Here's the first of three puzzles I will be making over winter break.

Octex

VIDEO!

The turning is nice and smooth. Due to some inspiration from Tony Fisher, it gives a satisfying *click* when it lines up right, and that click pretty much erases any alignment issues. You'll see what I mean when I make the video.











A video will be up in a day or two.

I plan on making a second one and selling it, but that might not be until after winter break, depending on when my second internal puzzle arrives. Unfortunately, since I'm home for break, I won't be able to access the laser cutter to cut stickers until I get back in January.

By the way, this is the puzzle that the "8 --> 6" hint referred to.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

Wow very cool! Are you using ball bearings to get the click? I'd love to see the internals! Nice job.

Is this the mod mentioned in your "How to Remove Lube?" thread?

It took me about 2 minutes of just staring to finally realize it's a 3x3x3 (FTO- I made that same mistake again!) mod. Then I remembered the other thread you made just earlier.

OK, I'm super-confused... what's this a mod of? FTO?

Initial reactions:

Due to the "8 6 hint, I guess FTO as the base.

@jabeck: the Face-Turning Octahedron (I'm guessing that the Octex is based off of the FTO due to several posts and deductions) has bumps like those of a megaminx, helping the click. I'm going to make the assumption that those bumps are providing a click (although I can't really speak for pirsquared).

In any case, that's a clever modification. I would like to see stickers so I will wait with bated breath until January...Is there any sort of unusual parity (like center orientation on a mastermorphix)?

Nope.


Yes. And it just popped out again! I'm pretty sure it's the same screw every time, so I think I'll just glue that one in place.


That would be a definite "no". Keep staring!




Ding Ding Ding! Correct!

-Ï€ (Eitan)

wow awesome mod
i like the design the axises make

Mine doesn't... although I got mine when they were first available, so maybe the design was updated.

m really glad this is a FTO mod and not another 8 sided puzzle.....


great looking puzzle, cant wait for the video

Thanks for all the complements!



Mine didn't have any bumps either.


I haven't a clue. I've only solved the FTO 3 or 4 times, and I have no idea how the...

I think I'll stop there, and wait for someone along the lines of Tony to point it out!


I do too! It's one of my favorite designs I've made.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

This is wonderful! Beautiful! GREAT!

And I don't even have an FTO, a project I started designing before I knew what I was doing and came out in the middle of me planning everything.

Thanks!

By the way, I still have some work to do, mainly planing the faces until they are on the same level. On the other hand, I kind of like how the pieces of the X seem to stand out from the cube a bit more.

What do you guys think?

-Ï€ (Eitan)

Am I correct?

Well done! That's exactly right.

Just like Tony Fisher used magnets to solve the problem of holding in the corners on his master skewb, I used magnets to hold on the small triangular pieces on my Octex.

In fact, a more descriptive name for this puzzle would be the "Fisher-ed" Master Skewb. It's what you get when you take a master skewb and rotate it by 45Ëš.

I love that click at the end of each turn. It makes the puzzle line up just right for the next turn.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

I really like this puzzle and the way it looks good job

Beautiful puzzle and I appreciate your approach toward alignment issues.



It must be very addictive to hear precise positioning click!

Leslie

To me it looks like a Fishered Master Skewb. What I know for sure is that it looks great!

-Mark-

EDIT: Didn't know you said that already

I don't get why I keep mistaking FTO with 3x3x3! Although on second thought, it looks like it could be a very decieving 3x3x3.

You could try glueing the screw into the core, though that may be difficult.

Wow, your mods keep getting better and better, this is by far my favorite of your mods so far, it reminds me of the skewb modification that Mr. Okamoto did a while back, i can't remember the name .

What a great idea. I absolutely like the 3x3 sides. Amazing.

Thomas

Aha! It is a master Pyracue!

http://www.puzzle-shop.de/pyracue1.jpg

Great job with this puzzle Eitan! It is amazing.

Yes, I see that now. Nice.
And if you would extend all four sides of the Octex, wouldn't you get a Professor Mental Block?

Thomas

A great idea and a fantastic looking puzzle! Can't wait to see it stickered

I think it's equivalent to a Master version of Vadim's Mental Box

very cool! I like it a lot, since I had to guess the mechanism (which I see immediately with most transformations). I did guess it right though

Very nice puzzle, I like this a lot.

Alex

Thank you for all the complements!

I never thought about it like this, but you could call the mental block the "Fisher-ed" Skewb. I like the look of that master mental block, but it would take soooooo much more plastic than I have already used to make the Octex. Perhaps some day I might use plastic sheeting to extend an Octex into a master mental block. That would be really cool.

If someone does do that in the future, however, I would appreciate if you would at least cite this thread.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

Sorry for the double post, but I thought I'd show a few more pictures.

A shot with my dog Poogy.


A closer look at the X made by the uneven surfaces of the pieces.


I just had a few friends over for chamber music, and one of them picked up the Octex, and before I could say anything, here's what he did...


Oh well. Now I have gotten a feel for how it behaves when scrambled, I know that I need to do a little more internal sanding to get it just right.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

The cuts in the sides remind me of this logo.

Nice job and that scrambled picture looks very pretty.

I Loved the scrambled picture, It reminds me when I had my friends over for a party and they scrambled all 32 of my cubes. Now that was a mess

Poogy is a cute doggy name!

It looks killer. If you put one up on ebay, expect me as a bidder!

It's the name of a fictional character that featured in several of the songs of the Israeli rock band Kaveret.


It sure does. I swear that it was not intentional.

@Steve Jobs: Please do not sue!


I'd say "pretty scary" instead.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

Haha arent you the one that made the eye or iskewb?
sounds suspicious

Oh no! My master scheme has been exposed!

-Ï€ (Eitan)

I like this one a lot.

Here's the VIDEO!

-Ï€ (Eitan)

That's awesome! I love the floating pieces!

I do too. But I'm a little bit afraid of scrambling this thing, not because it'll be hard to solve (which it probably will be...) but because I'm afraid of knocking out any of the floaters! The magnets are strong, but even so, the pieces can be pried loose. They were the biggest magnets I could fit on the pieces.

I think that as long as I am just a bit careful, this won't be a problem.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

Go Boulder!

I can see this could be a 3x3x3 mod, just a "bit" more complicated mechanism. And don't worry about scrambling it. You will be able to solve it eventually. And if you don't solve it by April, take it to the School of Mines competition for some "help".

I don't see how you could get 8 axises of rotation from a 3x3x3.

Scramble and solve it in your room, and if the floaties fall out just pop them back in.

I wouldn't worry about them falling out or popping, though, since it does click nicely into place.

Rentlix do you live in colorado?

The turning looks really good

The problem isn't with pieces locking up and pushing each other out. That has actually never happened yet on this puzzle! YAY!

The problem is if I move my fingers too quickly, I could knock a piece out. This is quite unlikely, as I said, because the magnets are pretty strong.

Once I knock on out, however, the floaters have three possible orientations, and it is unlikely that the puzzle would end up with only one of the floaters oriented wrong. We'll see when I solve it!

-Ï€ (Eitan)

I'll have to stare at it a bit more...

Movement looks excellent, as does the puzzle's construction. However, this puzzle doesn't technically jumble...all the pieces are regular in terms of the mechanism and there is no dynamic bandaging. It's just a shape-shifter, but a mighty pretty one at that. Well done, sir.

-CC10

Awesome puzzle! Well done!

Alex

the 4 edges surrounding the faces that look like a 3x3x3 (top and bottom) turn, but the edges between the "x" sides don't.

What a great design Eitan!

Kudos!

Skarabajo.

I love it.
I like the snapping in of the magnets too. On a shape changing puzzle, especially of this level it is a good thing to know when the turn ends.
But now some things about solving this puzzle that I can assume. Now you said that you solved the face turning octahedron but that you are not sure about beeing able to solve this puzzle since it has pieces that the FTO does not have. These additional pieces are equivalent to the Master Skewb's corners right? And the Master Skewb's corners are solved just like those on a regular skewb, along with the very centers. So the additional pieces shouldn't be that hard.
However the Master Skewb is way harder than the FTO, because the rectangular pieces (referring to Drew's Masterskewb now) are in fact equivalent to the triangular pieces on the FTO's faces, but still they are harder to solve since their "order" does matter. On an FTO you probably use algs that cicle 3 around.
If 3 green triangles are on the green side it is solved. On a Masterskewb though, those 3 triangles are squares that gather around a corner and do not share the same side of the puzzle. So you have to care about positioning them in an other way than on the FTO. I found it way harder to solve them on the Masterskewb than on the FTO even though the algorithm that I used should do (used over and over again in a way that the pieces end up where they belong) but is way hard to "foresee". So what would be right on an FTO might not be right on the cube.
I am not really sure about your creation but I think it is more difficult than the FTO because of that too.
If you know better, or have discovered the same by now, I would really be interested.

I've made at least one step towards solving the thing, which is to scramble it!

Here it is: AAAARRRGGGHH!!!


It is very very confusing. I'll let you guys know when I have made some progress on it.

-Ï€ (Eitan)

I'm ascared.

Alex

No!!! You're on a Mac!!!