Hi All,
Here are pics of the trigonal prism. There are two designs for this puzzle. The first (the one on the left) I had designed and built back in the spring and was intending to use for the puzzle game when Adam (Puzzlemaster 42) sent me a design for that exact puzzle. Ironically he had chosen exactly the same size (Rubik's cube height) which drive all the external sizes. This makes the stickers identical. His internals are different than mine. I was not happy with my design because there was a tendency to pop the edge piece since the overhang of the top triangle is not much. Adam likes the spherical internal architecture as you see in picture 2. So I went and built his design too ( I only modified it to put in caps over the screw holes and added sprues for easier molding). The two designs are shown in picture 1, mine on the left and Adam's on the right (I made a smaller screw cap for his as can be seen faintly in the image. They both turn well and but, as expected, Adams' has less of a tendency to pop the edge piece. Due to the spherical internal design there is a little more tendency for the corners to point up a little instead of lying flat though. Anyway in picture 2 you can see my internal design and Adam's design. Finally I also put a picture of the trigonal prism, Rubik's 25 anniversary cube and the pentagonal prism. When Scott finishes his hexagonal prism all the Meffert prisms in his catalogue will have been made.

Tim: solved it yet? It is not all that hard to solve, as expected.

Happy puzzle building
Lee

simply amazing.

Wow, Lee,
You are a star of puzzle-making!
It's unbelievable: you even make mechanisms for your puzzles: that's way too deep for me.

Well done! they look awesome!
Vadim

Fantastic, Lee!

What about the central spiders in your puzzles - how do you build them?
Are they stable enough for - not speedcubing - but continuous play?

My respect - Frank

ONCE AGAIN

FANTASTIC LEE

OMG FANTASTIC! So you made the mechs for these? And for the triangluar, pentagonal, and hexagonal prism have the same mech?

Great work. Yet another puzzle from Uwe's 1982 catalogue is finally made. I wonder when all the puzzles will be realities instead of just mock-ups.

I like that the sides of the pentagonal prism look like 3x3 sides. Can you achieve the same with a trigonal prism?

I don't see why it couldn't be done starting from a puzzle like the ones here. The middle column wouldn't be visible from the outside.

The puzzle would be related to the Rubik's Cheese or UFO, and would most likely use a mechanism similar to one of those.

Couldn't you bandage and truncate a 3 layer puck puzzle for that?

Yes you could. I never thought of that. But I alwasy thought that the pcu kand the cheese/UFO mech was the same. correct me if Im wrong.

The puck, UFO and Cheese actually all have different mechanisms.

And I just realized the center would have a problem there.


Maybe if you extended a cheese the same way you would a 3x3x5 you could do it.

Actually, you can make the puzzle that Puzzlemaster42 has illustrated not with a puck--the single axis on the central hub doesn't allow it to work, and the dimensions of the puzzle don't work to well either without a lot of building. However, it can be done with a UFO and some square-1 bits; I know because I am building one now!

Man, you really gotta get up early around here to have something new...

Lee, what do you use to manufacture the parts?

hmm, i wonder how a spindle type mech. could be worked into some of these new ideas...

They are built by solid modeling and either the spindle is used directly or else a copy in polyurethane is made. In either case I have never had one break. Adam Zamora had a screw come out when he was doing counterclockwise turns (I have not had that happen but the way I move things I typically find I make clockwise turns mostly) I may lengthen the screws on the next one I make to have it hold tighter or use a touch of lock-tite.

I use black alumilite two part polyurethane to make the parts in a silicone mold. The originals are done by rapid prototyping and solid modeling.
Lee

what do you call to that star shape puzzle???

Lee, I was very happy to play with the pentagonal prism a fortnight ago on DCD.
Should you ever decide to make more, count me in for one please.

Those two puzzles are completely amazing, I look at them often. You should make mass of it. Sell it the price it'll cost! I'll buy one of each even if it's 100$.

lol, easier said then done Simon. Anyway, great work Lee and Adam

Lee,

Georges already said it perfectly. If you have a buyers list at all, please add me to it. The puzzle is really fantastic.

- Frank -

So are the pieces built up from scratch, including the core?

You do read the posts?

Thomas

Yeah all Lee says is they are modeled and molded. I guess that's the answer.....

Anyways, I have come up with a method for this puzzle, as trivial as it is.

Let's just call one of the side faces R, and the top face U.

Step 1: Middle Layer
-Intuitive

Step 2: Bottom Layer Edges
-U R U' R' if you're actually stuck.

Step 3: Top Layer Edges
-Huh?

Step 4: Corners
-R U R U' R is a nice commutator.

Lee,

I can only agree with Georges and Frank. If you have a buyers list at all, please add me to it also. The puzzle is really fantastic. Thank you.

Can the sides do 90 degree turns? I was under the inpression that it was 180s only...

I think that since the puzzle can only do 180 degree turns, R implies R2.

I would've thought so too, but then he started using R' as well or maybe that was just a typo...

R' implies how I would actually make the turn. It makes more sense for me to do it counter-clockwise.