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Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 11:30 pm
by flawr
Hello again,
I want to make a traditional 18 piece burr puzzle but I am struggling to find a design I like: I want to have one with an one unique solution (that does not depend on colouring) and I am looking for a higher level one.

The one I like most so far (just by description) is the Tipperary by Jack Krijnen http://mechanical-puzzles.blogspot.ch/2 ... ijnen.html

But there already is such a vast collection on puzzlewillbeplayed http://puzzlewillbeplayed.com/-/shape/888-352.xml that makes it difficult to choose.

Can you recommend anyone of those?

thank you very much in advance!

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 16th, 2015, 4:22 pm
by jack
There aren't many high level 18 piece burrs with a unique solution not depending on colour or routing pattern. Jiminy Jack (also by me, also level 43) and Burrloon (Goh Pit Khiam, level 33) are other examples. Both have the nice property (from a maker's perspective) of notchable pieces only. Tipperary is special by its thematic solution path: the same subsequence of 6 moves has to be performed forward and backward, and this repeated 3 times. It interferes with the key sequence of 7 moves, making a total of 43 moves to free the first piece. This still is my favourite 18 piece burr, but, I must admit, I'm slighly prejudiced :thumbup:

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 16th, 2015, 5:58 pm
by flawr
Oh thats nice, speaking to the original designer=)

I honestly only worked with 6-piece burrs (and some odd ones) before so I do not really know much about 18 piece burrs. Out of these three designs I think I like the two of yours best, as they have more different shaped pieces.

The pieces of Jiminy Jack are as you said all notchable, which would indeed make the process somwhat easier, but that raises some questions about Tipperary:

The pieces that are not notchable are B (concave corner, convex edge), G (concave corner), H (concave corner), I (2 concave corners), O (2 concave edge), P (3 concave corners). [By 'concave corner' i mean an internal corner that needs to be chiseled, and by 'concave edge' I mean an edge along the 'length' axis, that needs could be milled]

But the shape of the piece P is not completely visible, is this just one voxel that is removed, or is this a whole notch on the bottom?

Image

And of course I was not aware of this very elegant sequence, I just used burrtools to find out how that works. (I'll never be able to solve it by myself anyway=)

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 17th, 2015, 10:19 pm
by jack
Just one voxel, as you can see in the picture on Brian's site that you referred to.

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 21st, 2015, 2:46 pm
by Pio2001
Hi,
I have looked through Alfons Eyckman's designs. All of his 18-piece burrs with a number of moves higher than 43 use colours.

The highest level without colours is Albino (39.24.12.3.4.2.2.3.2.1.1.1.1.2). I had one. It is quite original.

Lange Wapper 14 and 16, that are 18-piece burrs with longer pieces, don't need colours either.

I only know Lange Wapper 14 and it is one of my favourite puzzles. Complex pieces, complex moves, complex disassembling until 7 pieces are out.
Level 14.21.15.11.1.3.5, but the 5 moves for the 7th piece are very difficult to find.

I don't know Burrloon, Tipperary and Jiminy Jack, so I can't compare.

The Burrtools files of Albino and Lange Wapper 14 are attached.

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 21st, 2015, 11:33 pm
by flawr
Thank you Pio for your suggestions, I will definitely have a look into those files!

But for now it is too late, I already started with the Tipperary a few days ago, but perhaps the next puzzle=)

But I have to admit, it is soo much work, especially since I tried to improve the accuracy... I already made the rough cuts and at the moment I am carving and chiseling the internal corners, and there are a ton of those=)

I will post some images as soon as I have finished!

Update

Posted: June 23rd, 2015, 3:42 pm
by flawr
I finally made a new entry on my little website for this puzzle=) [click the image to get there]

I am now thinking about adding some finish, and wanted to do it with linseed oil. But I am worried that the wood might expand which would 'destroy' the puzzle, any experiences on that?



Image

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 23rd, 2015, 7:02 pm
by Pio2001
Hi, congratulations for your puzzle !

I described the effects of linseed oil on pine in this post : http://www.puzzle-place.com/forum/viewt ... 1445#p1445

Yes, it makes the wood expand until the puzzle is nearly unusable. Diagonal burrs could be restored because in diagonal burr designs, any notch encloses the back of another piece and it was easy to sand again the back of all pieces.

In a classical burr with any notch enclosing any part of another pieces, maybe that would not be possible without "renotching" the pieces.

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 23rd, 2015, 7:35 pm
by jack
That puzzle really looks good! :thumbup:
I have the same experience as Guillaume using Danish oil; it slightly expands the pieces and is difficult to use with small tolerances. Lately I prefer to use wax: first sand the pieces with 600 grid, apply wax and finally polish. It also smooths the movement.

Re: Looking for a 18 piece burr design

Posted: June 24th, 2015, 10:08 am
by bluesign2k
I agree with Jack about the wax. It always seems to give a nice finish and it seems to be what most of the 'top' makers use to finish their creations. I've used it on a few really cheap mass-produced puzzles and it always makes them much nicer.