Hi Twisty Puzzles fans,

I am proud to announce the new world record higest-order twisty puzzle. It is my Overlap Cube, which is a 2x2x23. The previous world record was my Unlucky Twist, which is a 1x2x13.

The mechanism of Overlap Cube is very similar to Ola Jansson's 2x2x9. The name Overlap Cube refers to roof-tile-like overlapping of the pieces. The tapering was inspired by another, yet-to-be-disclosed 3D design of Ola's. I made an effort to have the puzzle as small and and as hollow as possible, in order to keep the 3D-printed puzzle affordable.

Watch the YouTube video.
Buy the puzzle from my Shapeways Shop.
Read more at the Shapeways Forum.
Check out the photos below.

Enjoy!

Oskar

That is so small! I expected it to be bigger from the pictures, but the layers are, what, 2-3 mm thick?!
Great puzzle as usual, Oskar.

Amazing puzzle, what exactly is the edge length?

That looks great Oskar, as always... and confusing...

Truly awesome.

CRAZY!!! Amazing work.

I remember looking through your shapeways shop and seeing this. I couldn't wait for it to be built. Now I have to pick a new puzzle to wait for.

Alex

Every time Oskar shows a new puzzle, I always feel like a non-cuber staring at a 3x3 speedsolver...

Unbelievable Oskar. If you keep going like this I fear you will may harm the fabric of the universe in some way.

I dont understand how the 2x2x1 part works, help me oskar?

Awesome, I've been waiting for this one for a long time!

DinoBram, without a doubt, is one I'm waiting for.

It says "contact Oskar directly." Is that so I can have a choice of tweezers? You have yet to release a cube that disappoints me, or anyone here on the forum. Amazing Oskar.

People on the form are saying that all of oskar's puzzles are amazing. Let me be the first to criticize him. As some may know, i bought this. In my true honest opinion, it sucked. Now that i look harder into Oskar's puzzles, i can see that the quality is truly crappy. This puzzle barely turn and breaks a lot. It is neat to have a 2x2x23, but only if it works.

When I was in school, me and my schoolmates used to have silkworms as pets,
which then made some silky cocoons. One of them was pretty big because of
eating to many blueberry leaves, and I must say, it looked a bit like this puzzle!!!

So yes, it is a silky puzzle!


Pantazis

Guess who just ordered this puzzle

Well for your sake I hope it's better than what yummyyummypbj said.Although I don't have any of Oskars puzzle, it looks like if your careful it will hold together

Regarding the quality of Oskar's puzzles:

I have purchased from him in the past. The quality is what someone can expect
for a new puzzle. In my case, as long as I took care of the puzzle, there has never
been any problem, and it seems there won't be a problem in the future too.

For the 2x2x23 I have no opinion, because (a) I do not have it, and (b) it uses more parts.


Pantazis

The four pieces in the middle act like a 1x2x2. They are held together by two internal pieces and a screw.
The four pieces that form the 1x2x2 core is 40 mm square. The edges of each of those four pieces are 20 mm.
The layers are 3 mm thick. The puzzle is 82 mm end-to-end.
Matthew, let me first thank you for volunteering to be the guinea pig for this puzzle, buying it before it had ever been prototyped or shown on YouTube. And thank you for helping me correcting an error in the design. As you know, the cost of 3D printing scales with volume. I made this puzzle small and hollow to make it affordable. The result is indeed no speed-cubing quality. If you want, I can build you a solid version of twice the size, which would turn much better. In the mean time, I hope you can feel at least some satisfaction in owning the very first prototype of this world-record puzzle. You could use that argument for selling it on Ebay ...

Oskar

Oskar, how would you rate turning now, also how did you sticker it

Well. That is some claim! In my opinion the 12x12x12 cube has higher total order.

And i guess like stated, that with such a mech 2x2x13 can be quite easily beaten. How interesting or hard such puzzle would be is questionable. But brilliant engineering

Per

PS! What prevents misalignment when rotating around the long axis?

Well, one speedcuber would use the word "crappy". It takes some care keeping the pieces alligned.
Dr. Sticker made me 23*8=184 very tiny stickers.
Fair enough. That is another world record waiting to be beaten
The long pieces go all the way to the center, see the last photo. If there is misallignment, then those pieces just block, like in any twisty puzzle.

Oskar

Perfect job, remarkable puzzle! The mechanism is very similar on Trilobita:

An amazing puzzle indeed!

Nice to see a link to trilobita (I am co-moderator of an international forum on trilobites; extinct arthropods that could enroll, but not twist They also could break their old exoskeleton when molting

Paul

Well i wouldnt call it crappy after seeing your vid, i would call it amazing
very glad i am buying this

When I saw the puzzle my jaw dropped. When I watched the video and saw the actual size of the puzzle my jaw dropped even more. Tis an awesome puzzle!

I think I said this sometime earlier. But I would very much like to see this puzzle, be re-shaped into a true octahedron. what do you think?

Out of curiosity, why did you pick 23?

Also, it seems almost random which pieces go deep into the puzzle and which ones don't. It's neither linear or binary like you discuss in this thread. Any comment for the reason of this pattern?

The larger volume of the octahedron would about triple the price of the puzzle. Would you (or anyone else) be interested in ordering one? If you wish, I can throw in a few more layers, and set another silly world record.
A lot of engineering has gone into that pattern, with many contradictory requirements.

There should be sufficient room for the core

The spine should be sufficiently strong

Pieces shouldn't fall out

The puzzle as a whole should be well kept together

... plus many more requirements related to clearance, rounding, Shapeways, ...

Just to have a ridiculously high order puzzle. 23 layers was the highest number achievable within a 40x40 mm cross-section, given the above mentioned requirements.


Oskar

Interested? Yes! Could I afford it without incurring debt? Afraid not.

Speaking of shape modifications, I get the impression that the mechanism's natural shape is a bicone, and that it would be possible to shave a significant amount of mass, and thus cost, from the puzzle by rounding the corners to reveal the bicone. Is this correct or is building it up into a square bipyramid necessary for stability?

He will soon do damage to the universe far greater than division by zero.

In all seriousness this is cool. Really cool.

This puzzle could be easily modded into a double cone. However that would reduce the grip on the pieces.

Oskar