Hello everyone. My name is Eitan, and this is my first post.

I recently modeled and began to 3D print what I called a Skew-by-2, a combination of a Skewb and a 2x2. It would have looked exactly like the helicopter cube, but would have turned like a skewb and a 2x2.

I ran into many problems, but thinking I had solved them all, I began to print. After printing all of the test pieces, I realized that there was a major design flaw. If you look at the picture below, you will see that there are green cube-groups and white cube-groups. The problem was that there was nothing holding the green cube-groups in!

If there is someone who has an idea of how to keep the green cube-groups in without changing the mechanism too much, please let me know.

If anyone wants to take a look at the mechanism to help me fix it, just PM me, and I'll give you more pictures of the mechanism.

In the meantime, I will be trying to invent an entirely new skewb mechanism that does not depend on a spider.

Any help or comments are welcome.

-Eitan

Can someone please help me to post these photos?

download them to photobucket and then upload them to the site.

Nice idea! Too bad you printed the pieces before realizing the flaw

nice idea. I'm working on designs for a 3x3x3/skewb. since i dont have a CAD program. i'm designing it on paper . i have no idea if it will work though. I would need help building it in CAD

nice puzzle. upload the pics for you.

I don't know anything about the mech, But I would love to see this puzzle come to life one day.

I really love the idea for this puzzle. I'm glad the mech doesn't work, cause when you do get the mech to work never post pictures of it!

If you hadn't said that the mech didn't work, I wouldn't have been able to guess it from those pictures. It looks great and you look like you've got something really good going on here. I'm sure you're real close to figuring it out but are missing a simple fix that is easily overlooked. Keep trying! I can't help much, but the pictures are proof enough to me that you know what you're doing. Don't give up, I look forward to seeing this puzzle completed!

Too bad your design doesn't work. Still, quite an impressive first post.

And I think 'Skew-by-2' is a cool name.

Thomas

I am working on this puzzle myself. Is it that the corner pieces' tabs would clash when they were rotated?

It is these corner pieces that are the real problem!

I have 3D printed pieces for this puzzle which has similarities, but with a different solution to the problem of corners that will avoid the clashing of corner tabs. Unfortunately my solution makes the whole thing much more complex! The two main difficulties I am having are stability and casting.

I am not sure that I have judged the scale of the central skewb correctly and it may not be strong enough for the purpose.

Many of the parts (there are MANY!) are quite complex with no flat surfaces, and jutting bits in all directions. This makes it very difficult to cast them in one or two part moulds without bubbles or imperfections forming. I am slowly overcoming this, and have successfully cast quite a few of the pieces, but have not quite figured out good enough techniques for a couple remaining. (Off topic, I am also working on a different completely new puzzle, which is eating alot of time, but is very close to completion, so progress on the 2x2/skewb is slow.) I will post pictures when I am a bit further down the line.

I agree with Thomas, impressive first post none-the-less!

The pictures are great! Too bad it didn't work. Although it's also kind of good, as Drew pointed out.

You would have to make it the other way around. Skewb core, rather than 2x2 core. Oh dear, I just can't resist trying it...

Do you mean it'd be something like a skewb-base on the inside, and then tracks or something for the outer shell, similar to the SuperX?

Oh!!!!! I think i understand your problem.
Unfortunately it will be very, VERY hard to fix.
You see a skewb is based of a tetrahedron core. The skewb portion of your puzzle is also based of a tetrahedron. All seems well and good. Consider this real quick. Let's say you turn the puzzle 90 degrees like a 2x2. Now two of the tetrahedral arms (sockets? not sure what to call them) that support the skewb movements will rotate 90 degrees, placing them immediately adjacent to the remaining 2 arms/sockets. Now there is an obvious problem: The tetrahedral core is no longer a tetrahedron.

Your core ball is roughly equivalent to a Pyramorphix in its extended mech. A pyramorphix changes shape.....
Normally a simple pattern will fix all piece interlocking layouts, but in your case it doesn't as a direct cause from the above mentioned problem.

I can think of two solutions to your problem. One of which is way too much work and too hard to explain. The other is what TomZ said and Jared did interpret correctly. You currently have the cube mech inside the skewb mech, but really it needs to be the other way around. I'll leave the details up to you, but basically a skewb ball on the inside that has arms to support 2x2 like movement. That should fix all of your problems.... I think....

FWI the other alternative (much more complicated) is to keep the cube on the inside but make the skewb portion with an octahedral core. This will make something that could be called a Master Skew by 2, a Master Skewb and 2x2x2 combined - then you would have to reduce the skewb layers by one, much the way a 3x3 is turned into a 2x2, but of course that means that half of the Master Skewb turns have to be blocked off. But since the Master Skewb pieces are based around the cube and the cube moves can seperate these blocked off turns you would need some awkward design to ensure that each block only blocked the skewb moves but didn't block the cube moves but must be always rearrangeable cubically and still serve as skewb blockers....... It would not be fun...... (Edits: after rereading the other posts I have a feeling this is what timselkirk is trying to do. I could be wrong though, it's just a hunch )

Yes your best bet is to reverse the order of the mechs from inside out.
Very, Very impressive by the way, failure or not
Good Luck

Peace

Wow!

Thanks to everyone for the help and comments.

I'll get to work on turning the mech inside out.

Drew: thanks for the advice on mech pictures.

sokoban: thanks for uploading the pics.

I'll make sure to let you all know when I fix the mech!

-Eitan

BTW: if someone needs any puzzles turned from ideas on paper into CAD, just let me know!