Cross Rings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3KSG2Bh-l0&feature=sub

Big Chop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKXnI7ed0ZE&feature=sub
A Dodecahedron?!!? Damn.

I love the look of the big chop but it looks like a real pain to turn. You have to put it in a cage?!?!?

Alex

Yes you have. You have to move so many pieces simultaneously, if you'd do it by hand they pop very easily. Oscar brought this puzzle to DCD without the cage. I think he came up with it after he found out it won't work without it.

That's a shame, the whole beauty of Rubik's Cube is the mechanism is completely hidden so that you can turn it without it getting in the way of your hands and fingers. Imagine if Rubik's Cube was just 27 simple cubes held together by an external cage!

Still, it's all part of the innovation process and we can't expect every puzzle from Oskar and Bram to defy the laws of physics and engineering!

these puzzles are not new! I so wish he would revisit the puzzle ring designs. right now they are too small to be printed in metal

Unfortunately the cage for the Big Chop prevents any sort of jumbling. ...Does the stability of the mechanism have anything to do with the size of the metal core in proportion to the pieces?

I think the stability of the mech comes right back down to the fact that the pieces have magnets on them, if theh ball were a magnet it would be more sturdy, but would not have happy side-effects with electronics.

I never thought I would see a physical Big Chop! Amazing. Despite the nuisance of the cage, the beauty of this is that someone who really likes the puzzle has the opportunity to solve it in physical form. At 20 seconds per move, I estimate it would take nearly 10 hours to solve, not counting thinking/planning. But this could be done in sessions: left-handed pieces intuitive then grabbing 3-cycles then completing a face at a time, then right-handed pieces grabbing 3-cycles then completing a face at a time. Still quicker than a solving a physical Petaminx, I'd imagine!

The amount of floating parts in the big chop is amazing and the fact the whole thing stays together is a miracle! But, magnets, come on!-there has be another way, however that would result in a relatively more complex mechanism. The turning isn't great but what can you trully expect?-v-cube turning? Overall it's an okay puzzle.

This time, Oskar has disappointed me..

My assumption is that Oskar and Bram are so ingenious at thinking of workable mechanisms, if there is a realistic alternative to magnets, Oskar would have mentioned it already. I can't see how any non-magnetic mechanism could work for this puzzle, except for 15 inner spheres (pairs of hemispheres), one for each axis, where: a) The design would have to be amazingly precise; b) Every part would have to be 3-D printed using the latest method; c) The size would be quite large; and d) You'd still need a cage to ensure perfect alignment when making turns.

But 15 pairs of hemispheres might not be practicable; 30 concentric spheres might be needed, one for every edge! I remember that another deep cut dodecahedron had 12 concentric spheres, one for each face, rather than 6 spheres, one for each axis, and I'm assuming this was a necessity for the puzzle to work.

Even assuming it's possible, so much ingenuity and effort and time would be involved, I think the creator would need a big incentive to get started, such as a sizeable offer and deposit from a collector.