Ahh, yes.
Here is a new picture that I'm sure you will all enjoy.

~TBTTyler Fox

Simply awesome. It lives!

What material have you employed for the building of this puzzle?

!!!

That's all I can say.

Oh my god!

And this is true! Not a photoshop's

I can't believe it!

Simply great, incredible, AMAZING!

Sell it to mefferts in order to produce in serie..... :):):):)

Stephan, can you solve it under 4 minutes? :)

(I am not able to solve normal megaminx under 10 minutes....... and you in a bit more than a minute..........)

Really, this is an amazing building! I won't be able to sleep this night....


BRILLIANT!

I did the same thing as I did with the 6cube. I made a 2 part mold with silicone and injection molded it with the 2 part plastic in the bottles with the baby feeding syringe.

Thanks to George Miller and puzzle palace for the originals.

Now for stickering (sorry, I was just too excited to wait till I had it stickered to show it... I've been working on it since August)

Wow!

How does it move?

It looks there isn't much room under your mid-edges for them to pass under the center pieces. How tight are the tolerances overall?

Is it basically a megaminx design with the extra pieces held down by the megaminx core, or something else?

well, since I'm here, at the same time ...

Think of the mechanism for an Eastsheen 5x5x5 and apply that to a megaminx.

I've also included a rendered view of some of the innards.

I think I'm in love

Seriously, I do NOT have the skill to build one of these, but I want one more than any puzzle I've ever seen, even a 6x6. It is.... my preciousssssss.

Hat's off man, now I've got to learn how to build much better puzzles... or earn enough money to convince you to build a second

Freakin awesome.

I know I'm in love.

I want one!!! I need one for my collection !!! I'm sorry!!!



I totally agree with you there on that one rastarubik:wink: 100%.



I always thought of using a mefferts 5x5x5 cubes for a 5x5x5 Megaminx instead of a Eastsheen. I always thought mefferts 5x5x5 be easier but I'm no mechanism expert at all

What are you going to call this puzzle of yours?

Is it going to have 12 colors? I hope!!!

I wonder how many combinations/positions there are?
Jaap you there? Do you want to answer this one? I'd love to know the answer.

Awesome! It looks wonderful. Can't wait to see it stickered.

I couldn't agree more... really, Megaminx is by far my favourite puzzle so one is a wonderful dream... come true... just not for me... yet.

Geez, stop crying and do some calculations

corners: (20! / 2) * (3^19)
edges: (30! / 2) * (2^29)
wings: (60! / 2)
Xcenters: 60! / (5! ^ 12)
+centers: 60! / (5! ^ 12)

Or not? Man, I want one for blindsolving...

I think that's around

3647901153073307598630816103723181012
6550658817557032614250463652442041805
2012591965833824494002983141195363719
8326225998593216732823782582855489227
5955647526722393916797031058424637663
1322981975599093194264275595527530658
0780920078336000000000000000000000000
00000

if my calculator didn't have a fit.

In scientific notation: 3.65x10^263

Ouch.

(edited to fix the width)

Maybe your next project should be a 4 order Megaminx. Just kidding!!! Like they were talking about it in the link below.

viewtopic.php?t=611&start=0

I'm sorry there are no pictures of the 4x4x4 Megaminx any more but there use to be. If I'd build it(which I can't and won't) I'd use Rubiks revenges and dismantile it and reform each piece so that it'll look like a 12 sided Pentagonal. I'm sorry I don't know the name of the shape and its late here.

Great work, it's beautiful.

Excellent!!! I have GOT to learn how to make puzzles!

Hello,

It is such nice job!
I am very impressed by the amount of job and the result.

Must be very funny to solve with a 'center first' method ?

Felicitation to TBTTyler, more photo please !!

And happy new year to all

Etienne

Another amazing puzzle. I kind of feel we need some new words to go with superb, fantastic etc.
If you happen to have 2 of these going spare I'd like one to play with and one to turn into an Icosahedron.

I'd love to see that happen. Sorry I can't visualize that. Could you please draw us a picture?

Each pentagonal face would become an icosahedrons corner. You would first cut all the edges down ( like the way an octagonal prism can be viewed as a 3x3x3 cube with it's edges cut down ). You would then build onto each face so the centre of each pentagon would be the very tip of the icosahedrons corner. Many people have turned regular Megaminxs into icosahedrons. This would be a similar process.

Good lord ... an Icosahedron of this?
Making it in the first place was hard enough but MODDING IT??
Well, the bad news is I've only had the time and resources to make one so far, and some of the pieces have been made with a white plastic(which you'll see in the attached pics)
But the Good news is it turns like a new stiff cube. If I keep playing with it, it may even become smooth!

merlintocs:
making puzzles is easy, just stick with it.
Designing them is the annoying part...Just learn how everything that has been made moves and try replicating it in a CAD package. That's how I started.

Darren:
The problem I found with the Meffert's Professor mechanism in general is that the corners and edges are connected in the center as a normal 3cube. All that extra plastic gets in the way. Plus, the corner and edge pieces have a lot of extra edges that can get easily get caught in a mod. Then take, for example, the Xcenters... they're realy fragile.

That compared to an Eastsheen where the cube was designed as a seperate entity. Therefore the pieces are much simpler in design and you never get that Xcenter twisting out of position because it's so much more robust.

Add that to the bad experiences I've had with extensions, and I chose to design from scratch rather than use the Megaminx as a core.

Etienne:
You asked for more pics, here they are
1. a rendering of the pieces
2. with half of it put together testing how it turns
3. Different angle, different attempt to test the twistability
4. Finally putting it together. yes, the core is made of wood
5. Closeup of the edge piece mold I used

I was just curious about what the second layer of the top and bottom view both look like in the digital picture above(the 3rd picture down from the top of the topic.)

If I had a hat, I would take it off. Fantastic effort.

I wonder how long the fastest or one of the very fast speedcubers would take solve this lovely puzzle.

I'm guessing 5 or 7 minutes tops.

Anybody else want to guess how long it'll take them to solve this puzzle?

I think that It will be a good aim to Stephan solving it under 5 minutes

Sure he got it very soon

Here ya go Darren

Hmm... not sure... it does have 231 pieces, that's a lot more than the 51 of the normal Megaminx which takes me about 1:35 minutes. And of course it depends on how well it turns.

As for solving, I assume a standard centers-edges-megaminx solution would be applicable? Same algorithms for centers and edge pairing as the 5x5 cube if I'm not mistaken, too.

Is this correct?

Quinn

I guess so. But pairing up the edges triples would probably be harder than for 5x5x5, because setting up the pieces isn't nearly as fast. I'd probably try to solve pieces directly to their places in pairs or triples.

You can probably "brute force" solve most of the pieces until you're down to just a small handful before resorting to an algorithm. That's usually my approach to solving a lot of these types of puzzles and I can usually get pretty close and occasionally luck out and actually solve something.

I was just thinking...imagine restickering it??? wow...or stickering it to begin with...I want one...

Craig

I'm working on that right now...
let me tell you, it is a PAIN!

The biggest problem I'm having is that the electrical tape that I got isn't sticking very well to the faces.

If anybody knows where I can get an assortment of thin colored plastic sheets, please tell me ... I'm thinking that superglue is going to be my friend.

TBTTyler

Splendid!
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing the end of one era and the beginning of another. The days of hack-saw mods give way to computer-aided molded mods.
I'll be watching from the bench from now on!
Congratulations. Excellent work.

Hey Tyler, any chance we can know who you are??? picture maybe??? Are you a cuber...obviously...umm...yah...try vinyls, they are easy to cut and stick fairly well...

Craig

If you'd do your research before asking, you would know that he is a respected member of this forum, making both his own 6x6x6 and gigaminx.

Could you possible show me the link of his own 6x6x6 cube because I never saw it or read it on the form here.
When did TBTTyler ever make a 6x6x6 cube either I forgot it or I never saw the topic for it. Could you please post a link for it. Sorry about that!!!!

hey, you could also check the "who's who" post ... I'm in there ... somewhere ;)

If you would like a pic of me, check out http://www.purduedrumline.com and navigate members>snares
I'm about halfway down.
I'm also adding another pic that I have on thefacebook.com

Oh, and the 6x6x6 thing is in with Etienne's amazing 7x7x7 original post here:
viewtopic.php?t=3207&start=0

And back to stickering, where do I get vinyl, I haven't a clue? I'm also considering tiles. Anyplace anybody know where I can get that kind of material?

TBTTyler

Vinyl can be aquired at sign-shops. Where I live, there's a FastSigns store that was quite helpful. I had to go to a couple before I found a good one though - I think it depends a bit on who's running the shop. The one I went to even cut the stickers for me (for a price, of course). They though it was a fun challenge, and I ended up with very nice rounded-cornered stickers. I imagine that it would be somewhat expensive to do for a puzzle like this (many colors, many shapes), but perhaps worth it when the alternative is to cut all of them yourself.

Also, some shops will give you scraps for free - it can't hurt to ask.

Hope this helps!
Ben

If you don't worry, may I help you ?
I have a cutting machine about vinyl sticker.
Your cube needs 31 stickers for each planes. Perhaps
the sticking work is so troublesome.

I live in Japan, then of course the adjustment needs
some weeks. But if you can wait for adjustment, I can
help you for nothing.

Hidetoshi,
Give me a little bit to see how things turn out on this end, I may end up doing it on my own. However your offer does sound very enticing, I will keep it in mind.
Thanks

TBTTyler Fox

I went looking for colored plastic sheets with a thickness like the Deluxe cube's tiles a few years ago. The closest things that I found were the separaters used on shelves to keep items apart.

Too bad you can't make a "pie cutter" and simply making perfect slices though all the layers you need, in one go.

Fabulous puzzle, by the way.

Cheers,

David J

TBTTyler,
I spent a fair amount of time looking for a blank vinyl stickers on the net that are cheap and of various colors for my puzzle (I also needed meshed for the way I want to do it making even more difficult). I was not happy with inkjet stickers and am redoing it. You might look at http://www.popuptemplates.com Look under vinyl stickers. They have blank stickers of 11 colors and also meshed colors. They are currently doing a clearance sale and are about half price. I ordered some a couple of days ago but can not vouch for their quality yet. I can let you know when I get them.
Lee

Have you tried http://www.cubesmith.com yet? No doubt he'll be able to make you a set up.

I've always said this. If you're looking for some vinyl stickers that you can custom cut yourself, then find a local sign making shop. Odds are that they'll sell you a bunch of scraps for just a few dollars and you can get just about any color you desire.

Wow...absolutely amazing.

How long till you start building more of these puzzles???

As far as stickers goes, when my megaminx lost it's tiles, I grabbed some blank postal stickers (like the UPS labels) and colored them myself. Then after applying them to each face, I took a utility blade and ran it through the channels between pieces. It looks pretty bad, but I should've printed color on them first. That would let you actually scramble the puzzle and work on a solution while you wait for a better/more permanant solution.

You may also want to look into a cookie cutter type blade on a paper cutter type mechanism...then you can take the vinyl stickers and cut them down to the right shapes.

Congratulations on your puzzle. I look forward to wishing I had enough money for your price.

-Adam-

Since this is back up top, I'll say that I just started on my second one!
For those that know how rapid prototyping works, the piece is made in discrete layers, so it has ridges.

Well, I painted the pieces to fill in the gaps, sanded off all the extra paint, and made a second set of molds.
They are coming out nice and SMOOTH. Once I get the black dye for the plastic(just ordered it), I'll start production again.
It'll be nice to have a better working one.

Update on stickering ... nothing yet. Class is taking up most of my time. Sorry.

TBTTyler

what did you construct the master pieces out of? clay? magic sculpt? milliput? And how long did those master pieces take you?

Up at the 5th post in this thread, I thanked George Miller at Puzzlepalace for the originals. I sent him STL files of my pieces (STL = Stereo Lithography ... IE Rapid prototyping) and he sent me the pieces made of red plastic. I'm now on my second iteration of the pieces (read above) and now that spring break is over, I'll have more time to work on them.

TBTTyler Fox

How much did it cost you to get all the pieces made? Labor shipping etc.

George has a really cool thing going on with Puzzlepalace.
He has his own rapid prototyping machine and if you have a new and interesting puzzle he will make the parts and send them to you for free.
There is a catch though. He retains the mass production rights until you pay him for his time. That way you can't start making big money on the puzzle without him getting paid for the time he put in. Fair trade if you ask me.

As for the pieces I made from them, in total everything cost about 60 in raw materials.
25 for the 2 part silicone to make the molds
25 for the 2 part plastic to make the pieces
10 for random things I tried for the core (still needs work)

TBTTyler Fox