I've started the Elemental:Chromium thread for that puzzle so I can keep this one about Neon.
http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8892

Dave

I mentioned earlier having made a cut fail because the machine didn't cut all the way through. Here is the picture of great sadness:

The tan is the protective paper on the acrylic, and what you can't see is the faint inconsistent lines on the other side of the cut. It just didn't make through, and so all that time (and plastic) are wasted. Sigh.


Dave

Oh no I was asking when there would be a separate list for the new versions of the puzzle....I still want the original biohazard puzzle from the first waiting list but I also want one of the new ones So whenever you start a new list for those I want to be on it! I understand completely that it could be quite a while seeing as you have a lot of original orders to fill....but I'm patient

My latest visit to the TechShop allowed me to work on something I had been planning for some time: A deluxe verion of the Neon with the BioHazard symbol over the whole body of the puzzle. As it happens, this was my original design for the puzzle but I etched just the pieces first in my test and stuck with it for some time now.

This design requires etching of not only the pieces, but also the surrounding body and plungers (12 more pieces on top of the standard 10 triangle pieces). I did the top layer all in the fluorescent red to match the puzzle pieces, but may experiment with some other materials:



I also (last week) cut some body parts from opaque black instead of the transparent I had been using. I like the look, but also like the transparent look for different reasons. I'm looking to get parts for 50 puzzle cut and so I'll need to choose which I like better. Perhaps I'll start a marketplace poll to see what people want, as this will be the default body for the next set of puzzles and DIYs.

Here is a picture of the two of them in front of the standard set of Rubik's puzzles for size comparisons:


I'll make the Deluxe version available for sale on all future orders, and just have to figure out the proper additional pricing for the extra etching and materials. I'll update my site and post in Marketplace once I have that set.

Enjoy,

Dave

Impressive Dave.

I like the opaque black more than the transparent personally. You said you liked each for different reasons. Could you share with us?


Regards and looking forward to more,
Noah

The body has enough layers to look pretty much the same as opaque black, but the plungers are translucent. Something about the way they let the light through appeals to me. Note the extended plunger and shadows in this picture:


But the black is nice as well

As it happens the Deluxe pictured uses the transparent grey not black, but you can't tell much with the fluorescent red on top. You can notice it in that you can see the mini-cubes through the top left plunger on the last picture.

Dave

P.S.: Remove the 'Small' from any of the links for high res versions

They are for sale today , so I'll put you back on the order list.
I've started production again after taking a break in December, so the order list should start moving. #017, #018 and #019 (the Deluxe) have been built and I have pieces for a few more cut. Any that I build from now on can be the Deluxe if people want.

Dave

Is the name of that «category» of puzzles is Elemental?

(Do you get what I want to say?)

I think so, here is the link where I describe the reasoning behind the naming of my puzzle line.

Dave

Would there happen to be a time limit on when your stop take orders? If there isn't a time limit I'm good with that.

I have no immediate plans on ceasing production, but as puzzle building is a hobby and not a business I can't promise to build these forever. I imagine if I lost access to the TechShop's laser cutter I'd be out of luck, as even the laser shops I am looking to work with to cut pieces for me won't do the etching these puzzles require. But I hope that never happens

Dave

And for when the new models?

Do you mean the Deluxe or the other Elemental models? The Deluxe is available right now, although if you aren't already on the wait list it may take some time for me to get to you. No other Elemental puzzles are ready for production yet. Check the Elemental:Chromium thread here for details on its progress. I'll probably prototype Elemental:Fluorine after that, and I'll be sure to post an Elemental:Fluorine thread in this forum when I do.

Posts in this forum (Puzzle Building) will be about design, prototyping and production issues, but anything dealing with sales will be posted in the Marketplace threads. Currently there is only the Neon for sale here, in either stock or Deluxe version. When Chromium is ready for sale I'll post about it in the Marketplace thread with details.

Dave

I have had some mechanism pictures up on my flickr page for some time but had not posted them to this forum. These may give a better view of how I get the 'click' stopping in the center position which helps align the pieces. Originally I thought I would use springs and ball bearings, but that is a lot of small parts and thin acrylic has a nice spring to it when cut sufficiently thin.

My pictures build up layer by layer, starting with the base:

first layer, showing the slider between the body pieces. Note how the groove of the slide will match up with the spring arm bump at the center position:

Layer 1:

Next we have spacers. Without these spacers the plunger would not have room to freely move when the puzzle's layers are screwed tight together. They are cut form slide transparencies, used in overhead projectors.

Layer1 with spacers:

Add Layer 2 rotated 120 degrees, with spacers as well:

The third layer is another 120 rotation, and then we add plunger top guides with their own spacers underneath. Hard to see with the black on black acrylic, sorry.


A side view:

Puzzle complete with plunger tops:

Holes in the body are at three different levels:



A few side pictures to show how each plunger is anchored at a different depth.



Enjoy,

Dave

Oh I know I will, in less than four months!




Pantazis

More Neon fun:

I am waiting on a large laser cutting order, so I've been playing a bit with custom materials. Below find a transparent Neon with fluorescent green pieces (BioHazard theme) and a half height Neon in black with transparent pieces.

The half-height Neon was born of the ashes of my previous transparent half-height attempt, which was never very good. This one still has its troubles (a few bits broke because of the thinner plastic and wide acrylic pins), but is quite a bit nicer than the first. The screws are all flat head and countersunk with a drill press.

Neon transparent with fluorescent green pieces, BioHazard theme




Neon black half-height with transparent pieces, BioHazard theme



Height comparison. Backwards from my previous height comparison as the transparent is full height this time and the half height is black.

The florescent plastic looks very cool.
The transparent-ness of it makes it cooler.

A few more pictures of new Neons. As many of you know, Adam Zamora has a STIKA. He was nice enough to make some stickers for me to hold the Neon packaging closed:

As such I wanted to make his Neon a bit special, so I chose the transparent dark blue for a body, brushed aluminum pieces and etched the top and back with his name:


The transparent blue body looks really good when back lit by a strong light source:



I also built the first production Radiation theme Neon, and etched the back to match:



Enjoy,

Dave

It looks great!
Is the bigger one finished?

Some lovely colour combinations there.

They look really professional products.

the more you make, the more perfect they look! I'm so impressed with the way these are turning out...I can't wait to get mine! Is it too late to order more than the one I already ordered? I really like that transparent dark blue body...any chance you'd be doing custom etching for those who want it too? I don't mean to make your job harder, but if it were possible, I think it'd be really cool

Looks like Dave convinced me to buy one....

It wouldn't be fair to push people in line back to add to your order at your current location in the line, but I am happy to put you on the list for additional puzzles at the end of the list. If you notice, I built #014 for Taylor and now he is back on the list (near the end) for a Deluxe.

Custom work is generally possible, as long as you don't mind paying a bit more for my extra time. PM me if you want to get on the list again, and we can talk about what you want.

Dave

This stickers are a great touch! It just looks great.

An update on the laser cutting:

After many months of test cuts and design changes I placed an order to cut 50 puzzles worth of pieces (1850 pieces total).

I received the result yesterday, and despite the fact that they were the same shapes as the last (and correctly cut) test, *all* of the pieces are incorrect. It is as if the laser was thicker, and the thickness of the laser wasn't taken into account when cutting. All the holes are too big, and as I am threading 0-80 screws into untapped acrylic, hole sizes have to be exact:

The white piece on the right was the properly cut test, the right (with brown protecting paper still on) is the new piece. it may not look that different, but those holes are huge.

So after about $300 of plastic and $1000 of laser cutting costs I have 1850 pieces of odd shaped acrylic sitting in the trunk of my car and I can't build a single puzzle from them.

I am working to get the cutting company to fix the problem, and we will see where it goes from there.

Interestingly, the larger hole sizes look like they may work for 2-56 sized screws. These are the screw size I used on my very first acrylic prototype (see my first post on this thread). If I am able to keep these larger cut parts I may be able to design a large-screw Neon with them. I'd hate to see them go to waste. The larger screw heads can't be properly countersunk in 1/8" acrylic, so I would have to work out cutouts for the plungers and the bottom of the puzzle would not be flat. But perhaps this could be the source of a lower cost DIY.

I am guessing that they will want the parts back if they are to cut new ones for me, but we'll see. They will just throw them away, which would be a shame even though they are unusable for my current design.

Dissapointment and frustration are my friends,

Dave

Damn man!
You had should try only one first

he probably had a larger company do it for him and it wouldn't have been cost effective for them to setup and run one piece through...most likely they have a 'large' minimum for any of the jobs they run

Yes, the minimum was about $125.

As to doing a single cut first, that is basically what my test cuts were. The test cuts I had done were the same shapes, just one or two pieces. These tests were actually done essentially free (I sent an acrylic scrap and paid the $5 return shipping).

It was just a mistake, but a painful one. I'm sure they will work it out, but in the mean time my order list has to wait. I was *really* hoping this would allow me to knock off a bunch of puzzles in the next few weeks.

I am sure if they had supplied the acyrlic they would just have me send back the bad parts and do it again. But since I supplied the acrylic I am not sure how that would work. From my perspective they mis-cut, and in the process ruined a 6'x8' sheet of black and 4'x8' sheet of clear acrylic. I suppose I will now have to buy another two sheets, but I certainly don't want to send back the bad parts if they won't reimburse me for the acrylic. I have to send back some I am sure so they can inspect them to confirm that the cut was incorrect.

I suppose the most straightforward outcome would be for them to pay for new acrylic and redo the cut properly. Then I wind up with no extra cost (other than time and frustration, but I can live with that) and the correct end result.

The best I can hope for I suppose would be to buy new acrylic myself and have them re-do the cut, but keep the first set. Then I've basically spent $300 on a bunch of mis-cut parts, but if I can redesign around that perhaps it isn't so bad. If they take them back they will throw them away and have to spend $300 on new material for me, so it isn't such a bad deal for them.

Dave

Compounding this issue further was once again my old friend, inconsistent acrylic thickness.

I know that different sheets of acrylic are varying thicknesses. I was banking on the fact that a single sheet of acrylic would be pretty much consistent across the sheet.

Of course not!

Although I measured and picked a sheet of just the right thickness (0.118") on the corner I measured, it seems it varies every few feet by as much as 0.05".

My initial plan was to cut all the pieces for a single puzzle near each other (like I do when I cut at the TechShop). For me, this assures I get all the pieces of a single puzzle on the same scrap of acrylic (about 7"x9")

The laser cutting shop has this technique called micro tabbing where the cut does not complete, and leaves about 1mm connected. This way the piece remains attached to the rest of the acrylic, and can be handled as a sheet. The problem with this is that when you break off this micro tab it leaves a nice sharp burr that needs to be filed or sanded down. On 1850 pieces this would be a bunch of work. So I ruled that out, but that meant that all the pieces would not remain near their neighbors once the fell from the surrounding cut. So cutting them near each other seemed pointless. I redesigned my file to just have the individual shapes and let them arrange them however the wanted.

As one might have expected, they grouped all of one part in big blocks when cutting them and this meant that different parts of the puzzle are different thicknesses. Big mistake on my part. Had I left things grouped, at least I could be assured with some measuring and sorting I could construct puzzles of all the same thickness. Now two neighboring parts on the puzzle are different, and all that is a problem

Oh, and it happens they did the micro tabbing anyway (I didn't explicitly say not to...argh!!).

So when I get around to re-cutting I'll want to send them new files and this will possibly complicate what might have been a simple re-run of the original files.

Dave

It's never easy, is it.

I have found the same issue with plastic sheet thickness, and when milling, I now surface both sides of the plastic first, remeasure, and then start machining. I've had some pretty catastrophic failures from the extra thickness, including an end mill covered in a solid ball of acrylic slamming into my workpiece before finally coming to an emergency halt to avoid breaking my machine.

I'm really sorry to hear about the mishaps. I know how frustrating that can be.

oh no!!!

So sorry to heat that Dave... and that was on top of the previous difficulties you had...

It just shows that things are never simple when trying to make new puzzles.
I hope some new way is found to make good use of those copies.

It may sound like a big blow to the elementals, but I know you will prevail stronger!


Pantazis

I recently built a custom Neon for Jason Smith (io) for a trade (no, not for the Pentultimate, but boy would that have been nice...)

I built a Deluxe in gold mirror on a transparent red body:


I think it looks great against the light:


(note to self: Angle the mirrored puzzle when taking a picture)


Backlit looking from the back is very nice. You can play with the puzzle this way.


Enjoy,

Dave

That is beautiful! I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Nice work, Dave.

When I saw it, the first thing that came to my mind was some sort
of valuable jewel/weapon involved in a futuristic sci-fi movie!




Pantazis

Fantastic! I love the metallic look.

That is very awesome color you have there! Is that chrome gold? If it isn't it still would look lovely in my collection. Does that color seem to come off easy? How do you get the color gold to stay on so well?

It is gold mirror acrylic. The coating is on the back of the acrylic, so you won't rub it off with your fingers. I suppose there is the possibility of it wearing off the back but it seems fairly solid. Last year I saw a sheet of it at TAP platics in their sale isle and just had to buy it all (it was 3'x4' I think).

This is the same material I used for Georges gold piece puzzle, but this is the Deluxe version with a red body.

I could order other mirrored colors (copper, purple, teal, etc.) but I only have gold and silver on hand.

It's really nice stuff. I like making the pretty puzzles. Last time I was at the TechShop I cut Deluxe pieces in gold, silver and fluorescent green. I'm now just waiting for someone on my order list to want something special...

As for being in your collection, just let me know and I can get you on the end of the list As I recall we were considering perhaps a rainbow version for you?

Dave

A long overdue update: Bad news, OK news, Good news, Not Great news.

First the Bad News:
After many months, $1,300 and 2000 parts traveling back and forth four times between me and the laser cutting shop, I give up. I just can't use the parts laser cut by the Sacramento shop.

When I first realized they were wrong I figured I could work around it. But since then I have found that not only are they too big, but they are not consistently too big. So two holes on the same piece are not even the same size. A screw will slide through one and bind on another. Combine that with the microtabs and the inconsistent thickness of pieces and you have pretty much nothing usable. Certainly not without lots and lots of work. Even if I drill out all the holes to be consistent and add extra spacers to account for the differing thicknesses, the plunger parts are too narrow so the plungers wobble as they slide. I haven't fully built a puzzle from these parts, but I imagine this would not be good for pieces locking up.

I had initially wanted to offer these parts with new hardware (larger screws and pins) and a redesign (cutouts instead of countersinks) as a DIY. The cost wouldn't be that high if I wasn't doing all the work. But now I don't know that even that makes sense given all the problems.
So I have a bunch of useless parts and just can't seem to accept it and recycle them. They sit in my garage, taunting me.

OK news:
The laser shop credited back the money for the laser cutting (about $1000). After I realized I wasn't going to be able to make the pieces work even with a redesign, they also sent me some money for the plastic that I bought for the job. So at least I didn't loose a bunch of money.

Good news:
The TechShop has been wanting to start offering professional services in addition to just member access. They already do this with 3d printing, but have wanted to try out laser cutting. So they chose me to be their first job to work out the process, and I have them cutting parts for 20 puzzles. Unlike the other laser service, this is all done on the same equipment I use, with exactly the same files. Basically I am paying them to sit and watch the laster cutter instead of me driving 50 miles to do so. This should give me a jump start in fulfilling a bunch of orders (I am still *way* behind).

Not Great news:
I am bumping the price of the Neon again. See here for details.

Dave

I don't know why I didn't try this sooner. I can use a paint pen with a fine point to ink in the etched parts of the acrylic, then wipe away the ink that spills over. What is left is a nice ink filled etched surface, which works very, very well for the back plate:


This is gold ink on the back plate of trixter's new Green/Gold Deluxe Neon. (sorry to Georges, io, reeeech and Noah for not thinking of this sooner, it would have looked great on your puzzles. io: Bring your Neon next time we meet and we can fix this). Now I just need some brass screws instead of stainless steel and I can have the whole gold theme complete.

I can use this same technique to ink the etching of the pieces which enables lots of new options, like mixing colors (i.e. gold image on silver acrylic, red image on clear acrylic, etc.). More pictures to follow as I explore this a bit.

It turns out this is much easier on the puzzles where I don't use the textured acrylic a the back plate (stock), as the textured makes it harder to clean up the paint that spills over the etched edges. It leaves a sparkly effect as the paint partially sticks in the textured surface. Perhaps that is a feature of its own, but if the paint isn't in an etched groove I would worry about it coming off on someone's hands.

Enjoy,

Dave

Amazing work as always Dave, I wish I could make up my mind as to which color scheme/model I like best so I could get on the wait list.

That looks amazing. I might have to try that on my own puzzle sometime soon.

No worries!! I hope I had pushed you enough, though, to get this concept. It is your art and they should be signed!

Beautiful btw!

Use rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to clean the excess that spills outside of the etching. Just enough to make the paper towel damp, or it will bleed into the etched area. And don't press hard or it will smear.


While I don't anticipate raising my prices again any time soon, it is better to get on the waiting list then figure out what you want. You would have saved $25 by ordering last month

Dave

Wow, that looks really cool! I will definitely bring mine along next time we meet.

As you might have guessed from a picture in a previous thread, I like the band Mustard Plug (Ska/Punk from Michigan).

Partially to practice putting custom images on the Neon and partially as just a tribute, I present the Deluxe Mustard Plug Elemental:Neon:

Evildoers Beware! is perhaps my favorite album of all my CDs.

I chose to do both the top and the back plate in fluorescent green Neon, so the image would show well.

Now that I've built it, I realize it would be quite cool if I were to replace the center layer with florescent green as well, so I'd have alternating green/black/green/black/green. I might just do that...

Dave

I've gotten really into Mustard Plug since I went to school in Michigan. Nice to see it incarnated in puzzle form.

Just over a year ago I announced the Neon. At the time I thought there might be some interest (perhaps 15-20 orders) and offered it for sale. Since then I have built about 65 of them (more than one per week ) and still have another 10 orders to fill.

It happens my birthday is in early September and my wife and kids had a special cake made for me. The print-on-icing tech is quite good, and from the picture it almost looks like I set a real puzzle on the cake (my chosen camera angle helps the illusion).

The thought came to me that it can serve as both my and my puzzle's birthday cake (well, aside from the fact that it says "Daddy" instead of "Neon").

Happy Birthday Neon!


Dave

P.S. Mmmmm... BioHazard tastes gooooood.

LOL I was mildly shocked when I saw the second photo with the devoured part of the Neon.
It *does* look like the real thing!

Happy Birthday to both of you!




Pantazis

I thought it was real too!

Happy birthday! And congratulations on a year of Elementals!

Here is a picture with different lighting so you can see. You can see the fondant (stiffer icing) it is printed on sitting on the cake but under the writing. It almost looks like paper, but you can eat it


Dave