Hey Twisty Puzzlers!

I'd like to present my newest puzzle creation:

Compound Cubes


I designed this puzzle shortly after Jorbs3210 posted about Three Cube and Five Cube Compounds.

This puzzle has a cutting plane on each of the six faces of each of the three cubes. This means there are 18 axes about which pieces turn. This puzzle jumbles at the same angle as the Helicopter Cube, but it takes fewer pieces along, since it is a much shallower cut.

Since each piece belongs to only one of the three cubes, I decided to dye the pieces 3 colors accordingly (plus black for the inside pieces).

VIDEO!
Shapeways: Buy it on my Shapeways shop!

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures! (I want to thank TomZ for his advice on how to take great photos. They may not be perfect this time, but I'll get there with practice!)





JUMBLING!


A few more turns


-π (Eitan)

...wow. Super awesome. +1. Fantastic.

Woah.... I don't know what else to say besides amazing!

This is amazing, but extremely confusing, a video would help.

Amazing concept! I love the pieces, died different colors. This is essentially a variation of an edge- and face-turning cube, right?

Wow this is incredible! Fantastic job.

So... confusing... Took me a while to figure out what it is.

Thats just cool

Awesome! Now we need the 5 cube compound!

-Mark-

(Out of speech..........)
Is this work that a person makes really?

its starting to look like a TRIPLE cube!

amazing. purely amazing.

It's incredible! Nevertheless, I'm confused as to what's solved and what's scrambled.

Thanks everyone!


The solved state is when the red, blue, and yellow cubes are all complete. In the last picture, you can see that though the puzzle is still in the shape of the compound of 3 cubes, each cube has multiple colors. The idea is to make each cube 1 color. I'll explain it more in the video.

-Eitan

Wow! Awesome stuff Eitan. I really like it, even though it's really confusing. However I would like to see a standard stickered version in the future.

It looks so simple with the colours like that, but I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than it looks (especially with the jumbling ).

Alex

+1

That is cool.
Another slot on the list filled.

It looks pretty nice. Is there some kind of parity error on it? How many solutions are there? How about the stickered version?

Great idea!!

Can be extended to a great variety of fused platonics, hope to see more of this!

This is more than just a very beautiful shape variant.
I have not recognized it at first but this is a hybrid of Faceturning hexahedron and Edgeturning hexahedron.

Eitan, I think you should sell this one on shapeways, for real. In 4 sets, one set black, and 3 other sets we can order in dyed colors

- Greg

You can get a stickerable version too.

NEVAR!

VIDEO

And it's going to be on Shapeways as a DIY kit soon. (still working on deciding on a price)

-Eitan

Awesome! I may have to buy one, but it would be the stickered version.

I wnat it too, Eitan! Great work!



A good idea seems not to be particularly.
Because when turn pieces if is one color version, sticker may get struck each other.

It must be incredibly disorienting to solve. Have you tried solving it yet?

Not only is this a GREAT puzzle but its a beautiful puzzle too. I actually think this one is worthy of mass production. If I were you I'd atleast mention the idea to Mefferts.

And I could envision a died AND stickered version such that each cube had a base color and each cube had its faces stickered with the colors of a Rubik's cube. That would give each piece a unique position in the solved state.

Carl

I explain this in the video. The stickerable version will have recessed areas for the stickers, so that this doesn't happen, like on many of Oskar's puzzles.




Just thinking about that is making my head hurt!

-Eitan

I have to say I really, really like this puzzle.

Fabulous job Eitan,

Dave

I don't konw that Good for us.
Now, there is one more the question.
Will you have selling the cube that two all version - color and stickerd on shapeways?

Yes! I explained that in the video, too. Please go watch it!

-Eitan

This just gave me another idea. You should add recesses for stickers on the black pieces that are exposed during a turn. Each of those surfaces also belongs to one of the three cubes.

What do you think?

Carl

I think, that if you are going to sell these you should add some 'plugs' to fill in the holes on the 'centers' (or at least, the ones that are the edges of a cube.) This would make it look better, and shouldn't add a significant amount to the price.
I also like wwwmwww's idea of stickers, but I think the internal pieces should be split so that they can be dyed into the different colors. (though this would probably work better stickered, it would require the centers to be split in to too many small pieces.)

Can't wait to see it on Shapeways! (even though I will most likely not have the money to buy it.)

Fantastic idea! I'm definitely going to do that!

I want to announce that the price of a DIY kit will be somewhere around $180 (same for stickerable and dyeable). I might change that slightly, depending on the final preparations for upload.

I'll also go see if caps will work. The thing I'm worried about is that caps printed in WSF usually cause a small ridge to appear (see the caps on my Master Helicopter. Kind of hard to see, but they're there.) where they meet the piece underneath. This ridge would make turning more difficult. Perhaps you could use black-anodized screws? (wwwmwww suggested this in the Dino Rhombic Triacontahedron thread).

I'll have the details up on the sale within the next week or so.

-Eitan

Just making sure everyone heard.

Very interesting puzzle. I imagine stickers would look fantastic on this puzzle. I also like wwwmwww's idea for the stickers on the black pieces. Cant wait to see a stickered version!

Keep pumping out more puzzles man!

- Metroid

Now I see it.
Sorry for my many questions And very thank you for your kind answer.
I can't wait to see a complete result on shapways. Keep go on!

-JEC-

So I just got the cube all assembled and ready, and I must say, I don't think the turning is 100%. Maybe screw-spring centers could help. And I find it really surprising that the square centers actually don't need screws!

Clarification: As a way of thanking Jorbs3210 for letting me design and build the puzzle he suggested in the thread I linked to in the top post, I let him get a copy of the puzzle without markup. That's how he already has the puzzle. I plan on finalizing the design and posting it on Shapeways this weekend.

-π (Eitan)

The Compound Cubes are now for sale on my Shapeways Shop!

There are two different versions (both are DIY kits, and use #4-40 screws around 3/4'' long):

Stickerable: $180 in White Strong and Flexible, $200 in Black Strong and Flexible
3 x Main Parts
1 x Core

I really liked wwwmwww's idea for the stickers on the inner pieces, but I decided against it, as putting a recessed area onto those faces could make the puzzle not function as well. You will be able to get stickers from Dr. Sticker (I will post here when he gets back to me with the price).

No Stickers (Dyeable) - $180 in White Strong and Flexible
1 x Part 1
3 x Part 2
1 x Core

At the moment, Shapeways only offers two colors of dyed WSF parts (black, and red). The different part files for the Dyeable version are split so that when they offer more colors, you can order Part 1 in black, and the three copies of Part 2 in three different colors. I'll post here when they put up more colors.

If you order one, I'd appreciate it if you sent me a PM, just so I can keep track of who has copies of my puzzles.

Thank you! Enjoy!

-π (Eitan)