Hi All

This was a time consuming but enjoyable puzzle to make and I made it the same way as the
Megamorphix I had made recently, by making square tubing first from 1mm plastic sheet for the extensions.
On this 5x5x5 though I had to make more, twice as many as seen here in the first picture.
The pieces were then capped with 1mm sheet and any visible joins were filled with milliput, all the pieces were then sanded smooth.
Stickers were handcut from vinyl sheets.

Surprisingly when I searched, the only other 'non-pillowed' Ultramorphix I could find, is the white version in the museum. http://twistypuzzles.com/cgi-bin/puzzle.cgi?pkey=1751

Edge Length : 180mm
Weight : 290gm
Thankyou.

VIDEO

very nice! Im planning on making the whole set from 4x4 up that are non pillowed, each of them provide such an enjoyable solving experience!

These homemade extension tubes are amazing! How long do you make them, and how many are required?

Another beautiful creation, as always.

Thankyou all.

@JackRTully
I cut (A4 sheets) width ways into strips, and made 14 tubes for this puzzle.
It can probably be done with 1 or 2 less tubes, if they can be cut more efficiently than the way I cut them

That is amazing. Very sharp indeed. I have fallen in love with this shape as of late and wanted to make my own versions, I just finished my 3x3 which was a nightmare and am underway with the 4x4, but I have to ask... did you place the tubing on a complete side the cut the side? Or cut the tubes individual? May sound like a silly question, but I would love to know... would make my work a little less

I hope you are planning more morphixii... 7x7 8x8 and the like....

Thankyou Squircifer, I cut the pieces individually.
I mark them with a pencil and then cut them 'often poorly' with a hacksaw, its a little awkward but as long as they're cut outside of my drawn lines it doesn't matter if its not too tidy at this point.
Once they're all stuck on I use a dremel to get closer, and then I use sandpaper wrapped around a piece of wood to finish off the shape and get nice even smooth sides.

maybe I'm missing something here, but, how do you build those huge corners? It doesn't seem feasible with the plastic tubes to me (but I'm an absolute amateur here )

The plastic tubes are made from plastic sheet, so the corners are made from the triangle pieces of plastic sheet seen in the above picture.

^ Yes, heres a picture of a corner from the Megamorphix I made, I drew a few lines on it
The 3 large triangles cut from plastic sheet for each corner are glued onto the tubes,
and also glued along the seams where they all meet, any visible joins are filled with milliput and smoothed, the corners are very light but still strong.

I also add an additional 3 small triangles of plastic sheet (marked in red) on the underside, to make each corner totally encased, otherwise there would be visible holes here, seen when the puzzle is fully scrambled, its not entirely necessary to do this but I think it looks nicer.

How do you make sure that the sides are not only evenly flat, but also flat in relation to all sides of the puzzle no matter where each piece is?

I scramble the puzzle like the chequered pattern above, and sand gently until its as flush as I can get it on all faces.

It does, indeed. Good job! And thank you for the explanation.

Excellent! I'll keep that in mind for my next mod as I neglected to take that problem into account last time.

I would be interested in how you build your square tubing....

Really nice! I love hand built puzzles.

Beautiful build! (When don't you you have a beautiful build.)

Amazing puzzle, i like it so much

Fantastic build!

-Eitan

Thankyou everyone for all your kind comments.


I cut the plastic sheet into strips, so if I need a 15mm tube I cut strips 14mm wide to allow for the 1mm thickness of the plastic sheet when they are glued together.

I have this piece of 'right angled' metal bar which I use to glue two strips together in 'L' shaped lengths, then take a pair of 'L' shaped lengths and glue them together to make your square tube.
Leave them to dry and then sand/round off the sharp edges.
I use measuring calipers to measure the cubie I'm extending, and then to make sure the tube extensions are the correct width along their full length, I feed the tube through the calipers, if it gets stuck, the tube may need sanding a little until it fits through. This is important because the puzzle will likely catch and not move well if the extensions are wider than the cubies in any areas, hope this helps.

Thanks for elaborating... I tend to mess things up by just doing them, when other people have already found betters ways of doing the same. Afterwards I learn of course, but not before someone loses and eye.