Puzzles from wood blocks

[mrmkaufman]

After a recent discussion about a Casino packing puzzle made from Legos (viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2642), I thought I'd mention many people of the years have explored simpler burrs, crosses, cubes and pyramids built up from cubes of various materials. Wood is an obvious one because it's inexpensive and easy to work with. Unfortunately, "inexpensive" also means variable quality, so building requires a jig at least, discerning pre-use quality inspections, and the willingness to temporarily break a puzzle to readjust an alignment.

I started with 1/2" cubes, but they are too small to work with, vary too much, and aren't very strong due to smaller glue patches. So I moved to 1" cubes to build some pretty complicated stuff. http://puzzlewillbeplayed.com/-/name.xml was invaluable, as was BurrTools.

Every one of these is "interesting" to me in some way, be it use of identical pieces, puzzle level (number of moves to disassemble, in sequence), a cube hidden inside, interlocking so it must be taken apart and put back together in a specific order, or they're just damn hard and really require an insight or just a lot of puzzling to figure out . The ones in clear plastic cubes are prone to "spontaneous disassembly".

Various puzzles from 1/2" and 1" cubes

wood2.jpg (901.18 KiB) Viewed 8345 times

[josiah1221]

Nice! I recently bought 2 packs of 100 piece live cubes so I could build the interlocking cubes that I've been interested in or discovered at puzzle will be played. Once I solve it I'll take it apart and built the next one, rinse and repeat. But of course they will never replace or have the precision and craftsmanship of the many great and talented wood workers. But it is a nice way to get to build and solve ones that aren't available at the time or at all.

[mrmkaufman]

Absolutely! For me, a lot of the fun of these kind of puzzles is the puzzle, not how many kinds of wood it's made from or other more aesthetic considerations. Although, that said, I do splurge on Cubic Dissections pieces on occasion, and not just because they are brilliant puzzles. His execution, fit and finish is amazing.

I have four packs of 100 Live Cubes in four colors that I will be using in exactly the same way as you just mentioned! Took forever to get here from Japan, but arrived with little more than a few crunches to the packaging. 4x4x4 cubes are first on my list: Porro, Titan, Helix II, Worm Cube. I am hoping these will align well enough to be able to slide complex multi-dimensional shapes into each other...

I've also used dice for this purpose. I'll have to start another thread for that one.

And Fight Cubes! OMG so perfect for this, but dang, so expensive! I could justify splurging on their 4x4x4x pack just so I could build Janus, but beyond that you're paying more for the Fight Cube implementation than for the actual puzzle when it was sold. Of course, there's the rub - so many aren't sold any more. Perhaps if the Live Cubes experiments reveal another puzzle that I am willing to permanently sink another US$75 or so into then I will do it again...

Lots of fun, you get puzzles you'd never be able to play, you can experiment and keep ones that you love, and it's cheaper (usually). Of course, this only addresses the puzzles you can make from cubes. I've also experimented with dominos with little success, and considering if I can do anything with Jenga sticks now...

[josiah1221]

Speaking of Cubic Dissection I have a few items currently on their way.

I had never heard of Fight Cubes. Those would work perfect but, wow, very expensive for just one 4x4x4 cube.

I've been happy with the Live Cubes so far, can be a bit tough on the fingers, but have a nice fit once put together. The only downside is if the design requires rotations such as the TICs you gotta be careful not to force any moves because since the pieces can flex you can easily make a move that normally wouldn't be possible. Aside from that definitely one of the best investments I've made in a while. I've been working through several Jos Bergmans designs. You should definitely try Spin. It has some awesome spins and rotations, there is enough room so no moves can be made by mistake. So it works very well and is very impressive!

[mrmkaufman]

I have been getting into Jeff Namkung's 4x4x4 cubes. And I already assembled William Hu's Two Wheeled Cube from Live Cubes. I see the fun that's even more present in Spin! Porro, Lindy Hop and Levonen's No. 1 are all excellent too.

To spare your fingers, use a small piece of wood (I use a 5"x1"X1-1/2" pine scrap) to press each joint together, one end on a sturdy flat table. What I like is you can rock the wood back and forth in the two dimensions of the sides perpendicular to the plane of their intersection. That really seats all the interlocks well and straight. Hope that's clear - one of my degrees is in Math .

I actually bit the bullet *twice* for a 4x4x4 Fight Cunes set... Gulp. But I want to permanently enshrine a couple of my favorite designs that I will never find, or be able to afford. I really do understand why they are so expensive. They undoubtedly make a good profit, but there is quite a bit involved in making something that consistent, that precise, that high quality overall and well finished.

Enjoy your Cubic Dissection purchases. Eric does phenomenal work, and is just as friendly as everyone else I've ever met doing this puzzle thing. I have never been disappointed in a purchase from him.

[mrmkaufman]

I followed your recommendation and built a Spin from Live Cubes. What fun! Thanks.

[josiah1221]

You're welcome, definitely one of my favorites so far. 2 more of his designs I can recommend are 4x4x4 Elevator and Tumbler.

[jack55555]

really interesting thing!
I'm excited, its much better that i cound ever seen

[mrmkaufman]

@jack55555 you should also check out puzzles made from dice: viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2647

[jack55555]

@mrmkaufman thanks