Free the Cogwheels

prusaprinters

<h3>Free the Cogwheels</h3><h4>Intro:</h4><p>This is my interpretation of the chinese rings puzzle, which dates back to the 2nd/3rd century, as far as wikipedia tells us. ;-) I remembered this puzzle from back when i was a kid, seeing it at a flea market - and the contest brought it back to mind almost instantly.<br><br>Although i took a slightly different approach to add a locked gift compartment, which should fit most gift cards (credit card format) some money, a small letter or simply some “treasure” of choice.<br><br>Since it's specificaly designed for the Prusaprinters contest, i thought the “usual” open HW Cogwheel might be a suitable theme as a replacement for them old rings.<br>&nbsp;</p><h4><strong>Goal:</strong></h4><p>Disentangle the rope from the Cogwheels, so you can pull it back through the base and access the reward hidden in there.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Build:</h3><h4>Additional Parts needed:</h4><ul><li>~80cm Paracord or other rope, diameter ~4mm</li><li>Glue</li></ul><h4>Printing:</h4><ul><li>Any descently rigid material will be fine. (PLA recommended)</li><li>The parts should be printable without any support or brims, as oriented from the download</li><li>The 0.20mm Quality Preset should work great with 3 perimeters, 5 top/bottom layers</li><li>other than assembly, there should be no post-processing required<br>maybe a little sanding for clearances</li></ul><h4>Assembly/Setup: (see pics for reference, <a href="https://youtu.be/d119VTEB9b4">or the video</a>)</h4><ul><li><strong>make sure to not cross over the rope loop at any time</strong></li><li>Push the ends of the cord through the two holes in the base bottom part - from the outside in</li><li>Knot, glue or sinter them securely in place</li><li>Add treasure, giftcard, or whatever to the compartment</li><li>Pull the remaining loop through the center of one lose cogwheel</li><li>put both base parts together and push the loop through the oval channel in the base parts.&nbsp;<br>This keeps the treasure locked until solving the puzzle.&nbsp;<br>you might want to use some large ziptie, thin chopstick or similar to push the loop through the channel, if the cord is too soft</li><li>add the second loose cogwheel on the other side of the base, similar to the first one</li><li>just loop the loop back onto the base and have it around the lowest level rings post (1)</li><li>Starting from the lowest ring (1), glue each level into the base with some superglue or similar.&nbsp;<br>Each higher level post has to go through the hole of the lower one<br>(make sure not to glue the cord to anything)</li><li>after having all six rings glued in place the puzzle is ready to make your brain hurt. ;-)</li></ul><h3>Solution:</h3><p>“Simply” untangle the rope from all rings, get it out of the base and access the reward. Easy enough, duh?!<br><i><strong>No force, tools or cutting allowed of course!</strong></i></p><p>Just kidding, here's a <a href="https://youtu.be/etIrqY4j8NA">solution video,</a> in case the headache gets too bad. &nbsp;;-)</p><p>&nbsp;</p>