Very Nearly An Idiot!

PIL Box

PIL Box by Richard Williams

I very nearly didn't have anything for you today. I have had a rather busy week and am actually going to be working as this posts. I have furiously been trying to solve something all week and until about 2 hours ago had nothing to write about. I went back to another of the IPP exchange puzzles that I have been trying to work out off and on since I got it in June.

I had been encouraged by the fact that Fraser had assured everyone that even an "idiot can solve it". I suspect he is doing himself a disservice - he seems to be pretty good at solving puzzles - especially compared to me - but then you all know that I am not terribly bright. 

Pack 3 pieces

This creation from Richard Williams was his exchange puzzle at the IPP which he was kind enough to give to me despite me not being an exchanger. It promptly went into the pile to be solved (which is currently GIGANTIC) and due to the easy idea of packing 3 pieces through a limited entry hole into a box kept me coming back. Easy idea maybe but easy to do? Nope! But if the "idiot" can solve it then I didn't want to show myself to be worse than that (moron?)

It's very nice and tactile. The  pieces have to be placed through a hole at one corner that it eccentric and has an odd chamfer to one edge. The I and L shapes are easy to insert but the C shape has to be inserted with a fun rotational move which can only happen in one direction. Working out which order to place them is the start - it turns out that they get blocked up really fast! Other rotational moves once a piece is inside is very limited due to a single blocked voxel inside the box. 

I had been stuck for weeks. I kept going with my Einsteinian approach of trying the same thing and variants of it again and again! As usual this did not have the desired effect and I was forced to think©. Fraser said it was sneaky so I did one of my moves a few more times in the hope that it would be sneaky if I did it again. Nope! Eventually I tried something which shouldn't have worked and it didn't because I did it wrong but then thunk about how else I could do it. Aha! Damn, why didn't I think of that before? I'm not terribly bright. I finally had my pieces packed inside the box and felt very foolish. He's a sneaky bugger that Rich. Very fun puzzle to play with and great to show non-puzzlers. They will be very annoyed at you when you show them the secret. Thanks mate.

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I have to blame Allard for this. I read his review and put myself on the waiting list for a few weeks when it suddenly came up for sale again. It's rather large and Mrs S was most unimpressed at the space it takes up. She was even less impressed at the enormous customs bill I had to pay!

Yes, it is the ECD-trilogy (Entity Containment Device Trilogy) puzzle set from Nothing puzzles in Australia. It is beautifully made, significantly heavy and looks like it might well be another puzzle I cannot solve (based on watching Rich and Dan fail to complete it at MPP). Lot's of fun coming up!

Burrs With A Twist

Literally... With Twisting Movements In Them!

Trust Steve to produce something funny with an extra twist in it!
Boarin' Burr - the boars appear on every surface

First of all, I MUST give proper attribution to the origin of last weeks main puzzle. The wonderful version of the Diagonal Star puzzle that I wrote about last week should actually be named the Sequential Cube. It was designed by the amazingly talented George Bell as a variant of Lee Krasnow's very rare Sequential Star. Practice does improve things with this puzzle - I can now solve the Sequential Star version and the 9 move version quite easily. The 14 move seems to be more problematic for me but I keep trying. If you get a chance to play then go for it - it's very mind-bending.

I should also point out that we have a new blog in the puzzlesphere - Fraser, whose name I forgot last week, has started an unassuming little place on the internet where he asks the useful question: Can an idiot solve it? This looks really useful to me - I have been an idiot my whole life (I'm pretty old now) and am rubbish at puzzles. I will be using his advice to see whether I should bother trying to solve some of the puzzles I see on the internet. Go show him some love/views! 

Today, I am writing about a couple of puzzles that look like burrs and sort of work like burrs in that they are composed of interlocking sticks but there is something twisted inside both figuratively and literally.

The IPP provides all of us with a list of puzzles we want. I am lucky enough to be given a few of them every now and then. Everything that the TwoBrassMonkeys do should be added to your list of things you want because there is always something special about them. Here, I have Steve Nichol's exchange puzzle. He designed a burr with some extra challenge to it. The theme is both the boars that are often found zooming around Italian towns causing havoc (Steve, cause havoc??? Oh yes! everywhere he goes) and of course, the name refers to the fact that pieces rotate like bores. and effectively double lock the burr sticks. Steve likes interlocking puzzles but always seems to want to make something a bit more interesting than a standard version. He has created them from hexagonal sticks and round sticks to confuse you. He's made odd movements and multi-step sequential discovery burrs which won my puzzle of the year for 2024. There seems to be no end to the ways that Steve wants to play with your head. In this case he has a burr with boars that got bored and bored their way inside your burr:

If you push on a boar then it unscrews from the puzzle!

This is interesting and very ingenious. It is quite reminiscent of Oskar's screw burr but extra confusing! Obviously this cannot be entered into Burrtools so you will need to be careful. Luckily everything is sequential and you quickly can produce a bunch of very odd looking sticks. Make sure that you mix them all up so that you have no idea what came from where and what orientation they were in when you started. This was one of my mistakes initially. It did not occur to me that stick orientation would be that critical when I scrambled them and I really struggle to reassemble it the first time.

There's nothing boring about this puzzle!
I have absolutely no idea how he designed this

The multi-coloured sticks can be assembled into a six piece burr in lots of ways but the locking mechanism comes from the bores/boars. Take a look at the notches in the sticks and with a little care it is possible to put it back together again with only a little trial and error as sticks may need switching end over end.

Great fun, with a twist - just as we would expect from Steve. Thanks mate. I assume that this will be put up for sale at some point. Keep an eye out on the Two Brass Monkeys website.

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SV Burr by Richard Williams (P91 puzzles)

This burr is a fascinating design by Richard Williams. The aim is to disassemble and reassemble the burr and, most importantly, in the process, understand why it has the name SV Burr - what is SV? I bought it at an MPP last September having watched lots of people struggle both with the disassembly but also get caught out by the reassembly. I made sure not to watch what they were doing and what they had found along the way. I took it home and began playing. Initially it has absolutely no moving parts and takes quite a bit of pushing and prodding to make your first move. Very quickly a tool is o=in your hands - not what you would usually think of as a tool - it's just a bolt. What can you do with a bolt in a burr?

There are a couple of holes in the puzzle where you can poke the bolt but no real clue as to whether this is having any effect. After poking and pushing and screwing and unscrewing I did find something and then movement happened. Yay! After that, nothing else was possible but I did have another hole. I "screwed" my courage to the sticking place and put the bolt in the hole and closed up the burr in the hope that I could now use gravity to pull or push something inside. Well, that was a stupid thing to do because now I couldn't move anything. After a day, I contacted Rich to see whether I was on the right track and apparently I had been very stupid! He had never even considered that anyone would be so stupid as to do that and advised me to try and undo what I had done. As always, never underestimate my stupidity! Eventually, I did manage to undo the mess that I had got myself into but it took a couple of days - phew! Then, of course, there was more stupidity! I tightened something to much and stripped some of the plastic off - this rendered my puzzle non-functional! Aargh! Yep, I'm an eejit!

At the next MPP, I had to give it back to Rich to fix. I eventually got it back at the last MPP and promised to be more careful with it this time. I started again determined not to prove myself too foolish. I did the first moves again and achieved my sliding burr moves. This time I did not lose a piece inside. I worked on various other possibilities and somehow managed to get more movement. I was screwing and unscrewing but not understanding why it changed things inside. Despite that, I managed to progress. At some point a new too dropped out and I had no idea where it came from. A little exploration revealed a hidden compartment which had been the hidey-hole. The new item was an odd looking tool but there was only one place it could go and in it went. In fact it went in and out several times causing some more screwing movements and another piece came off/out. Turning the puzzle over caused yet another tool to drop out and this time I had noted where from. After searching about there was only one place to try it and yes, more screwing about. Then the final piece was removable and the burr came fully apart:

A six piece burr?
Nope! A lot more than that.

After this it becomes clear what the SV stands for - I'm not going to give it away. You need to get your own copy of this and work it out for yourself. Thanks Rich!

So we have to burrs that have lots of twists in the tale and twists in the puzzling. Fabulous - I need to lie down now as I'm really quite dizzy.

Rich Has Me Beat......TWICE!

SV burr by Richard Williams

This will be a very short post because I am rubbish at puzzles! I don't really go anywhere for puzzling and hence no fabulous IPP stories and I work rather more than is good for me. Puzzles are supposed to be a way to relax but I haven't found that to be the case recently! Sigh!

At the last MPP that I managed to get to (way back at the beginning of September) I watched everyone try and succeed in solving the SV Burr by the genius that is Richard Williams. I think SV stands for sequential voxel? People seemed to really enjoy it and even Allard who is even worse at puzzles than me (especially burrs) managed to solve it. I couldn't allow myself to pass on the chance and slipped Rich some PayPal and brought this one and one other (see below) home in the hope that I would have a nice solve and something positive to write about on the blog (as well as have a bit of fun). Oh boy! I was very wrong! I am not sure I have had any fun yet. and can only write about failure!

This puzzle has been 3D printed by Rich and includes at least one metal piece (so far that I have found inside) and the aim is to dismantle it and presumably understand why it has been so named. I couldn't resist starting work on this pretty much as soon as I thought Mrs S might have forgotten that I might have acquired a few new toys. It's a good tactile size and heavier than you would expect for a plastic puzzle. It was available in several colour arrangements and I picked this black and blue version in the vague hope that the colour scheme might help with reassembly. As with all burrs, I started with pushing and pulling all the sticks in all the directions and got nowhere. This is going to be a theme for me this week. After a good hour or so of failure it was put down and I had to start cooking. Time to start again later and I had a little breakthrough. Something moved and I had a tool. There was no obvious place it should go until I had a little think© and use the tool in a counterintuitive way. All of a sudden I had some burr movement - yes, something slid and I got my hopes up.....Stupid boy!

Having slid part of the burr open, I was suddenly presented with a hole. It looked like a perfect place to put the tool that I had used to get that far. Maybe putting it inside and sliding it shut would allow me to manoeuvre it and use it inside as a tool as well. I placed the tool and slid it shut. Yay! Progress! Except, I now couldn't open the burr anymore. OMG! What had I done? After a few hours of failure I checked in with Rich and he confirmed that I was an eejit! There should be no reason that I shouldn't be able to get it back out again using gravity but despite that reassurance, I spent 7 days shaking the thing whilst getting chest pain and swearing at this bloody crazy hobby of mine. Mrs S had further evidence that I had lost my mind. Eventually, a whole week later, I managed to get it open again and the tool out. Phew! I then found that I couldn't return it to the beginning. I have a funny feeling I have stripped part of the plastic during my too and fro. Hopefully, I can show it to Rich at the next MPP and he can confirm whether or not I have buggered it up.

Since then, I have spent some time for the last 7 weeks not even finding the next step! Sigh! I am rubbish at puzzles. During that time I have tried other puzzles:

Dovetail Bar 2 also by Richard Williams

I have written about the first Dovetail Bar and loved it. The solve was very logical and fun with a really nice hidden mechanism. When Rich showed off the next one in the series, I couldn't resist sending more PayPal and having another wonderful puzzle to play with and write about. Maybe this lulled me into a false sense of security? 

This version now has 2 dovetails. One of them is very similar to the previous puzzle being the length of the bar and a second one on the opposite edge at 90º. There is a single screw in one side which unscrews easily. The lengthwise dovetail can slide about a centimetre depending on the orientation of the puzzle. Different positions allows it to slide in different directions. Having the screw in or out makes no apparent difference and no matter what I have tried screwing it back in doesn't appear to catch anything as it does in the first version.

There is a huge temptation to tap it, bang it, spin it and submerge it in gin (the instructions don't warn not to do that). I have been carrying this with me for the best part of 2 months and fiddling at every opportunity.The trouble is, I look ridiculous playing with a small piece of plastic that appears to never change and also after a few hours of play, I have realised that doing the same thing hundreds and hundreds of times is not very helpful. I actually can't think of anything else to try if I am not allowed to tap or spin! I have failed on both of Rich's puzzles where almost everyone else has succeeded. I will take them back to the next MPP to check that I haven't actually damaged them.

Maybe it is time for me to stop this puzzle hobby? Sigh!

I did, however, manage to finally solve the Sliding Doors puzzle from last week. It did take me almost a week to get it but at least I solved something. I had even more fun putting it into Burrtools - it was quite a challenge to model.

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!