This is my variation for three hole puzzle. This puzzle is more difficult to solve. The aim of the puzzle is removing center bead from the system. My dimensions for this puzzle is here.
For rope arrangement and solution I hope these photos will be enough.
If you change the rope arrangement you can make a different version of this puzzle, Here version 02 of this puzzle,
I made this puzzle also long time ago. If you turn this photo (or this puzzle) upside down, you will see this puzzle is exactly same with African ball puzzle. The aim of this puzzle is transferring the ring to the opposite side. This puzzle is very nice for making as a coffee table puzzle. It looks nice, very easy to make and difficult to solve for your visitors and friends. My puzzle dimensions are here,
If you are planing to make one as a coffee table puzzle you can make a little bigger. I made wooden ring from a wooden dough roller. You can cut it with a scroll saw or you can make something square etc. Rope arrangement is visible from photo. Two end of the rope are fixed to base.
After long time finally I made another puzzle box. Some time ago I watched a video about an antique Chinese puzzle box. There is a sweet competition between China and Japan. I like this. Chinese has tangram and Japans has Japanese tangram. Japans has Japanese puzzle boxes and Chinese has Chinese puzzle box. The mechanism of this Chinese box was very nice and I decided to make one. I made some changes and the result is this box. The name of this box is dragon box. I am planing to make a dragon ornament to side panels in next days with wood burning. Here my video about this box.
For making this box I used cherry and mahogany. Additionally some small padauk scraps from my workshop. This puzzle box is a complex box project (at least for me) and require a lot of drawing and explications. If you want make your own “Dragon puzzle box” you can download or preview free PDF file including photos , explications, plans , drawings etc from here (2.3 MB on secure server box.com)
This is a very small puzzle box. Total length is 75 mm (about 3 inch). My sister simplified my tugboat box design and made this from workshop scraps with a jewelry hand saw. Very small, may be used as a box for small ear rings. She used two type of wood. Mahogany and beech. Here I will not share detailed instructions for making this box. You can find instructions from my “Tugboat box project”. This is a simple project. You can find your dimensions according to your materials. But as a reference I prepared a drawing for this box with dimensions. Drawings are 1:1 scale. If you want you can use them as cutting and drilling template. You can preview or download free PDF file including drawings for this box from here (0.4 MB on secure server box.com)
This small village has only four houses. But unfortunately there isn’t a square. Can you make a square by using this four piece ? The aim of this puzzle is to make a square with this four piece. I designed this puzzle yesterday. After drawing on my computer, I went to my workshop and I found some scrap woods. I made this puzzle from 6 mm mahogany. I cut pieces with a hand miter saw and hand scroll saw in one hour. Puzzle pieces are very small. Each piece is about 50×60 mm. You can cut from any material that you wish with a scroll saw or you can make a laser cut version. This puzzle hasn’t a replay value but you can put pieces in your pocket and have fun with friends. I added to Pdf file also a print and play version. Experienced puzzle enthousiasts can solve this puzzle from picture. Solution is on the last page of the PDF file.
If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download free PDF file including scroll saw pattern to cut, print and play version and solution from here (0.3 Mb on secure server box.com)
If you want make a laser cut version asci dxf file (you can convert to other file formats) is here. Red lines are for decoration and white lines for cutting.
This puzzle is described in the book “Dissections: Plane and Fancy” by Greg N.Frederickson. According to the book this 7 pieces dissection is discovered by Lindgren in 1964. The aim of this puzzle making a greek cross (plus shape) by using this seven pieces.
This dissection is produced by different producers as puzzle. On the photo you can see my own simple craft example. But there are really beautiful examples of this puzzle. You can see one of them from Rob’s puzzle page.
For me this is an interesting dissection. Because this dissection include arc segments. I saw this puzzle on different books and articles. There are some patterns for scaling and drawing this puzzle but I can’t find a good description about how to draw it geometrically. I was curious especially about arc radius. For this reason I decided to draw it with a 2D engineering CAD software.
At the beginning I wasn’t planing to make a physical copy. I wanted to find how to draw geometrical dissections. This is similar to solving geometry problems and very funny. But I found some interesting points and for sharing here I prefer use my own photo and I made a copy. I made this puzzle from wood with a scroll saw. I describe this tool as “Poor man laser”. With a little experience and patience you can make a lot of laser cut puzzle with this machine.
This puzzle looks like a crescent moon. But in reality it’s not a real crescent Because a real crescent shape is the intersection of two circle. But in this dissection the ends of crescent are line segments. And the ends of crescent is very thin and long. I think theoretically this is a perfect dissection, but for making a physical copy it’s not a good dissection.
The most interesting part for me is “how to draw”. But this is a long explication for sharing here. For this reason a prepared a small free PDF document. (113 KB) This document is a step by step drawing tutorial for this puzzle and include a pattern page if you like make your own without drawing this. You can download from here. This is my simple method for drawing dissection puzzles. I start with known things and search unknown points like solving an equation. I draw a lot of dissection puzzle with this method. I think using a 2D cad software for drawing that kind of dissections make everything easier. “Draftsight” is a good free 2D drawing software. Very similar to “Autocad” but free.
I hope this document may be helpful to you for drawing other dissections too.
This is my second dexterity puzzle project with a little trick. They sell spice shakers as a couple for salt and pepper and I decided to make this puzzle for the second jar. This time in the jar, there are only a cube and a ball. On the cube there is a hole that the ball can enter inside it. This puzzle has a shorter acrylic pipe. But on the pipe of this puzzle there is a hole shaped like a key hole.
You can guess the solution easily. But require a little dexterity. If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file from here (0.7 MB on secure server box.com) including dimensions, craft tips and solution.
A small truck, a big car and a stainless steel ball. The aim of this puzzle is taking out the steel ball. As you can guess this is a small dexterity puzzle. For me dexterity puzzles are toys. But I like toys and I make also some toys. For this reason making a small dexterity puzzle is a funny project for me.
For this project I used salt shaker. I removed its cap and I obtained a very small jar. The acrylic pipe used for this puzzle is an old empty pen. The pipe is fixed to the cap. Ball truck and car are only moving pieces of this puzzle.
If you look closely to the photo you can see a small hole on the truck. For taking out the ball you must use this truck and the car. The trick of the puzzle is very simple but require a lot of patience. I am sure you find how to take out the ball.
If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file from here (0.7 MB on secure server box.com) including dimensions, craft tips and solution.
I am sure you like read about this puzzle but first I like write a small explication about “Steampunk”. “Steampunk” is a new art style became popular after 1980’s. Some books define “Futurustic Victorian Style”. This art style is inspired from the books of Jules Verne and H.G.Wells. I meet first with this style by some Jules Verne movies and famous classic movie “Time machine”. Another movie “ Wild Wild West” is a very good example for this style.
In this style, art works ( drawings, stories, objects etc.) must look like made in steam age but also must look futuristic like a time machine. For this reason this style use mostly wood, brass and copper. Objects designed with this style are like movie decors. They must look realistic but technically may be impossible. With a google image search for “steampunk box”, “steampunk” etc. you can see nice art works and you can find a lot of online resources. If you like this style and read more also there are great books in online book stores.
This is my first attempt for a “Steampunk Puzzle”. This is not a puzzle box. The basic idea is from the book “ Puzzles old and new” by Hoffmann. The small coin on the photo is a pieces of this puzzle. You put this coin inside the brass pipe from the thin slot that you can see on the front side and you try take it out. The mechanism described in the book of Hoffmann is mostly a magic trick. For this reason I changed all mechanism and I designed my own mechanism. I used a brass pipe 50 mm diameter, mahogany and beech. Looks like a real valve but if you make a technical inspection there are a lot of impossible things. You can find also technical mistakes of this valve as another puzzle.
“Steampunk” is a new taste for puzzle enthusiasts. But wood, brass, copper, Victorian style are ingredients that we like. I am sure you will find or create good recipes for your taste from this kitchen. If you want make your own puzzle you can preview or download this free PDF file from here (1.1 MB on secure server box.com) including dimensions and craft tips.
This is my simple match it puzzle design. The aim of this puzzle is making a 5×5 closed loop. This puzzle is made of 25 tiles. I used a formicarium theme. On the photo you can see my hand made version. I made this one by using some engineering drawing tools. A circle template, a ruler and some ink pens. Ants made by using a nut template. After this prototype, for sharing this puzzle here I draw this one with a CAD software. I prefer Draftsight. A very nice free 2D cad software.
If you want make your own puzzle, you can download free print and play PDF file from here. (1.9 MB on secure server box.com.) This file include 4 different version of this puzzle. 4×4 , 5×5, Black and white and color versions are included in this file. You can print on a thick paper, glue on a cardboard and cut with a steel ruler and cutting knife. I prefer 3 mm grey cardboard for this kind of puzzles. Some people prefer printing on full sheet labels instead of gluing the paper on cardboard.
This is a difficult puzzle but funny to play. I hope you like it.
DIY Puzzles 