Review on UGEARS 70031 Treasure Wooden Assembly Kit: No Glue Required by Samuel Blakeley

I bought one of these for myself as I like trick boxing, assembling things like puzzles or models and I like the look of steampunk. It took me maybe 4-5 hours to build and some builds I had to rebuild more than once because I didn't pay attention to the directional arrows. The wood is quite strong, not super soft like balsa and very well lasered. I work for a manufacturing company that uses industrial laser cutters, so I evaluated how accurately and tightly the parts were assembled on the wooden panels to avoid waste (a process called "nesting" in case anyone is interested could). Most of the parts came out clean and I didn't have to do much sanding, but I had to use a utility knife to break the supports quite often. I broke a piece very early on during assembly, but it happened when trying to remove a wooden peg. Luckily this part wasn't a gear or any other part of the mechanism, otherwise I couldn't have continued. They include some spares that I ended up needing, so that's a plus. For the most part I am satisfied with my product. I wish they contained wax or some other lube (like graphite) but I had to improvise and use lip balm. Let's see if it lasts at all. That being said I think the cut alignment may not have been right for my device as the lid mechanism is not flush with the rest of the box and I couldn't get it to work no matter how hard I tried. It also means that the button doesn't rest against the lid mechanism as intended, so the focus more or less pops out if you look closely. Also, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but the gears that are part of the lid lifter assembly don't make contact on all sides, making the gearing a bit unstable. I've attached some photos to show you what I mean. Overall I had a lot of fun putting it together, although the pieces don't line up as they should. I will buy a few more kits from this company and see if I have better luck.