I was going to wait until I had some stickers on this before I posted pictures, but it seems to be taking forever to actually get them, and this puzzle has a certain charm in plain-ol' stark white. I'll post some more pictures and a video once I get it stickered.

Enjoy!

EDIT:

Blech! This dim lighting caused some really gank looking pictures, so I'll take some better ones tomorrow when the sun is out. In the meantime, here is a quick video as well.

Cheers!

EDIT no. 2:

It's pretty miserable out today, but it is winter so I guess I can't expect too much. Bottom line is that the lighting is kind of grey, but still not too bad. So, here are some pictures of this puzzle in it completed, stickered state. I had two small paint runs in the end, and both of them ended up on the blue side by complete conincidence. How odd. Other than that, I'd say this is pretty much perfect

Oh, and since I don't think I mentioned it elsewhere, the cube is 72mm.

EDIT no. 3:

The sun came out today, so I took some nicer pictures and a video.







Cheers!

Beautiful!!! I love it!

wow. that is sweet! this makes my square-1 mod look really easy (and it wasnt).

Aleh's circle 4x4 anyone?

Looks awesome.

Now that is what I call inventive!

Thomas

It looks really nice.

Can you descirbe the structure?

That is beautiful. Square-1 mod? I wouldn't have guessed...

Nice work, Matt.

Wow. If it's as fully functional as it looks, this is an awesome puzzle, yet still somewhat simple. I love all these new 2x2 mods! How did you accomplish it?

I think one of the best parts about this is the absolutely perfect name. Don't think it could get much more fitting.

That thing must be...a NIGHTMARE to solve...imagine trying to solve 3 UFO's and a 2x2 with the same moves...

I'm up for the challenge =D

woow, looks complex, i don't understand anything
congratulation

Unusually as always. Very nice, Matt!!!!
I have the question, how easy is it to turn the circles (6 pieces)? For me it looks like "cheese" should be little bit higher.
I can't wait the video.
Congratulations!

I disagree.

My solution is pretty simple.

Solve 2x2.
Solve the centers separately.


Since the centers won't have a designated orientation, it's much easier.

Your work is amazing, lookign forward to the video, and how you built it.

That is a very cool puzzle. Great idea!

Did you mean to quote blade740, not me?

A very clever use of the Square-1 mechanism. I never would have thought to use the mechanism in that manner.

Then again, I've never claimed to be very original.

Fantastic work.

Yes. My apologies. I meant to quote the post after you.

Oh my god! I need a video!!!

I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult, I guess. It might be annoying to keep lining up the "cheeses" during the 2x2 step, but then I guess it's a fairly straightforward puzzle. I'd solve 2 opposite centers, then work my way around the central ones.

Very cool. Probably fairly simple to solve I think. Solve 2x2 part, then the middles like a 4x4.

Glad everone likes it!

As for how it was made, I didn't take any pictures while making it, so I guess I can't show you. However, I can tell you all how it was done...

This is the first all-new project I've completed in 2008, but it has taken me months to do! I came up with the idea one evening, thinking it would be fairly straightforward--simply attach a square-1 rail to each face of an Eastsheen 2x2x2, round out 36 square-1 corner bits, and build up the corners to make it both look pretty and prevent the "cheeses" from falling out during a turn.

What actually entailed were minor technical problems adding up and combining forces with a bit of bad luck to lead to me destroying 3 work pieces in the CNC mill (at quite a high cost) as the corner extentions are milled from solid PVC (I could not actually get ABS billet here without importing it). As well, a 0.5mm measurement error in the circular bits occurred from bent caliper that I found out about only after discovering that nothing fit together. So, I built the corners 3 times, and all the "cheeses" twice. The rails worked out great though!

Either way, the end result is a puzzle that looks pretty good (I think) and turns great too--I spent quite a bit of time adjusting the fit of the "cheeses" to make sure they turned easily, and they now all turn somewhere between effortlessly and good (making them by hand means they are not all 100% uniform, and I guess I did a slightly better job on some than others).

As for the difficulty of solving it, I agree that it will be fairly easy if all sides are a solid colour. However, if position is included, I would think it would be rather difficult! For now I'm simply going with solid colours, but since there are six sides and six "cheeses", a logical hard version would be to make the same 6 colour pattern appear on all six faces--sort of a two-in-one puzzle that way.

Finally, since the underlying 2x2x2 cube is an Eastsheen, I had to be sure to get everything right before I put it together, since the corner extentions block access to the locking tabs, and this puzzle is now non-serviceable. I was smart enough to take one picture in the final fitting stage, so I can at least show off the mechanism.

Cheers!

incredible, very unique, very proffesional, very the.drizzle

suppose instead of having each face contain 6 identical pieces, you put in actual square-1 style pieces. that would definetly mix things up

well, if you need to disassemble it for some reason, just twist it in some way so as to break the core without hurting the shells. A new ES2 for the inside isn't much of a cost if such a repair is needed.

What a lovely puzzle!!!

I am sure that the inventor of the Smart Alex puzzle would have choked after seeing this!




Pantazis

wow! that puzzle looks like one of the funnest puzzles EVER! must've took forever to build considering that it was built from a square 1! i probably wouldn't be able to solve it!

I'm overwhelmed by the stunning ideas on this forum - including this one.

I know I've already posted.. but it looks soo good!

Oooooh!
This is so awesome!I love it!
The quality looks amazing as well as the creativeness of the puzzle.
I agree, it looks great in white, but pretty easy to solve that way!
Can't wait to see it stickered.
Well done!
Vadim

thats freaking cool.

GREAT

I need one

Very creative! Good work.

This is so awesome, I'd never have thought of it. Anyone feel like combining another puzzle with a sq1?

I think I'm in love!

Not really another Square-1 mod!
This is an amazing design.
Very good idea!!!!

Frank

I love the white also, but did anyone think of making the centres YELLOW? Or is this swiss; it needs holes. Or, the simplest, is it american. I LOVE CHEESE.
(p.s. and Rubik's cubes)

someone mentioned combining other puzzles with the square-1, here's an idea

take a 4x4, each face has four square-1 tracks on it, these tracks each sit on a 2x2 grid in all four corners on every face. the result is something similar to this puzzle but wildly different. In all you need 24 tracks and 144 cheese slices

Wow, that's cool!

Have you considered using Square-1 edges as smaller wedges?
Solved could be CECECE CE on each side, with the C wedges blocking a 3x3x3 move on each side. That would be insane. I'd love to solve it.

That is amazing! This is factory quality work! I can't wait to see a video (hint hint)

That would be amazing. So incredibly hard, and yet so fun.

Very nice!

Better pictures tomorrow, but for now here's a video.

Plleeeease let me have it!

i know what this puzzle is like, an octahedral dogic

Personally I think the last puzzle on this page is an Octahedral Dogic.

http://lodelnic.free.fr/lolocube.php?la ... structions

I think this is a Smart Alex in 3 dimensions.

I would imagine that just scrambling that would make someone happy, since it would look like orange slices moving around there. This is an awesome, amazing idea and it looks like it turns on a dime. You win.

Just a quick bump to mention three things:

1. The sun came out today, so I took some decent pictures (as you have probably already seen).

2. I also shot a new video as well, which shows things more clearly.

3. I'll be putting this puzzle up on ebay in a week or so. Don't miss out, as I think this is the only one I will ever sell! That is, I have enough materials to make one more, but as its a very time consuming and expensive build, when I get around to making the second one it will be for my personal collection only. Other than this one, your only other option will be to make your own or wait for somebody else to do it, 'cause I won't be

Cheers!