Hi folks,

I am new as a member to the site, but have been working on some puzzle mods for several months. I have recently completed two prototypes, one of which is alarmingly similar to the Thomas cube posted recently (but I saw this for the fisrt time two days ago, honest!). I enclose a few pictures.

The puzzles are cast in resin from silicon moulds, and I am finding it tremendously difficult to make accurate masters for the moulds. I am also having some problems with sticker bubbling (they are a good quality vinyl).

And comments or suggestions?

Wow! The first one is very, very similar to the mod I was planning next! Actually, it's exactly the same.

Nice one.

I also like the second one. Could you post some more pictures?

Thomas

For a first post, that is simply amazing. Welcome to the forum!

Those variations are really neat, and they demonstrate that sometimes geniuses think alike. Right Thomas?




Pantazis

Huh, I can't fathom how to buildup Skewbs so cleverly!

For people who don't see the resemblance between my Thomas' Cube and Timselkirk's first mod, I put them next to each other. The difference is that mine has straight lines on each side. And that's why some of my triangle pieces overlap a bit on the adjacent side. The core of Timselkirk's design is rotated slightly different inside the cube.
As I said, I had noticed this possibility a while ago, and I was about to start building it next weekend. I'm Glad I didn't start already. Now I can focus on other ideas.

Thomas

Thomas,

Thanks for the side by side pics. I couldn't believe it when I saw your first pics, for a few seconds I thought that they were exactly the same! To have two such similar ideas deleloped at the same time is quite a coincidence.

I think your cube is executed somewhat more neatly than mine. Have you used the same production method? Eurethane resin in silicone moulds? I am having difficulty getting my masters exactly right. Any suggestions?

I will try to get a few more pics in the next day or two; I don't get much time for building/ posting, maybe 15-20 minutes average a day, so things happen very slowly!

Everyone,
I was going to call the first mod a skew2b with the 2 in superscript, as it is effectively a skewed skewb (or Thomas cube rotated slightly around the longest axis). The second mod is half normal skewb (expanded a bit) and half skew2b, so I was going to call it the HalfandHalfSkewb. Neither name is particularly snappy. Any better suggestions?

Yes,

I was unsure about the colours; it does look better in real life: white, silver and a kind of pewter colour. I thought a kind of "black and white" cube would make it stand out a bit!

nice mod! I love it! Welcome to the forum

I used plastic sheet for the outside. I should have used plastic sheet as well for the insides, but I used Apoxie Sculpt instead. That works fine but needs a lot of sanding and it makes the puzzle kind of heavy. For a next puzzle I'll try to use plastic sheet only.

How did you came up with this idea? I realised it could be done while I was building my second Skewb mod. That one was thought off when I built my first Skewb mod. And that one was a natural progression from my cubic Megaminx.

Thomas

Thomas,

When I first got interested in skewb mods about 6 months ago, I realised its was taking ages to do the trig to work out piece sizes, so I wrote a little program in Delphi to simulate a skewb that allowed me to mess around with possible internal rotations, and this is the nicest I have found so far that is different to anything anyone else had done.

I also use apoxie sculpt, but for the masters that I use to cast the silicone moulds. Your final pieces look excellent. Have you tried making moulds from them?

I used a (truncated) Skewb Ultimate for my Thomas' Cube, which, as I said, I extended with plastic sheet. I may build a few more of these puzzles. Maybe using molds. I guess it's easier then to make masters for a regular Skewb. That way I don't have to truncate first (and they are more readily available). But then again, perhaps I should just stick to plastic sheet. I know Tony Fisher often uses molds, but prefers plastic sheet.

Your Delphi program sounds interesting. It is indeed something that I'm sometimes missing.

Thomas

They look excellent!

There is a time for using plastic sheet and there is a time for using moulds. The trick is deciding which is better for a particular job.
Sticker bubbling may be the result of not allowing resin to fully cure. Although hard quite quickly I believe it may take several days or even weeks before some resins have completely cured. Since I am new to using polyurethane resins this is only a theory.

Your knolegde NEVER fails to amaze me!

I love the mods!

How come people are taking old mechanisms and slapping on more material until it's a cube with weird slicings and then call them new puzzles? Come on!

Just kidding. Ate least you're doing something interesting instead of posting ungoodly grammered content on here.

Nice job man, looks really nice.

As promised, here are some more pics of the 2nd mod. I have included some of the puzzles semi-assembled so that you can see the half which is a skew2b and the half which is a normal skewb (enlarged) being added.

well they are called "new mods" and not "new puzzles" for a reason!