Puzzle Printing

This guy
(http://puzzlepalace.com/index.php5) uses 3d-printing to prototype puzzles and has some excellent designs. This is an great use of prototyping.

There is an open-source puzzle design program called Burr Tools with STL output at [burrtools.sourceforge.net]

Looks great - I can't wait to try some of these.

DaveR

I've been eying TriGears ( [blog.makezine.com] ) for a little while now, thinking of how we could make a similar puzzle for RepRap as a demonstration promotional item.

Those are ridiculously expensive! wtf? Those prices aren't even representative of the manufacturing processes... And I'm not just talking about the fact that you could have a RepRap like Nophead's do it...that's just a stupid price...unless I've gotten the scale of those things wrong...maybe they are like a foot across or something and solid...hmmm

Demented

Of course they're not how much it costs to produce - it's the research, skill and expertise that goes into making the puzzle that costs. These are limited run/prototypes by an expert puzzle designer.

I was referring in the post to the ability to make similar puzzles, and to have a go at designing my own. The software link allows you to build your own puzzles.

It's a really good example of what *can* be done with 3d building. If just one or two people donate some good puzzle designs to open source, then everyone can print them out at home. They fall into the 'sweet spot' for RepRap items:
* Complex shapes difficult to produce by other manufacturing techniques
* Plastic is a good material
* Limited size - RepRap bed should be big enough
* possibility to personalize parts
* 'Fun' but not critical - if it breaks, you're unlikely to lose an ipod or something.

* Would act as a really good 'demo' (complexity/material/multiple parts fitting together) of what a RepRap can make. Has a simple point most people 'get'.

DaveR: I'm very interested in getting a puzzle design to be printed on RepRap. Ideally, I think having the final state be mechanically mobile and interesting (such as the TriGears puzzle) would be particularly rewarding -- more than a more traditional static shape made of interlocking assembled parts.

What are some of the ideas you've been kicking around?

--clint

There's an interesting study on non-circular gearing with some python code here : [decidedlyodd.com]

We could use that to generate a gear train with several non-circular meshing gears. If all the gears are roughly the same size, you would need to place them in the right order and orientation for the train to turn - similar to the tri-gears puzzle, but in a straight line.

I was initially going to reproduce the standard burr board-style cross - the kind you sometimes get in Christmas crackers. This is typically only a few simple parts and would give a good test run of tolerances, and prove the concept. The types of shapes that can be RepRapped allows a lot of variation, possibly even this kind of thing :
[puzzlepalace.com]

Personally, I was thinking along maze lines -
[puzzlepalace.com]
Something like this with a simple flat maze, and a c-shaped key. I also like these [puzzlepalace.com] where the board has a number of holes and the c-shaped piece moves between the holes.

... look at this video: [www.brainblog.to] (ignore the other ads ) for a really impressive active 3D-puzzle.

The (merely) conical gears can be fabbed and this types of 'brain-catcher' would be the absolute hit!

Viktor

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2008 03:11PM by Viktor.

Aside from the seedy ads...that thing is amazing! Can you give us more info on it, Viktor?

Demented

Hi Demented,

... not really ...

It's not so a big deal to design the conus-gears, arrange them and reshape.

Tricky is the 'heart' in the heart - here you have to fix a hollow sphere with all the fixed axes and a pin-tube-transmission (as used for watch hands) for driving ...

Viktor

Here's the artist's webpage translated from Japanese: [translate.google.com]

Also the escher 3d fish bird and lizard cube tesselations might be interesting to print once we get color working.

I made a wikipage for all the reprapping puzzlers...
[objects.reprap.org]

I also put a puzzle 50mm³ (cube) in it. Anyone willing to reprap and solve it? I havent checked it for errors yet, but the one that encounters an error should PM me... I have the fully assembled file just in case.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2009 03:42PM by Mr. Seeker.

Check out the Petaminx (including STL files!)
[www.puzzleforge.com]