Twisty&Sliding Puzzle

MDC · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:32 pm

Hi,
here's my twisty&sliding 3x3x3 cube(s).
Each single cube can easily take 24 positions at 26(27) places.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyZ1CRfqwd0

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/449160

Thanks,
Mirko

Doug Roth · **Joined:** Sun May 29, 2011 2:56 pm **Location:** New York

It's very interesting. Maybe you could come up with a way to hold the pieces in place, and only move them by force? That way, they wouldn't slide around (unintentionally) when you solve it.

-Doug

5hinigami · **Joined:** Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:46 pm

Wow, the pieces move very nice inside the 3x3x3.
This must be almost impossible to solve. Very Hard and nice puzzle

Nice stickers, good idea to put a white dot on the inside stickers, that makes it less confusing.

KelvinS · **Joined:** Mon Mar 30, 2009 5:13 pm

At first I thought one had to twist the layers within a static cage, but I love the way you have enabled the cage itself to twist. Brilliant design!

One thing I would ask is why did you make the cubies hollow on some sides? I mean, wouldn't it have been better to use solid dice that you could buy ready-cast? You could even put stickers on the inner surfaces like Peter's Black Hole.

Just a suggestion, and it's not too late to replace these...

Tony Fisher · **Joined:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:37 pm

This is brilliant, I really like it. I feel the cage idea will lead to other things.

Kattenvriendin · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:26 pm

I like it!

No pops for sure! Very pretty puzzle, well done

Monopoly · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:29 pm

On the Shapeways page, it looks like the cage center pieces only have 1 strut extending to the inside, while the actual puzzle has struts on all 4 corners of the center piece. If I buy the model, which will I get?

pirsquared · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:07 pm

This completely blew my mind! A very elegant implementation, especially how you left the inner faces open.

-Eitan

MDC · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:11 pm

Monopoly wrote:

On the Shapeways page, it looks like the cage center pieces only have 1 strut extending to the inside, while the actual puzzle has struts on all 4 corners of the center piece. If I buy the model, which will I get?

The cage center pieces on the Shapeways page have 2 strutes extending to the inside, what is enough and more visible. Actually, the cage should be made from transparent material, but it's impossible to do it with 3D printing.......yet.
Thanks!

Mirko

wwwmwww · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:35 pm

Great Puzzle!!!

Doug Roth wrote:

Maybe you could come up with a way to hold the pieces in place, and only move them by force?

I too think that would be an improvement.

KelvinS wrote:

One thing I would ask is why did you make the cubies hollow on some sides?

I believe that may give you better visability into the puzzle and make it easier to solve. If the cubes were all solid I believe you'd have less visable information to work with.

KelvinS wrote:

I mean, wouldn't it have been better to use solid dice that you could buy ready-cast?

But I do like the idea of being able to make a 3x3x3 dice cube this way. What size are the cubes? Could they be made the same size as dice such that if one put in 27 dice he could have a functional 3x3x3 with its mech on the outside? This really reminds me of my quote here:

wwwmwww wrote:

Think of it as a 3x3x3 that wears its innards on the outside.

Oh and I see there are springs in the cage edge pieces. I can't quite tell why. Could you explain what they are for? Are they needed?

Again very nice puzzle!!!
Carl

Tony Fisher · **Joined:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:37 pm

This may be a way of making proportional high order NxNxN puzzles. A lead on from this discussion .

Paradox · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:40 am

wwwmwww wrote:

Oh and I see there are springs in the cage edge pieces. I can't quite tell why. Could you explain what they are for? Are they needed?

It looks to me like they are used to help the layers of the sphere click into place to prevent any misalignments during twisting of the other layers.

Gus · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:30 am

MDC wrote:

Monopoly wrote:

Actually, the cage should be made from transparent material, but it's impossible to do it with 3D printing.......yet.

Yes you can, but not at Shapeways. Objet 3D printers can print with a transparent material, but I don't know anything about its strength or accuracy.

MDC · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:43 am

Sorry to delay!

wwwmwww wrote:

Great Puzzle!!!

Doug Roth wrote:

Maybe you could come up with a way to hold the pieces in place, and only move them by force?

I too think that would be an improvement.

I don't think so.
If the pieces would be moved by force, then you couldn't move 1 single cube in some cases, but only 2 together. Moving by gravity and blocking the one behind, enable to move only 1 single cube at each place you wish - and this way goes faster as moving by force.
Look at 0.13s and later http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glunDpfRbL8

wwwmwww wrote:

KelvinS wrote:

One thing I would ask is why did you make the cubies hollow on some sides?

I believe that may give you better visability into the puzzle and make it easier to solve. If the cubes were all solid I believe you'd have less visable information to work with.

I agree.

wwwmwww wrote:

What size are the cubes? Could they be made the same size as dice such that if one put in 27 dice he could have a functional 3x3x3 with its mech on the outside? This really reminds me of my quote [url=http://twistypuzzles.com/forum

Of course. The size is about 21mmm.

wwwmwww wrote:

Oh and I see there are springs in the cage edge pieces. I can't quite tell why. Could you explain what they are for? Are they needed?

The springs help by fixing rotation at 90°, 180°…

Thanks,
Mirko

MDC · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:52 am

Hybrid424 wrote:

wwwmwww wrote:

Oh and I see there are springs in the cage edge pieces. I can't quite tell why. Could you explain what they are for? Are they needed?

It looks to me like they are used to help the layers of the sphere click into place to prevent any misalignments during twisting of the other layers.

Yes. And any little misalignment would be an obstacle to sliding.

Mirko

MDC · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:12 am

Gus wrote:

MDC wrote:

Monopoly wrote:

Actually, the cage should be made from transparent material, but it's impossible to do it with 3D printing.......yet.

Yes you can, but not at Shapeways. Objet 3D printers can print with a transparent material, but I don't know anything about its strength or accuracy.

Thanks, I will see what they can do.

Mirko

Oskar · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03 pm

Excellent design and implementation! I love the minimalistic hollow cubes inside. Why are you using two different 3D-printed materials?

Some older Twisty Puzzle fans may recall Polo Cube, which is the 2x2x2 predecessor of this puzzle.

Quiz question: why is the outer cage non-proportional? (Hint)

Oskar

MDC · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:34 pm

Oskar wrote:

Excellent design and implementation! I love the minimalistic hollow cubes inside. Why are you using two different 3D-printed materials?

Thank you Oskar.

I used first WSF material for all. Unfortunately, this material (technology) wasn't suitable to make the cage turning satisfying. So there were 2 choices: using the material (technology) with more accuracy, or change my drawings – make the cage a more robustious.
So, I decided for the first option because of aesthetic aspect.
The accuracy of the cubes has been satisfied, also I wished to keep the white body.

Oskar wrote:

Some older Twisty Puzzle fans may recall Polo Cube, which is the 2x2x2 predecessor of this puzzle.

Yes, that's right, but I didn't know Polo Cube when I started with my project.

Oskar wrote:

Quiz question: why is the outer cage non-proportional? (Hint)

What about the reward ?? 8-)

Thanks again,
Mirko

Twisty&Sliding Puzzle

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