Nova - Interlocking puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #8)

prusaprinters

NovaInterlocking puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #8)Assemble the six pieces into the polyhedral shape shown in the cover photo.Nova is derived from Coffin's earlier design Sirius by adding additional ornamentation. The essential puzzle mechanism is the same, though Nova has an especially striking appearance: mathematically, the assembled Sirius has the shape of the first stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron, while Nova has the shape of the second stellation. Coffin wrote: "The six identical pieces of Nova assemble easily to form the second stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron. ... [I]t is more of a polyhedral sculpture than a puzzle."A polyhedral scuplture, then, and a fine one at that! If printed accurately in five colors (see below), it forms a striking display piece, with a variety of symmetric arrangements possible. In Coffin's words: "There are several ways of assembling these pieces in color symmetry .... The simplest and most obvious is with each of the eight hexagonal dimples a solid color, with like colors opposite [this is the one shown in the photo]. Another way is with four triangles of a solid color. The most elegant is with four hexagonal rings of solid color intersecting each other around the outside. The other ways are left for the curious reader to discover."For a more challenging assembly puzzle in the same shape, you can try printing Coffin's later variant Super Nova.Printing InstructionsTwo variants of this puzzle are provided with different color arrangements. The "monochrome" version is especially easy to print; just print six copies of coffin.nova.solid.stl. (You can, of course, print the copies in different colors, and you might get an interesting color pattern out of it; but the colors won't follow the geometry of the puzzle in the way Coffin intended.)The five-color version is more involved, but it has the most satisfying final appearance. Print one copy of coffin.nova.fivecolor-bases.stl and one copy each of coffin.nova.fivecolor-tips-1.stl through coffin.nova.fivecolor-tips-4.stl, each in a different color. Ideally, use a neutral color (such as white or grey) for the bases.The colored variant uses "snap joints" to enable printing in multiple colors, and you will need to connect all the joints before attempting to solve the puzzle. Press the male connector on each tip into an indentation on one of the bases. If they end up too loose, they can be reinforced with a drop of superglue (but this is usually not necessary). The joints are designed to be printed without supports.You must connect the joints in the combinations shown in the second photo, or you will not get the intended color arrangement. To help keep things straight, the joints are labeled "A" through "H"; be sure to connect each male joint to a female joint of matching letter. (Each of the four colors comes in mirror-image pairs, for a total of eight distinct types of tip.)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 DesignerStewart Coffin has been called "the most outstanding designer and maker of interlocking puzzles that the world has ever seen". He is credited with over four hundred designs, has pioneered numerous ingenious puzzle forms, and has written extensively about puzzle design and craftsmanship. More information on Coffin, along with many other printable models of his designs, can be found on the Stewart Coffin Puzzles overview page.Happy puzzling!