Here's my latest puzzle: the Cuboctaminx, a Cuboctahedron Pyraminx.
This is a truncated Octaminx. Cut deeper than Tony Fisher's Truncated Octaminx.

Halfway building did I realize that this one is actually pretty difficult to make by hand. So then I became sloppy. As you can tell the squares are not exactly square. It's better to use a milling drill to cut the Pyraminx pieces. Or make perfect molds and then cast the pieces (there are only two, plus a Pyraminx center ball). Perhaps in the future I will make a pair of good pieces and cast a few puzzles. Perhaps even I'll design them in SolidWorks and make 3D prints. If I'd also print a custom center ball the puzzle could be bigger. And that way I wouldn't have to use such small stickers, because the small stickers are in fact pretty tiny.

Speaking about stickers, I used only one colour sticker for the triangular sides. Obviously now they don't get scrambled, but I thought that would look better as I'm usually not too keen on puzzles with lots of different colours. But now all the 'edge' pieces don't have to be in an exact direction. Perhaps I should have used two colours, or I should have used the six Rubik's colours for the trangualr sides also.

Also, the large (well... large) pink triangular stickers came out too small. But by then I didn't bother making them bigger. I know, it would have costed me only five minutes more. Maybe later.

Thomas

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edit: I only now see that it's very similar to one of Jürgen Brandt's Pyraminx variations.
Only he didn't think of it as a cuboctahedron. But then again, mine is also not a perfect cuboctahedron.

Jürgen Brandt's version:

Wow.

The Octaminx is a pretty small puzzle, so this must be tiny. I can see it must be almost impossible to get right by hand, but that still looks really nice. I think it is the prettiest of the pyraminx truncations I have seen.

How the hell do you get the small stickers on? They must be a couple of mm across!

Great job.

I knew I was in for a treat when I read the title
Nice work thomas

Could we see a picture of it in you hand? This thing must be minuscule! Clever idea.

As for the coloring on the triangular faces, I would have suggested something similar to the stickering on the triangular faces of the the 7 color Rainbow Cube. There are 4 colors, and each triangle face and it's opposite have the same color. I do like the BOY color scheme on the square faces though.

Hmmm... I think the puzzle would have even greater appeal if it was made the same size as the cuboctahedron and rainbow cube. Looks good in any case.

Okay, I fixed the stickers. As Noah suggested I opted for four colours: pink, teal, light grey and dark grey. Unfortunately the dark grey turned out to be a transparent sticker. So I used orange instead. Maybe I'll fix that later.

Thomas

Select: Yes, the photo of my hand is Photoshopped. :-)

WOW! That thing is SMALL!

ahaha, i (think i) get it

if its as big as a 2x2, you must have big hands...

I think it would be more interesting to solve with the pink stickers the on all the triangular faces. Otherwise, you can solve it exactly like a pyraminx by ignoring all faces except the triangles cut into 6.

That is exactly what I've just now discovered!
Sometimes I really need to play with a puzzle first, before I know what stickers to use.

Thomas

Woah, I would have never guessed it was that small, incredible.

The 2x2 in the first post could be a mini 2x2.

holy CRAP.

amazing, beautiful, etc. speechless.

Those first two words are exactly what I yelled out loud to myself when I saw the picture of it in his hand.

Can we get an edge measurement in mm please?

So I take it you didn't read my hidden message where I wrote that the photo of the puzzle in my hand is Photoshopped.
It's actually 40x40x40mm, like a Rubik's 2x2x2.

Thomas

i knew it! that puzzle would have to be solved with tweezers if that picture were real

Here's a genuine photo.





I bought new screws.



Thomas

It's so small! Still a very cool mod.

A little late, but I propose the name "Cuboctaminx".

thats a real good photoshop, shadows n everything

Thomas,
This is so cute and so awesome!
I love it.
I admire your patience with such difficult built!
I think it's perfect!
vadim