Bram Cohen ([info]bramcohen) wrote,
@ 2008-11-12 13:24:00
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Trigears

This puzzle is based on an original mechanical concept I've never seen or heard of anywhere else, three gears all of which mesh at the same point and cycle through which gear goes through the center rather than alternating between two gears as regular gears do. It was designed by me and Oskar van Deventer, and is now available for purchase in a 3d printed form from puzzle palace.

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neat!
[info]cryptomail
2008-11-12 09:53 pm UTC (link)
I would stupidly try to brute force it haha, but there doesn't seem to be any reference numbers on each of the teeth! I wouldn't want to mark it up (permanently).

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Re: neat!
[info]bramcohen
2008-11-12 10:56 pm UTC (link)
There are arrows on the other side specifically for allowing a simple picture to serve as the solution key (the solution page just has a picture showing where the arrows go). It's possible to glean information from the sizes of all the teeth without that, though. It does require some reasoning.

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[info]gary_williams
2008-11-12 10:03 pm UTC (link)
$425.00? Shouldn't that have been $4.25?

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[info]dossy
2008-11-12 10:30 pm UTC (link)
+1. It's a cute toy, but not to the tune of $425.

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[info]bramcohen
2008-11-12 10:54 pm UTC (link)
If a lower cost version becomes available I'll let everyone know, but to date this is the only version ever produced.

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[info]bramcohen
2008-11-12 10:53 pm UTC (link)
It's 3d printed, and this version is kinda large, so the costs of materials are rather high. If it were mass produced the price would probably be under $10, but that would be in very high production runs.

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price
[info]cryptomail
2008-11-12 10:42 pm UTC (link)
These are low-run, custom prototypes.
Takes time, energy, and money.

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Beautiful puzzle!
[info]hanclinto.blogspot.com
2008-11-13 06:54 pm UTC (link)
Wow, incredibly intriguing puzzle!

In the event that you would ever like to open-source your design, I would love to see .STL files of something like this available for the promotion of something like the RepRap project (http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Available_Files).

All told, beautiful puzzle. Am I correct in thinking that the gears are all of different tooth counts (looks like ~20 for the large gear and ~16 for the middle gear)? If so, count me amazed -- I'm going to be puzzling over how you thought this up for a while now. :)

Great job on the puzzle! If it were even an order of magnitude less, I could consider picking one up, but I totally understand about the cost issues given the current somewhat high cost of 3d printing.

I think one of my favorite parts about this puzzle is how satisfying and rewarding it seems to be once it is solved -- with so many other puzzles (such as box assembly / disassembly), it's fairly static once solved, and somewhat boring to keep around, and you discourage people from playing with it on your desk for fear that you'd have to figure it out again. But with this one, it seems that it's special in that it's more satisfying to keep together than to take apart -- well done, Bram!

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OT: Dutch auction ticketing
[info]krysalist
2008-11-14 10:05 pm UTC (link)
Hey Bram. Just thought you'd like to know, Brown Paper Tickets now has a dutch auction option for ticketing. Here's an example of an event utilizing it:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/44094

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[info]fiduch
2008-11-16 04:19 am UTC (link)
i like it. simple and elegant. i'd love to get the chance to try it out someday.

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