Sunday, June 26, 2011

Brainteaser Puzzles

THE CUBE:  This cube consists of 7 unique pieces made of small 1" oak blocks glued together in various configurations.  The cube has multiple combinations and is fun to continually solve over and over in different ways.  I used a cherry stain which makes it a cool display item as well as a game for guests.
I slightly separated the pieces from each other to see how the individual pieces are configured.  This is just one of the many solutions.
 Random picture with a piece placed on top.  I usually don't build things with exact lines and precise measurements (laziness being one reason), but I do like the straight geometric nature of this puzzle.  In order to glue the pieces together perfectly straight, I built a separate little jig with three pieces of wood at right angles.

This final picture shows the 7 unique shapes made out of the 27 little blocks.  As you can obviously tell, the picture was taken on a different day from the others, with much different lighting.

WALNUT BLOCK:  This is a block of walnut about 1.5" x 2" x 4".  The puzzle is very basic in design, but can be difficult to solve.   
 The puzzle was made by running the block length-wise through the scroll saw three times in non-uniform wavy lines.  Once the cuts were made, I put the three pieces back in place and taped the block back together with masking tape.  Once taped, I turned the block on its side and ran another two wavy line cuts through the the piece. 
By making random cuts with no pattern, it left a lot of the pieces looking similar, but they only fit together in one way.  When all the pieces are scattered, it just looks like a random pile of wavy sticks.  Walnut is definitely the best wood for this one because it looks cool and the pieces won't break easily. The easiest way to solve it is to create the three layers separately and then stack them on top of each other.

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