Well I finally finished one of my projects! Here is my version of the pentagonal prism. I know it is not new, as it was in Mefferts catalog (Note the stickering I used gives the same image) and Jin has been working on one also. It turns well but is definitely not for speedcubing. I am happy with it though!

Cool build!!!!!!!!! Are the sides subjected to only 180 degree turns? What I'm trying to say does it change shape at all. If it doesn't its still a cool build.

Oh my God... it exists!!!!

Unreal design... How did you do it???





Pantazis

is that done via rapid prototyping like your tuttminx, because constructing a custom mech for that and pieces would be wuite a task.

Fantastic Job!

Simply AMAZING!! I can't believe the puzzle actually exists. Wonderful job.

Yes, the shapes are such that only 180 degree side face turns are possible.

Ryan: Yes solid modeling of the exterior pieces followed by rapid prototyping of the unique pieces was used. Two part polyurethane copies were then made. The spider is a zome ball again but I reinforced it with Apoxy and filled with two part epoxy to give strength. It is a complete build not a mod (the only parts that came from another puzzle were 2 stiffer springs from a chinese megaminx for the top and bottom center pieces).

What is a zome ball?

"Zome" refers to a model-construction toy manufactured by Zometool, Inc..
See http://www.zometool.com/what-is-zome.html.

Lee also used a Zome for his Tuttminx. See http://www.twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4186.

Thomas

Great job Lee!

Simply amazing.

Now it's only a matter of time untill all of Meffert's unmade masterpieces are made.

Amazing job, Lee!

Just out of curiosity: why there is a gap that large between the outer slices and the puzzle's center in the face rotation photo?

Very, very nice!



Keep up the fantastic work!

Lee,
You are a genius!
I didn't think it was possible!
I still can't get my head round the internal mechanism with that ball inside.
Any chance you can post some pictures of it's insides?

Great job, well done!
Vadim

I don't think that is a gap... If you look at the picture comparing with a normal cube, you can see that the face is square, but you have to keep in mind that the area of the slice isn't, as the hight is the same as a cube, but the slice is wider.
This would mean that it is aposibility that what you see is simply "overhanging" unstickered plastic parts of the center and "upper and lower"-edge" between the faces that are turned partialy...

I think it's because it was a 90 degrees turn, and it only allows 180 degrees turns if you want to continue turning it. It's because the height of the 3 layers is not equal to the length of the edge of the pentagon.

Vadim, There is nothing special about the way I used the Zome ball. It was just used as the symmetry element for the spider as in the Tuttminx.
http://www.twistypuzzles.com/forum/down ... 7b3802f21c
I then filled in around the ball with Apoxie and used a few exposed holes to fill in with liquid epoxy and finally finished with Apoxie over the holes. Here is a pic of the internal. It is basically just like a Rubik's cube but with one more arm.

Aleksey, Haara and Xcool are exactly right. Below is a picture looking straight down with the two faces rotated 90 degrees (which is not really a complete move).

If you were in the same room as me now, I'd give you a standing ovation (sp). Just looking at the internal mechanism. Wow. It's so... professional. Amazing. Perfect.


So, have you mixed/solved it yet? Does it use some algs from the dominoe?

Lee.......... I am absolutely speechless in front of such an magical creation.

The normal humans like me just are able to modificate existent puzzles, but you go much more far away, and even create your own mechanism.

Btw, I have to add one more name to my Puzzle God's list.............

AWESOME!!!!

I have only mixed it a little (accidently lost where I was when making the photos and had to solve it but had not introduced any layer moves at that point so it was relatively easy ). There are some unsusual moves going around the cube since the odd number of sides means that some new moves come in relative to rubiks (and of coarse many go away). One of the moves I use on the megaminx and rubiks is applicable (moving and rotating corners.) I am sure others are too but I am not much into solving puzzles (I have done my share but the building and mechanisms are where my real interests are.) Most puzzles I can eventually solve but a few have eluded me such as the square-1. Have not done too much with the dominoe so am not sure about algs there.

Some notes on solving this thing:

The center slice can be solved after or before everything else, since even if the sides are complete the center slice can be moved separately and it's possible to use only a single slice of the top and bottom, so they never really get scrambled. I don't think there's a parity flip necessary once the top and bottom are solved to fix the middle, but just in case it's probably easiest to solve the middle first, then do the top and bottom (with only a single slice of the middle slice getting used, so it doesn't get scrambled) because that gets any parity issues out of the way immediately.

The only really notable thing about the middle slice is that to flip the orientation of a piece you have to bring it around the entire puzzle. Notably, you'd have to scramble the entire thing quite a bit for that to happen by chance.

It's possible to flip two opposite pairs of edges by alternately flipping two adjacent slices three times, for a total of six slices.

The corners can be positioned by coming up with a simple sequence which only changes one of the corners on the bottom face, then using that and its inverse repeatedly to keyhole the corners on the bottom face into place, the same way my solution to the rubik's UFO works.

I think that's all that's necessary for a solution, actually - first solve the middle, then the corners, then the edges. The parity restriction of the middle should avoid problems with parity on the final edges.

That was an interesting puzzle-solving exercise to go through, there are a few unique and interesting aspects of this puzzle (although it's probably an awful lot like the rubik's domino, which I don't actually know how to solve although it sure seems like this solution should work for it). I would of course have to actually use one of these to figure out if I got it right, and it was made a bit more difficult by not having the puzzle in front of me (or possibly not - I played around with a domino once and didn't figure it out, while I got a solution to this one in just a few minutes).

Well, you don't have to restrict yourself to only one slice, at least as long as you remember to (after using one slice) not use any adjacent slice untill the first one have been used an even number of times...

Absolutely amazing work. Any plans of making more of these? I would love to have one. Any chance of a scrambled pic?

Thanks for sharing your work.

-adam-

Lee,
thanks for posting internal mechanism picture.
It is unebelievable how accurately you built all pieces. They look like factory-made.
This is a masterpiece!
It's a shame it can't be added to this database!
Vadim

IT LIVES!

Great work.

WOW. Great job!

Great job Lee!


Vadim: Sandy won't be gone forever (he came back and gave us the Puzzle Building forum...) so eventually he'll update the software to allow more database moderators.

I am currently named as being one of these moderators and as soon as I get the go-ahead I'll get cranking on adding new puzzles.

Be assured that I'll favor new and unique puzzles like this over just-another-3x3x3-sticker-variation puzzles (there are lots of those waiting), so we'll get the nice stuff in first.

Dave

Amazing, really amazing, this is a really nice puzzle !!!
Do you know if you'll make some for sale

Nice job man it's really well done.

So what did you use to make it?

this is just another reminder as to why i need to learn to build more then bad quality 2x2x3s. nice job!

lol
you too you have difficulty to build 2x2x3, I have build one I past a lot of time on it, but it always pop up because the center layer doesn't fallow the other, and then, it pop up. Can someone help me with this... please

Thanks to Lee Tutt, I was in the opportunity to try his magnificent Pentagonal Prism.
It is really a fantastic puzzle. It looks great and turns great as well. A real masterpiece as was mentioned already also by several people at this forum.

I was curious how difficult it is to solve. So, it was great to try it in practice.
I also asked Dieter Gebhardt from Germany for his opinion.

Dieter may not be very well known to most people at this forum but at the NKC (the Dutch Cubist Club) and CFF (the magazine of NKC), Dieter is very well known for his many articles on puzzle solutions over many, many years. Dieter came up with a very elegant solution for the Pentagonal Prism. In agreement with Lee and Dieter I am presenting the solution here. It is in the original handwriting of Dieter himself.

Geert