Burr Puzzle Solution

[Silverwings]

As part of the puzzle contest found here:
http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/...ad?thread=61714
I've put together the solution for my burr puzzle.

Burr puzzles have been around for a very long time, and maybe this is old hat to some of you, but this is a variation of a puzzle that I hand-made a few years ago. It's a locking burr puzzle, with a couple of moves at the end that keep it together in a bit more stable way than some burr puzzles. I'm not sure if this particular puzzle design and solution is totally unique to me, since it's really just a variation on a somewhat limited theme... but I did design this on my own, within the confines of a standard burr puzzle.

This would really be better to make in wood or maybe with a rapid prototype machine, but for the sake of this contest, where many people may be tinkering with this, I've settled on this sort of 3Dish presentation. The visuals were produced in 3DStudio Max version 9.

First and foremost, you should be looking at these pieces.


They should be assembled into this, a standard burr base.


And if you need a little extra help, there's a colored version here:
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d155/Sil...inalColored.png

BE WARNED! The rest of this thread is dedicated to a step by step solution, so if you want to puzzle this out for a bit, wait before scrolling further.


























Still here?


























OK, the solution is below. I hope that you enjoyed this.

[Silverwings]

Start with the green piece.



Add the yellow piece from above.



Slide in the orange piece from the right.

[Silverwings]

From here, you can go in two different directions. You can place either the purple or red piece, sliding in from above. It doesn't matter which one is first, since you'll wind up in the same place.

Purple first:



Red First:



Both purple and red placed:

[Silverwings]

Now comes the locking mechanism. Slide the red piece up a notch to open up the channel for the key blue piece.



Slide the blue piece in, aligning its gap under the red piece.

[Silverwings]

Slide the red piece back down, locking the blue piece in place, and solidifying the entire structure.



This sort of thing really is more fun to make and play with, since it's a very tactile mechanical puzzle. As an exercise in 3D thinking, it's probably much harder than it needs to be. That said, it was fun to design. One of these days, I'll have to actually make it.

Silver