon however had to give the puzzle some play before gifting, and wow this awoke an addiction.
This led down a long adventurous road of intrigue and puzzle collecting until Jon found an opportunity to finally design his own. As an undergraduate Jon enrolled in a series of Design and Manufacturing Process courses at University where his first puzzle idea was able to come to fruition, ‘The Tumbler’.
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Very very soon after finishing 'The Tumbler', Jon came across the entry form for the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition IPP38. This sparked his interest and he then switched to creating a more difficult version of 'The Tumbler'. A hand full of weeks later 'The Double Tumbler' was fresh off the machine and headed to IPP38.
It seemed however that 'The Double Tumbler' would not make the journey to IPP38 alone.
Jon’s very difficult pre-production 'Jewel Thief' puzzle also made the trip. Inspiration for this puzzle was again given to him by one of Will Strijbos's puzzles, have we heard of 'Angel Box'?
After reading many reviews of ‘Angel Box’ Jon became obsessed with the theme of "freeing" something trapped. After some dreaming and following many hours of setbacks and advancements, 'Jewel Thief' was finally ready to be sent to IPP38 , overnight shipping, four days before the deadline.
Hope you enjoyed the quick read. Thanks you for your time and support. As a hobbyist Jon uses these puzzles as an outlet for his creativity. Some will come to life and might be sold to others. The prototyping stages for these puzzles can be quite exhaustive. Therein lies the fun, always a new challenge and often great eureka moments.
"I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive."
-Albert Einstein