Cubic Octahedron - Interlocking puzzle by Christoph Lohe

prusaprinters

Cubic OctahedronInterlocking puzzle by Christoph LoheAssemble the four pieces into the unusual octahedral shape shown in the photo.Cubic Octahedron is a successor of sorts to Stewart Coffin's iconic puzzles Three-Piece Block and Multi-Grain Burr. It uses the same geometry as Coffin's earlier designs, but is a step up in difficulty, requiring several moves to get the last piece in. If you're unfamiliar with this type of design, I'd recommend starting with Three-Piece Block as a warm-up before attempting to tackle this one.Printing InstructionsPrint one copy of lohe.cubic-octahedron.stl. This model uses snap joints so that the pieces can be printed without supports; for this particular puzzle, I recommend using a sturdy PLA filament (or something stronger, such as PLA+ or ABS) and/or reinforcing with glue, due to the fragile nature of some of the joints.After you print it, first connect all the joints before attempting to solve the puzzle. Snap each male connector into a corresponding female connector (for example, the male connector labeled "A" should connect to the female connector with a matching "A" label on the interior).The joints are designed to be tight, and depending on the printer and filament used, you may need to hammer them into place. If they come out too loose, a drop of superglue will make them more solid (in most cases this shouldn't be necessary, but unfortunately tolerances vary across printers and filaments). The snap joint concept is discussed further in this tutorial: Getting Started with Puzzle Printing.For a slightly smaller version that uses less material, you can print lohe.cubic-octahedron-smaller.stl instead.The Printable Puzzle ProjectThe Printable Puzzle Project aims to make available high-quality open-source models of many puzzle designs. All of our models are posted with the generous permission of their designers and are licensed for non-commercial use only. Anyone may print copies for their own personal use, but selling or otherwise monetizing them is not permitted, and puzzle designers retain all rights as copyright holders of their work.Our puzzles are modeled using the open-source puzzlecad library. The .scad file is included with this model in case you want to modify any of its design parameters; more information on how to do this can be found in the PPP Puzzle Modeling tutorial.About the DesignerChristoph Lohe's innovative output spans an impressive variety of puzzle forms. Lohe's designs have attracted increasing attention from puzzle makers and collectors and have been realized by some of the world's top puzzle craftspeople. His designs are both challenging and beautiful, with several incorporating creative figurative elements, such as a popular series of burr puzzles in the shape of locks.Happy puzzling!