Gridlock at the Arc De Triomphe

Anti slide puzzle designed by Brian Young, Junichi Yananose and William Hu. Difficult and I still have not found the solution to it...

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/anti-slide-puzzle/

OMPIC - One Minute Puzzle In Cube

Dear Readers,

New blog post up on James Dalgety's IPP37 Exchange Puzzle.

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/one-minute-puzzle-in-cube/

Checking In

Steward Coffin's designs are typically not known to be easy and my puzzle of choice this weekend was no different.In fact it is probably one of the harder ones I have played with, considering the amount of time it took me to solve. This puzzle was Jerry Slocum's IPP34 Exchange Puzzle called "Checking In" and its Coffin's design #223.

Checking In was made by Brian Young of Mr Puzzle and comprises of Western Australian Jarrah for the tray and a combo of Jarrah and Queensland Silver Ash for the eight pieces. The puzzle measures about 10cm x 10cm x 1.5cm. According to Brian, this design has never been made before so its the first time design #223 has been produced. As usual, quality and construction is very good and the pieces with its two-tone colours looks fabulous.

The puzzle comes "semi-solved" and the goal is to fit one of the pieces packaged at the bottom of the frame flat into the tray together with the rest of the other seven pieces. Not only that but to also form a checkerboard pattern as well. Each of the eight pieces consist of dark and light squares and half squares (triangles) glued together. One look and it is obvious right from beginning that this one wasn't going to be easy. The pieces don't look like they can all fit into the tray. And the fact that its eight pieces already ups the the difficulty quotient by a few notches. 

I spent around two hours or so over several sessions trying to figure this one out. At first, random sort of packing, but usually this won't work when there are a large number of pieces. Then I tried logical deduction/reasoning, which I would say helps to some extent for this puzzle. Many a times, it was always the last one or two pieces that couldn't fit. But eventually the a-ha moment came when I adjusted the last few pieces and the tray accepted the last piece nicely...and in a checker board pattern too! A rather "interesting" solution I might add!

Not at all easy but not unduly frustrating either...although I would imagine that those who don't often play with packing puzzles could spend hours on Checking In and get no where. Mr Puzzle rates it a 6/10 for difficulty but I think it deserves a 6.5 or 7. If you are into packing puzzles (and given this is a Coffin design which is not easily available), Checking In should be on your must-have list. Available only from Mr Puzzle at a price of A$50/- 

For anyone who might want to take a look at the solution, please PM me via my blog email here.

Multi-Grain 275-AS

Name
Multi-Grain 275-AS.

Designer
Stewart Coffin was the designer of the original Multi-Grain 275-A. This version, the 275-AS with a modified grain pattern was by Jerry Slocum.

Manufacturer & Availability
Manufactured by Brian Young of Mr Puzzle Australia. Available for AU$66/-.

Type & Classification
Interlocking solid

Dimensions
7cm x 7cm x 7cm.

Materials & Construction
Papua New Guinea Rosewood. Overall very good quality and finish with a nice snug fit.

Overview
This dissection puzzle was Jerry Slocum's IPP35 Exchange Puzzle.

The object is to take it apart and then re-assemble it. Even though its only 4 pieces, the taking apart was pretty tricky, given its symmetrical assembly. The pieces all fit very snugly and I had to pull and push a bit, here and there everywhere before something finally moved. It took me a bit of time to release the first piece.

Like all burr puzzles, I try to take apart the rest of the pieces slowly and memorizing the moves, and placing them in a systematic manner on the table, so that assembly wouldn't be such a pain later. Brian encourages puzzles who want a real challenge to scramble the pieces and "...go for a walk round the block or something..." and then try to fit the pieces back to its symmetrical pyramidal shape, the latter which of course I didn't.

Thankfully I managed to put the 4 pieces back together, and this is after some trial and error which got me a bit worried in the beginning. But I would imagine that if I had followed Brian's advice, the pieces would have looked so confusing later that I would not have been able to put it together correctly.

If it had come un-assembled, it would certainly have been very difficult indeed. Again quoting Brian from his site:

"Even though it’s a symmetrical shape when it's done; visualising that shape while you're assembling the puzzle is extremely difficult even with the supplied photo of the finished puzzle.

An extension of the famous 'Three Piece Block' puzzle that Stewart is famous for; this one is just as hard if not harder than the original"

Difficulty
It is rated as 7/10 by Mr Puzzle but comes assembled so the difficulty quotient is lower.