Motivation From The Cutlery Drawer

Oskar's Nested Burr

Two pieces removed and I shy away

I received this 3D printed puzzle back in December last year. I didn't order it because I actually had never heard of it. I know that it was made by Mike Rollberg but I am not sure how it came to be in my possession. It must have been a gift from someone and I'm very sorry that I cannot remember who sent it to me. It must have  included it in another delivery. To whoever you are, thank you very much - I hadn't realised up until this week how good a puzzle it actually was. Thank you Mike for printing this and getting it to me. Of course, being a puzzle design by Oskar van Deventer, I should have realised it was going to be fabulous! It's an 18 piece burr but completely different to the usual design and much more interesting than most 18 piece burrs.

I left this in our correspondence tray that sits in our kitchen for a few days after it arrived and picked it up intermittently and took a couple of pieces out, realised what was going to happen if I progressed further and stopped there quickly. I put it back in the tray and weirdly it attracted the cats. There is something about the texture of 3D printed puzzles that they seem to love - I heard a funny noise behind me one evening and saw a cat at the puzzle, shooed her off and picked it up to check for bite marks. No damage but it was covered in cat saliva! YUCK! I dried it off and moved it to the cutlery drawer where it sat on top of the small knives for quite a long time. 

I picked it up periodically because I kept being reminded it was there every time I set the table for a meal. At some point I think I even removed the first 6 pieces and hurriedly put them back. It gets even more frightening as you take out more pieces because stuff does get a bit loose. Having said this, as long as you hold it properly it doesn't fall apart.

Eventually Mrs S started to get a bit annoyed having a puzzle permanently in the cutlery drawer. She understands the cat slobber situation but doesn't want puzzles in the house kitchen any longer than they have to be there. A week or so ago, I got shouted at (again) and the puzzle was forcibly removed from the cutlery drawer and I was told that if it was seen again then I might need a surgical removal of puzzle from an orifice that is not intended for that direction of travel. 

Motivation had finally arrived and yesterday I progressed through a sequence of piece removal to get myself a nice pile o'pieces:

Now that looks intimidating

Still intimidating!

What about the reassembly? Interestingly, the disassembly has a coloured rhythm to it and as long as you remember that rhythm then you have a big help with the reassembly of the burr. A bit of experimentation is required to work out the orientation of the pieces but it's usually fairly easy to work out when one is pointing the wrong way or needs rotating 90º along its axis.

After about a half hour of play, I had put it back together - it's really very clever and delightfully tactile to play with. If you get a chance to play with one of these then jump at it (you can download the files to print it yourself from Oskar's file repository). It's really rather clever!

It Eclipsed My Abilities for a Long Time

Total Eclipse from PuzzleMaster

I have had the Total Eclipse puzzle sitting on my desk next to me in my, ahem, "backlog of puzzles to solve" for an embarrassingly long period of time. It has been there for over a year! First it was unsolved because I was too busy, then it remained unsolved because I couldn't work it out, then it got, BLUSH, buried in other puzzles to be solved and finally unsolved because I kept going round and round in circles. Yes, I am not very bright and I often use the Einstein's madness approach of doing the same thing over and over again until something changes.

I had bought it because it was an Oskar van Deventer design (pretty much anything he designs is incredible - I really need to get hold of a couple of copies of the Zigguflat puzzle that has been enjoyed by so many brilliant puzzlers and combine into one large fabulous N-ary puzzle. I also have been quite intrigued by the amazing series of PuzzleMaster's own metal creations. The Honeycomb puzzle recently created as a KickStarter is now available direct from them.

The Toal Eclipse consists of 2 interlocking rings (one chrome and one brass) inside a black metal cage. It is about 6.5cm in diameter and difficulty score of 9 on their odd 5 - 10 scale. I think the level is about right. The inner rings can rotate around inside the cage freely - it is very similar in idea to the Hanayama Cast Equa (also by Oskar) which I reviewed after a huge struggle many years ago. It also share a small similarity with the Hanayama Cast Duet (yes, another Oskar design) reviewed here. Obviously there needs to be a spot on the cage where the rings can be released. I found that straight away. The two rings each have a gap in them which allows them to interlock and presumably is where they disassemble from the cage. The reason they don't just come apart is because the gap has a polarity and straight away it is obvious that the polarity is reversed at the beginning the process:

The grooves in the cage are on the opposite side to the ring.
The ring obviously needs to be reversed to come off.

It is obvious that the aim is to move the pieces around so that the grooves in the cage line up with the ring. How do you do that? There are single grooves on the cage (different orientation to the release grooves) and the rings can be slid from segment to segment through a maze until the ring has the correct orientation.

In my multiple previous attempts to solve this puzzle I had found a shortcut - my copy has a slight flaw where the ring can be passed over the groove in the cage with the orientation the wrong way around. I realised early on that this was not right and did my best to avoid it. This turned the puzzle into a nightmare for me! There are multiple ways to work your way around the cage and tantalisingly there are a few places where the grooves occur on both sides allowing either orientation to pass. I found this no help whatsoever! I went round and round in circles in multiple directions and always ended up back at the beginning with the ring unable to slide off. OMG! I began to question my sanity which I have to say Mrs S has done many times. I kept having to put it down.

Finally lined up!

After the recent tidy up of my hellscape of desk, I suddenly found the Total Eclipse under a rather large pile and decided at the end of last week to try again and be finally able to put it away. I took it to work with me, I played in the evenings and everywhere for a bit. After annoying everyone for a week with my jingling. I had an Aha! moment and the brass ring came off. Yessss! The chrome ring was obviously the same and would need the same path - except I had no recollection of how the first one had come off. I went round and round in circles again. Each time I was back at the beginning there was a great offing and blinding. This was a very difficult puzzle! One more try and I suddenly noticed something about the possible positions and found a sort of figure of eight sequence that was able to reverse the polarity of the ring and then I had to make it back to the double groove position. This was easier said than done but I got there and could breathe a sigh of relief.

At last!

Having done this, it was time to return to the start position. This should just be a matter of reversing what I had done but of course, I couldn't remember what I had done! At least this time I had a vague idea of what was required and it only took me a whole day to do it. 

For just $25CAD this puzzle is a really good buy! It is quite attractive, very tactile as a fiddling object and most importantly, offers a LOT of puzzling without getting hopelessly lost (you always get back to the beginning even when you don't want to). At over a year to solve it, I have definitely got my money's worth.

Watch out next week for the first release of 2024 by Pelikan...

A Kickstarter Opportunity

Honeycomb by Oskar van Deventer

I received an advance copy of the Honeycomb puzzle designed by the great Oskar a month or so ago and the Kickstarter for it just went live today. The cells of the honeycomb are threaded and can be removed one at a time (at least up until several have been removed). Scramble the pieces and see whether you can reassemble it in place. Obviously, if you have taken a picture then that would be a big help but try not to do that.

The kickstarter is at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/puzzlemaster/the-honeycomb-metal-puzzle-brain-teaser-from-puzzle-master

It is beautifully packaged like all the Puzzlemaster own brand metal puzzles and will make a nice addition to any collection.

Nice box

beautifully made

Octaballs - Never Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth...

It Might Bite You or Poke You or Frustrate You!

Octaballs by George Bell (kindly made by Allard)

At the beginning of the year Allard reviewed a nice little bunch of puzzles that he had made based on some new designs by George. He called them "diabolical" and I was intrigued. I have lusted after a full set of the Pennyhedron puzzles from the ever so slightly warped Australian dentist Stephen Chin (Ok he is more than slightly warped!) but have never managed to find them at a reasonable price and Chinny keeps threatening to fleece me when I have talked about buying them. George worked with Chinny on many of them and more recently has expanded the geometry to include a hybrid shape between an octahedron and a ball - hence the Octaball. I think there are quite a few new interlocking designs that he has found.

I commented on Allard's page that I am not allowed a 3D printer (apparently, I am told on good authority that arrival of one of these "terrible addictive devices" is grounds for divorce). I was thinking about asking George if I could buy a set from him when Allard let me know that he had made a second set and would let me have them. I thought that it was terribly good of him to preserve my marriage like that. They arrived in mid January and I had a look and admired the lovely materials that had been chosen for the printing. They have really improved over the years. Allard had bundled them all into a ziplock bag all together but had given me a list of the numbered pieces which belonged in each puzzle.

Later that week, one evening after work, I set to attempting the first assembly. I picked one at random. I couldn't work out which was going to be the easiest and chose the first with all 4 identical pieces. It is pretty easy to assemble the first 3 into the shape and can see how the last one will go in. Putting the bloody thing in, however, is another thing entirely! These things have teeth or pointy bits. As you probably know, these are coordinate motion assemblies and I am really not great at that sort of thing. You would think that with what I do for a living, I might find these relatively easy. Except that by and large, I don't do things that require multiple hands holding things in precisely the correct precarious position. I spent an hour attempting to assemble this first one and failed with a lot of swearing which upset Mrs S almost as much as the purchase of a 3D printer. I moved on to another one which had 4 different parts. There is no difficulty working out what goes where but actually doing it was really really tough. I failed on all 4 of them that night and for a little while had a sore thumb where I had managed to lever a pointy bit under a thumbnail.

Tyler had chimed in on Allard's post and had concluded that no human can assemble them without assistance from another helpful human and I was beginning to think he might be right. Allard maintains that Gill did not assist him but who trusts what Allard says about anything? I looked around the house to see if I could find a "helpful human" and there does not appear to be one of those living with me - I was doomed to fail, suffer sore thumbnails and swear a lot before receiving the laser stare and even a Whack! Ouch! On evening number 2, I juggled all the pieces using a hand to hold them and a thigh to prevent a piece falling out whilst I introduced the final piece and Aha! I had a result.

Over the next two evenings, I managed to assemble 3 pieces in, extend the coordinate motion out as far as possible whilst maintaining stability (with a couple of them, I had to work out which pieces were the best for this extension). Then I used various parts of my anatomy as a third hand/stabiliser as I extended beyond stability and finally introduced the fourth piece. I quickly realised that using my nose as a stabiliser was no use as I couldn't then focus close enough to see to introduce the next piece. Thighs seem to work best and one time the top of a sleeping cat's head did the trick. It took me over a week and I had some assembled Octaballs:

Phew! That was a bugger!

These have been sitting on my desk all assembled and looking lovely since then. Unfortunately, I have to chair several MS Teams meetings every month and having a nice big screen at home means it is better to work in my study than in my office in the hospital. The trouble with that is that, I have these lovely big worry-beads just a foot away from me whilst I chat to colleagues. I cannot help myself - I often pick them up and find it quite relaxing to gently start the coordinate motion off and slide them back and forth. Except...

A bloody cat jumped on my lap during one meeting frightening me half to death! The Octaball in my hands that was partially opened flew out of my hands and sprung apart on the floor. In my and his surprise, he shot of my lap and knocked another onto the floor disassembling it as well. The horror on my face was visible to everyone in my meeting. It may have been even harder to assemble them a second time! Aargh! They have been put away in one of the bookcases to prevent this happening again. 

Another gift horse came from Neal. When I bought the set of Dessert TICs he added in a couple of gifts to the package that he had 3D printed. Again, I am not allowed one of these and so I can only ever get these from other people. I reviewed the wonderful Screw burr in May and loved it. Also in the package was a copy of Screw Fit by Oskar:

Screw Fit by Oskar

It has also been beautifully made and is lovely and bright. It consists of a ring made of 4 pieces held inside a nut. There is nothing for it other than to try and screw the nut off the ring and it becomes immediately clear that odd things are happening. The different pieces move in all different directions until they suddenly fall out - OMG!

That wasn't very bright of me

After my initial pleased exclamation, I put the pieces in the bag and left it for a few weeks to try and forget the way they had been assembled/disassembled. 

I was able to work out several times what was required but actually doing it is less easy than it sounds. It would appear that this one also needs more than 2 hands i.e. a helpful second human which I don't have. In the end, after much "effing and blinding" this went together again with instructions to self:

"Don't do that again!"

Unfortunately, I don't often listen to myself and the worry bead thing happened again. I now have it in pieces next to me again and fully expect it to stay this way for a while. I am definitely not terribly bright - but the lovely shiny toys keep talking to me!

Thank you to both of my wonderful puzzling friends who have delighted and frustrated me for so long.

A Burr With a Difference...

Or, Am I Screwed?

Screw Burr by Oskar van Deventer

Last week I showed off some wonderful new TICs designed by Laszlo Kmolnar which I had bought from Neal. He had given me a very reasonable price and seemed not to have made a profit from the sale. This shows how wonderful and helpful our fellow puzzlers can be. In fact, he added in to the parcel a couple of 3D printed puzzles that I think he printed himself but with the sheer volume of plastic involved would still have cost him a bit to make. I couldn't resist playing with this after I had finished with the TICs.

Screw burr is a "simple" 6 piece burr with the added challenge that the pieces cannot slide on each other - they have to be unscrewed from each other. It has been printed with very bright primary and secondary colours and, despite looking like a child's toy, is really quite attractive. I found the key piece (there sort of has to be one if rotation will be required) and undid it from the burr carefully because I was not certain whether it would fall to bits after the key was extracted. I was rather surprised and pleased to see that it maintained perfect stability with the first piece removed and after that, it required further screwing about. In fact, I ended up unscrewing 2 more pieces before stability was lost and it dissolved into a heap.

Fascinating to see the thread within the cutouts

I put the pieces down for a photo and effectively scrambled them. Having left it for a while, I attempted reassembly. Now, you might assume that I would find this easy considering that I have quite a LOT of 6 piece burrs as well as 6 burrsets but alas, I am truly awful at assembly puzzles (even if they are only 6 pieces). The additional challenge of having to organise the thread was confusing me and I really struggled.

It took me about 3 days to finally find the correct positioning and then assemble it. This was not helped by dexterity difficulty keeping the pieces in place whilst I screwed each subsequent one into position. Then I inadvertently managed to cross thread one critical piece. This did not prevent it from being inserted, it just subtly dislodged one of the others and prevented the insertion of the key piece. I could not work out what was happening until I looked at it from a particular angle and was able to redo it correctly.

All in all, a very nice gift from a friend, and a very fun variation on a simple puzzle. If only I could convince the "boss" to let me buy a printer. I know that quite a lot of puzzlers are having a wonderful time with them. But the threat of a Whack! Ouch! followed by a divorce prevents me.

I Have a Storage Problem...

Solving the puzzles doesn't help!

Oskar's Paperclips

The detail is wonderful!

Mrs S has mentioned to me on several thousand occasions that I need to sort out my study! I always acknowledge the issue and then carry on playing with my toys and (shock/horror) keep buying more which adds to my storage issues. At the end of 2019 I had finally managed to acquire a set of Oskar's paperclips. I had been drooling over these for years, ever since I had seen it on Allard's website right back at the beginning of my puzzling career. I saw this as a fun puzzle but also an absolute masterpiece of puzzle manufacture - it looked so fragile and yet was perfectly safe to play with. I had attempted several times to get a copy through various auctions but had always been beaten. Finally Eric reproduced it for a third time and I was fast enough on my keyboard to get one of the 53 copies. This version in Grenadillo and Maple (unlike the previous 3 wood version) was one of only 53 made. The workmanship is superb with shoulder joints and reinforcing splines.

The puzzle was sent out disassembled with the pieces sandwiched between polythene fabric for safety. After taking my initial photos and having a quick fiddle, I put this on the shelf next to me to keep them safe from inadvertent damage and to prevent a certain cat gnawing on the ends (he couldn't resist small pokey objects for chewing). The flatpack nature of the puzzle as delivered was perfect for placing amongst books and pamphlets (it was next to my CFF journals). Over the months it sort of got hidden and I, blush, forgot about it - for 3 years!!!

This week, I was forced to do a little tidying up (not a lot) and came across my hoarded masterpiece. It was well stored but needed to be on show. Out it came and I had a little play. The dimensions are perfect. Everything slides and fits together with millimetre accuracy and I had a fun time exploring. I did use the picture on Puzzlewillbeplayed to work out the relative orientation of the pieces and the see the end result. Armed with that, I started work - the disassembly level is 15.2 and so was not going to be easy. It certainly is pretty confusing. There is a lot of movement possible at any one time but this means that there is a long way between moves and a lot to undo if you get stuck. 

It is extremely logical and actually solves more by thought than randomly trying things. It took me a while to realise that and I spent a happy couple of evenings playing with it before finishing my assembly.

Boy! It's tough to get good photo of this!

It is certainly even more beautiful having been assembled but now I have even more of a problem...it takes up MUCH more space like this and I need to find somewhere to put it. I very much doubt that Mrs S will let me keep it in the living room (where it probably should go) and there is no room amongst all of the rest of the "Fuller shelves". Sigh! I can see a complete reorganisation in my future sometime!