Machined Brass Puzzle

[TLGriff]

I saw a cool puzzle yesterday and decided I had to have one. The price seemed a bit steep at $95, so my cheap *** self found a review on You Tube and reverse engineered the pieces, modeling and detailing them in Onshape. The parts are made from 1/2" brass bar, so it was fun to work with and has a pleasant heft, weighing in at around a pound. Someone put a lot of thought into this because it took me a while to wrap my head around what cuts had to be made on what parts to get it all to slide together. There is one key part that when removed, allows all the other parts to fall apart. Reassembling it still gives me some trouble, as it is easy to start it out wrong and get some of the parts off center. Anyway, it was a fun challenge and a good excuse to make some metal chips.

Tom

 

[ifirefight]

Very nice Tom. Could you share more details on how it was created? Did you use a lathe and milling machine?


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[pancho400cid]

Very nice!

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

That is cool!

 

[TLGriff]

Very nice Tom. Could you share more details on how it was created? Did you use a lathe and milling machine?


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I first sawed the stock to length and then used a 1/4" corner rounding end mill on the lathe to form the radiused ends. The cuts in the sides were made in a vise on the mill, using a work stop and collet block to index them. There was some doubt in my mind whether the design was correct, so I saved some time and just used a 1/2" end mill to make the cuts. A more precise way to cut them would have been to use a boring head. The end mill worked, but I noticed the assembly has loosened up a bit with all the assembly and disassembly. Once the machining was complete, I chucked the parts in the lathe and sanded them a bit with 400 wet/dry on a block to remove the burrs then Scotch-Brited them for appearance.

I'll probably make another puzzle using the boring head and then nickel plate the parts for a cool factor. Brass is pretty when it's freshly machined but gets ugly with time.

Tom

 

[The Cobbler]

way cool!

 

[royce]

Nice work Tom

Royce

 

[bradpac]

If I was a big wig sitting behind one of those huge oak desks everyday it would be littered with things like this. Very impressive.

 

[tarbellb]

Oh man, that looks nice!

 

[mrcyrus16]

Sooo, you gonna make some more and sell them? I love those type of puzzles!

Jim

 

[TLGriff]

Like I said, I reverse engineered it from one I saw in a video for my own use. You can buy one from a place called Craighill, or make it yourself.

Tom

 

[slowtwitch73]

Care to share the drawing or give us some more pics to go off of?

 

[TLGriff]

Already have. Just click on the link "Onshape" in the OP.

Tom

 

[Balor]

Outstanding TLGriff.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Already have. Just click on the link "Onshape" in the OP.

Tom

Ah.. thought that was a link to Onshape. Thanks.

 

[Bert_]

Made one just like it out of wood back in highschool. I'm sure if I dug around long enough I could find it.