Nut & Bolt Puzzles

Update 23 October 2017 - Dear Reader, please check out my new puzzle blog and e-store at http://mechanical-puzzles.com

Since my review of the Cross Threaded earlier in this blog, I subsequently developed quite a liking for nut and bolt puzzles and acquired four others:-

1. 2 x Bolted
2. Schraube
3. One-Wa-Sure

Top from left: Eureka Bolted, Enigma Bolted, Schraube and at the bottom, One-Wa-Sure

Bolted
I ordered a copy from Mr Puzzle Australia and for some reason which I still cannot fathom, I ordered an almost identical one from PuzzleThis UK. Anyhow, the one from Mr Puzzle Australia is manufactured by Enigma while that from PuzzleThis UK comes from Eureka. Both are relatively large in size measuring 9.3cm x 3cm at its widest. Quality and construction for both copies are good. The one from Enigma is made of brass with a nice patina finish while the other from Eureka I think is made of aluminium with a shiny surface.

If you wish to buy one, get the Enigma one as it has got a nicer finish and looks like a real bolt. They are really more trick bolts than puzzles and I solved them (removing the bent washer) in under 15 seconds. In my opinion really not worth the money if you are looking for some puzzling.

Schraube
This one came from Hendrik Haak's Puzzle-Shop.de. Schraube is german for screw. Made of aluminium, the quality and finish is also good and with a matt surface, it too looks like a real nut and bolt. This is the smallest of the lot at around 4cm x 1.9cm. From a puzzling standpoint, this one is a bit harder than the Bolted and required more manipulation before I could get the nut off the bolt. The mechanism is similar to the Cross Threaded mentioned earlier.

One-Wa-Sure
This bolt puzzle with a catchy name (play on the word washer) came from Rocky Chiaro. In terms of size, it is somewhere midway between the Bolted and Schraube. Measuring about 6.3cm x 2.2cm, it is made of brass with a nice polished surface. Quality, fit and finish is excellent as is typical of Rocky's brass puzzles and the head of the bolt bears Rocky's signature. However, all this quality and craftsmanship comes at a price; the One-Wa-Sure is not cheap! It is one of six bolt and nut puzzles designed and made by Rocky; so if you are thinking of collecting the lot, this will definitely burn a pretty large hole in your pocket.

This is the hardest to solve compared to the other two and given the cost, I am glad the One-Wa-Sure provides reasonable challenge. It didn't take me that long but I still had to play with it for a fair several minutes before I managed to remove the washer from the bolt. I cannot comment on the difficulty of this one compared to the rest of the series as I don't have the other five, so you may want to check out Oli's review that covers all six puzzles. It was on his recommendation that I chose the One-Wa-Sure over the rest as I wasn't ready to plonk down money for all six puzzles at one go without at least trying one.

Out of the four above, only the One-Wa-Sure is really worth buying, that is, from both a puzzling and quality standpoint. But if you are a collector, well, that's a different story...no harm getting all four I guess.

Brass Treasure Chest

Update 23 October 2017 - Dear Reader, please check out my new puzzle blog and e-store at http://mechanical-puzzles.com

The Brass Treasure Chest is a cute little puzzle which I obtained from PuzzleMaster of Canada. Designed by Rocky Chiaro and made entirely of brass, the chest measures 5.4cm long, 2.6cm wide and 3.3cm tall. It is a little box which sits on four short legs and has a diagonal criss-cross pattern on the top of the 6mm lid. While the fit and finish is not perfect, the overall quality and construction of my copy is generally good (and taking into account the puzzle aspect) I would consider it value for money. Despite its smallish size, the chest feels heavy and solid in the hand.

The swirly mark on the front side of the chest  bears Rocky Chiaro's signature

The object of the puzzle is to open the Treasure Chest (ie the lid). Upon unwrapping the chest, I can hear within the chest "parts" that appear to be loose and moving about inside. I cannot be sure if they are ball bearings or not but definitely there appears to be at least two moving pieces. Initially I tried the few ways that I am aware of to try to open the chest, such as those employed in the Aluminium Dovetail, Moscow, Cast News and Fire Plug puzzles, all reviewed earlier in this blog.

Those who have solved any of these puzzles would know what I am talking about. I banged, tapped, spun and turned the puzzle in all manner of directions but to no avail. At one point I did manage to swing the lid open several millimetres in either direction but it remained firmly "locked" in place and would not budge beyond that.

Something interesting awaits those who succeed in opening the Treasure Chest

I puzzled over the chest for several days and just as I was about to give up on what I was doing, suddenly the lid swung open to reveal a empty cavity. While I did have an "A-ha" moment, this was temporary because when I looked at how the lid was locked in place, I knew I had got it opened purely by chance. I didn't really know what I had done correctly up to this point. Closing the lid was even much harder, the lid simply refused to close. Somewhere deep inside the chest and hidden from view, Rocky had designed a mechanism which requires one to solve the puzzle through a pre-determined sequence of steps with dexterity, very similar to the Centrale and Remove The Yoke puzzles.

This is very difficult as one cannot see whatever is going on with the mechanism inside the chest. This was confirmed when I downloaded the solution from PuzzleMaster. I counted a sequence of 10 steps to open the lid and 8 steps to close it....something which would have been impossible for me to carry out without the solution. PuzzleMaster rates the Treasure Chest 10/10 on the scale of difficulty. I fully agree. If the scale was 15, I would say the puzzle is around 13/15.

Once you have seen the solution and memorised the steps, repeated solving becomes very easy. If you like a real challenge that you cannot see, well here's the puzzle for you! The chest is also very sturdy and strong and there is enough space inside to put something small, like a 1-carat diamond ring. Well, if you have nothing to place inside, the chest performs quite well as a shiny paperweight.