Is There No End To His Talents?

Dovetail Bar by Richard Williams

The various members of the MPP brigade seem to have a variety of skillz which we have revealed to the puzzling world either deliberately or inadvertently over the last 14 odd years - at the last MPP Ali was reminiscing about how long ago the whole thing was started and who was there. I think I joined at MPP 4 or 5.

I, of course, have revealed to the world that I like to write drivel and unfortunately have also shown the world that I am rubbish at puzzles in the process of writing said drivel. Louis has shown us all that he is a puzzle solving machine and that there seems to be nothing that he cannot figure out (although I've never seen him do a twisty). Allard has revealed that he has impeccable taste in puzzles but needs the assistance of Louis to actually solve the bloody things. Big Steve brings chaos and destruction wherever he goes and usually leaves a trail of puzzles in pieces or incorrectly assembled with other pieces hidden inside (I'm never bringing my happiness cubes anywhere near him ever again!) and his partner in crime/puzzles, Ali seems to be able to solve pretty much anything put in front of him. There puzzle design creativity has a whole store now and has received me of a decent amount of cash. Of course, we cannot forget Shane as you can hear him several miles before you can see him - his skill with locks is amazing! 

Over the last few years, Richard Williams has joined the group and we all seem to know him as an incredible burr talent. He seems to be able to do the impossible by assembling burrs from just a pile of pieces (only the late and dearly missed Laurie had anywhere near that talent). Since his purchase of a 3D printer he has begun to design puzzles at an alarming rate. Today I am going to focus on 3 that I obtained at the last MPP (number LCIIIIX - looking that Roman numeral up in Google reveals it to be a nonsense number so I must have imagined the gathering.

The Dovetail Bar was one that I purchased knowing almost nothing about it apart from the fact that Ali was sitting next to me with a few pieces of it in his hands and marvelling at the mechanism. If Ali is enthusiastic then that's enough for me! A few of the UK's finest plastic banknotes were exchanged and I received the Dovetail Bar as well as the Basket burr (see later in the post).

I didn't attempt the puzzle until a day or so after I got back from the party. I had to hide most of my acquisitions from the present Mrs S for fear of reprisals (Whack! Ouch! sorry dear). 

This delightful challenge consists of a small red plastic rectangle 60 x 40 x 15mm in size which is split into a top ¼ and a bottom ¾ held together by a dovetail joint and with a black bolt screwed into the larger part. It rattles enticingly and the top part wiggles a couple of mm each way but no further - this is the case no matter which way the puzzle is held. After trying this there is not much else to do other than unscrew the bolts. As each one is unscrewed there is a little catching of something inside but nothing new is possible and once that catch is overcome, there is a little noise as something moves. Removing first one bolt doesn't let the dovetail slide and then unscrewing the other one similarly makes noises but doesn't help with movement either. At this point, with not many options, the bolts go back in and are made to achieve something inside. This was not entirely unexpected as I had already begun to create an internal image of what was in there. Once a couple of internal interactions had been achieved, the dovetail was able to slide partially open and revealed what I had been expecting inside.

A small Aha! but not going any further than that

Having made the puzzle slide this far open, I had a few ideas as to what might be needed next. Now I am sure that almost all of you are screaming at me through your screens that I needed to spin it to align the interior pins properly. That approach has been tried before by very famous puzzle designers but remember the instructions above

"No tapping, no banging, no spinning"

My ideas, at this point,  ran out! I removed the bolts and another tool that I had and slid it back together but at no point would the doevetail ever slide any further than that. depending on the orientation it would move either a few mm or about 15mm (but only inn one direction). Time for a little think©ing. Oddly, the two bolts are slightly different lengths and maybe that is important?

Ali had really been enthusiastic about the mechanism so there must be something quite special inside. I put it back together and left it for the evening and came back to it the following evening after a day's work and thinking. There seemed to be nothing for it other than do do something dangerous and hope it didn't backfire on me. I tried that and that didn't help  but there were other alternatives which needed a little more thought to make possible. After another few minutes of fiddling I separated the two pieces and could see the locking mechanism.

Solved! No spoilers here.

What I couldn't tell was how the damned thing worked! I had a few pieces now and the reason why it would wiggle a bit and then move 15mm only was obvious and ingenious but it was not clear what I had done to actually make it slide apart this time. With the innards visible, it was possible to play with the various pieces to see what was going on inside and the mechanism is really quite clever. I don't think I've seen it done before.

Resetting it takes a bit more thought and it is still a bit of a challenge to open again. We all think of Rich as a "burr meister" but here he has revealed that he is that and a whole lot more! If you get a chance to buy a copy or even just play with it for half an hour then you should definitely go for it. It's not too difficult but the Aha! moment is wonderful - I now understand Ali's delight.

The Tetrahedral burr

This made an appearance at the previous MPP and I had a little fiddle then but did not dismantle it. The copy above is the original which Rich gave to me because he had made another copy with some improvements that were able to get rid of the slight gaps visible above. It looks like an assembly puzzle with shapes that need to be stacked onto each other to make a multi-coloured tetrahedron. It certainly could be an assembly puzzle but its classification is actually different. It is, in reality, a "standard" 6-piece burr!

Its "just" a Ghost 4x4
A standard cube made much more confusing

Yes, Rich has taken a standard burr (I don't actually know whether it is one of the well known ones) and used the 3D printing software to add extensions to the burr sticks so that they form a different end shape. The process has been made even more challenging by reading the extensions in such a way that the orientation of the interior burr is now off centre. This process is well known in the twisty puzzle world as "ghosting" - it takes a standard shape, rotates layers and then adds pieces to make the rotated puzzle back into the cube shape.

So we have a shape with odd pieces that do move linearly but not along any of the axes of the tetrahedron and they interact with each other just as many burr puzzles do but in a much more confusing manner! Because it's a 6-piece burr, there aren't actually many false passages but I found it very hard to keep track of what was moving where and did very much need to rely on my back and forth approach. At some point it splits apart and I decided that I would make a video for myself and a sequence of still photos to ensure that I didn't get stuck with a pile of pieces. Having done that, I carried on and disassembled the 2 halves and took my photo:

OMG it looks so innocuous 
You can see the burr shape inside

I scrambled the pieces and left them for a while. I don't think that this can be modelled in Burrtools as a tetrahedron - of course, the internal burr can but that won't help me solve the puzzle. The reassembly took me over an hour! Had I not known the rough arrangements of the two halves, there would be no way that I could solve it but with the little knowledge I had and a very slight recollection of the moves needed, I could reassemble. The process is huge fun! Another one for all of you to try - even those of you who aren't in to burrs will find this one different enough to interest you.

Basket burr

Another of Rich's designs which was shown off at two successive MPPs. The basket burr is reminiscent of the Akaki's Basket packing puzzles (I only have the wooden ones from Cubic Dissection but wish I had the whole set). This is another "standard" 6-piece burr in a frame which forms the bottom part of a basket. I have adored, framed or caged burrs for many years and have so many that I can't even estimate how many. Some of the 12 piece caged burrs are incredibly difficult and §i haven't solved them all but the 6 piece ones are fascinating and usually more achievable. To my shame, I have never managed to disassemble the Congestion burr. 

Rich's Basket burr is very achievable as a disassembly puzzle being level 21 (12.1.1.1.4.2) and the assembly would be impossible for me without having some idea of the process of disassembly first. Of course, Burrtools is a help and an essential part of any burr for me and I was very surprised to find that there were 64 different solutions but the colour scheme chosen by Rich ensures that the most difficult one is the one to aim for. I now need to work on finding some other assemblies - this could take me quite some time!

Very clever discovery by Rich

There seems to be absolutely no end to his talents! I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next. Thanks mate, for a really fun week of puzzling!