After I designed the original Donut Cube, I realized it would be impossible for me to actually build, so I came up with this second design. It looks like Okamoto-san actually finished it! Amazing!

Yeah cubester, from the looks of the video it is very stable, although I understand your concern. First glance tells us it's a disaster waiting to happen

Edit: Whoa, didn't see that there was a page 3... Nice computer designing. It doesn't make any sense to me! Ha, I love technology!

Whoa... I don't understand that design very well, but it looks like it should work if you can machine the parts correctly. Well done!

I have seen the youtube video of the voidcube and it looks very sturdy. Never doubt a really good puzzle builder's quality, unless it's a knockoff of course.

pkobayashi, does your Donut Cube v2 work similarly to a pyramorphix keychain?

No, it's much simpler than that, it even has less pieces than a Rubik's Cube. IF anything, it's a bit like an Impossiball.



I didn't draw it, but the top pieces connect to the core and just rotate in place, kind of like a bottle cap spinning on a bottle. The "wings" on the top pieces hold in the edge pieces. And the "wings" on the edge pieces hold in the corner pieces.

The beauty of the design is that it you don't need to have any special pieces machined or molded, they can be built up using basic shapes. Theoretically, with enough patience, you could even make one at home.

The tops of all the cubies can be made with regular Rubik's pieces, and the bottoms of the pieces can be cut out of a single sphere, something about the size and thickness of a tennis ball, I'd think. For the wings, you need something like a giant plastic washer that will just almost but not quite fit over the ball.

Brilliant, but how would you assemble it? Force the last bit in similar to assembling a Rubik's 2x2x2, and praying nothing breaks?

Yeah, does the thing just hold itself together, or are there screws of some sort involved?

Thanks, glad you like it. Until I saw Okamoto's construction, I wasn't sure if it would be even possible to build. I'm guessing his is design is at least somewhat similar.

Here's a picture of another design I had. It's a bit fancier--the wings are spherical, hence harder to manufacture by hand--but, the core is a bit more finished, you can see how it has a bit of a lip. The center pieces have a lip that extend down into the core, so they just snap into the core--kind of like a bottle cap. Except inverted, so the face of the core is the bottle cap, and the bottom of the center piece is the bottle.

So to assemble, you just snap all the center pieces to the core except for one, put in all pieces except for one face, then assemble one whole face and snap it to the core.

You could probably do something similar with circle clips, like what they do with bearings to hold the races in.

Wow, that's a really cool design.

Who will be the first to make it? I'm sure someone here has access to a good-quality rapid prototype machine...

so, after all this time, there hasnt been any actualy knowledge of how the actual cube works?

When I tried it at the IPP, I could identify some tracks, the same way as the drawings above.

But building it, is a completely different story...!

I hope that answers your question.



Pantazis

I can confirm, that Pantazis tried the Void cube.

LOL that was an excellent shot Milan! The parity issue which has puzzled many is in view.

I managed to solve it using my favourite technique: "scrambling it and solving it again!"
(well... it worked for the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 too!!!)




Pantazis

I just do M or M', then use Roux to finish the F2L again.

Yes, you are making sense to me and yes I see how that could work but I like some of the ideas that have been presented later in this thread better.

To be honest I just found this thread yesterday after seeing the latest update here:

http://www.mathpuzzle.com/

I followed that here:

http://www.johnrausch.com/DesignCompetition/2007/default.htm

Which lead to me searching for and finding this thread here. I must admite I'm surprised to see a link to my own thread show up in this one. A sure sign I need to hang out here more. Anyways... I've got two basic questions.

(1) Is Katsuhiko Okamoto the first one to make one of these? I think I recall seeing one years ago. I even mentioned that fact here:

http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5653#41325

Read the second to last sentence. It was my memory of that cube that gave me the idea for my design. Now I'm left to wonder if I dreamed the whole thing. I recall seeing pictures of a void cube and it's mechansim being discussed maybe 10 years ago. However this thread and this one:

http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3836

really have me wondering if I'm actually dreaming up puzzles. Odd...

(2) I own a few Katsuhiko Okamoto puzzles. They aren't cheap but they sure are quality puzzles. Does anyone know if he's sold any of his Void Cubes? If so it looks like I missed out.

Carl