Rhombic Dodecahedron Box Puzzle ?
motodan
| Posted in Jigs, Fixtures, Tips & Tricks on
Years ago in the early ’80’s FW had an article about making a “Rhombic Dodecahedron” box (12 sided, made up of diamond shaped pieces) that would pull apart by using an unnatural grip. I made a few of these at the time, but have since lost my notes and was wondering if anyone had a fixture or jig, that would hold the small(~2″ x 2 7/8″ diamond shaped pieces while safely cutting/machining a 30 degree chamfer on all four sides. Heres a link to the the geometric shape that may jog your memory. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicDodecahedron.html
Thanks
Dan
Replies
I believe you are talking about Stewart Coffin's Pennyhedron puzzle. This link may help you: http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/chap15b.htm
Thanks for the link. I believe that was the article. I use to have a lot of fun with the box. Most people don't observe that closely and they would really struggle trying to pull it apart.
Jim Cummins "Small Shop Projects" video (Taunton Press) has all you need to know to put one of these together. He shows how to cut the sides on a bandsaw using a 5 minute jig.
In a later treatise, Jim Stack has a similar, though larger version in his "Box by Box" book.
Do you of any good books or online resources for puzzle box plans?
jeremy
I sure can't think of any puzzle box books, but I'm more interested in the box aspects than the puzzle aspects, though.There is a guy in Dayton, OH, that makes wooden puzzles. One of the favorite ones I saw was a cheese-box sized box with a number of different sized pieces in it. Put in one way, it completely filled the volume with no voids. Dump them out and put them in a different way and it completely filled the volume with no voids and one piece left over. A thou here and a thou there added up the the lost volume.May not be exactly what you are looking for, but should be entertaining none=the-less.
http://www.amazon.com/Crafting-Wood-Logic-Puzzles-Three-dimensional/dp/product-description/158923247X
You can find a downloadable version of Stewart Coffin's "Puzzlecraft" at http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/art/articles.htm. There are lots of puzzles in the article, a few of them are containers, including the Pennyhedron puzzle.
Thanks. I'll have to check it out.
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