Just wondering who's working on what right now...
Im in the middle of a 2x2x6 for darren. i should have made it like a month ago... im lazy
take pictures of your projects for us!

Well, I pretty much destroyed a UFO the other day in my first attempt to make a fully functional 2-layer Star Prism (or a Cheeze, if I can find a nice round plastic donor... still haven't learned to mold stuff). I shaved down an edge a little too far before I realized how far too far was. I can probably reconstruct the bits to fix my error, but for $15, I'm more likely to buy another one and start over wiser than before... and with a bunch of extra pieces just in case I'm not quite wize enough yet!

I would have taken pictures of the mechanism for the site, but all three sets of camera batteries were dead and they take a six hour recharge. In any case, I only was able to take the puzzle fully apart after it was ruined. Seems to me that it was designed so that it couldn't easily be disassembled. The mechanism uses something akin to rivets to hold together and the outer UFO-looking pieces are molded in two pieces which are glued togther during assembly, locking the piece in place.

Once you have a piece removed somehow, removing the rest is much easier. Reassembly isn't too much of a problem either... although that last piece might be a bit of a pickle.

In other news, I've gotten quite adept at disassebling and reassembling the 2x2x2 / Pyramorphix. I can usually disassemble without breaking a pin, and can reassemble the final piece without any hassles. Who cares?!

Sandy

I also can take apart a pyramorph and put it back to gether. I think it just isnt as fussy as the real 2xx2.... although, some times i lose a ball bearing...haha

Cheese dissasembly:

Turn it along one of the 6 "cuts" now try turning the "horizontal slice" (that there is only one of) away.... do NOT be aftraid to break it, it odesnt break. It will be hard to take apart and put back together, but it is strong plastic, and it wont crack. Although, it will make a cracking noise, or a "pop", if you will

I currently have many projects going side by side, in the hopes that at least one will be a sucess. Amoung them are my long overdue cuboids, a master pyraminx, an extend tetraminx to make a 5th order pyraminx (functions as halperns tetrahedron, an extended pryaminx to make an order 7 (functions as order 5), master pyraminx, order 3 and 4 Stella Octanguals, and two seperate types of order three face turning octahedrons.

As you can see i've got my hands full, and out of all of that i'll hopefully have something to show. most likely the pyraminx modifications will be done first as they are the simplest.

Tyler, could you explain that again? I want to open one, too.

Well I am at about 75% completion of my first Mental Block in white plastic. My attempt at black plastic failed miserably, resulting in two destroyed molds. I have... 9 pieces of molded white plastic now, most of them sanded and ready to go. The Mental Block normally needs 12 unique pieces to be molded, but since I am making it from white plastic I need 14 total. One more casting session should be enough to complete the pieces. Once the pieces are assembled I need to find some stickers for it...

I borrowed a buddy's digital camera last night but of COURSE he had to give it to me with dead batteries...

All ambitious projects! I can't wait to see them!

Ok,

lets call the plane of rotation that splits the top from the bottom a "cut" and the 6 planes of rotation that split it into 6ths a "slice"

what you are going to do is turn 90 degrees on a SLICE. Now, try and turn the Cut while the slice is in mid-rotation. It will take quite some fiddling and pressure and time to figure out what i mean, but it does work. It will seem like it is going to break, it wont. Trust me.

to take apart a pyramorphix, turn it 90 degrees, then pry it apart with a screwdriver. It may brake, but i've never broken one

Yep, virtual design is finished, web page is updated...