The Quasar Puzzle v2

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As the creator of an innovative twisty puzzle design, I drew inspiration from a building-block prototype that my friends and I hastily assembled on a rainy day at our middle-school's Rubik's Cube Club. Observing how even non-cubers at my school enthusiastically interacted with and manipulated what we had made, I took it upon myself to craft a version that wouldn't disintegrate in their hands, one that was both fun and functional. To achieve this, I constructed prototypes out of wood, clay, Legos, and any other materials I could find. I also experimented with resin casting and mold making, continually striving to perfect the mechanism. Four months have passed since then, and here I am in July, with what I believe is the final iteration of the Quasar Puzzle. Throughout this project, I acquired valuable knowledge about Solidworks. After developing dozens of designs that looked promising on paper but fell short in reality, I finally hit upon a facepalm-ingly simple design that employs 8 x 3/4" 6-32 machine screws and 8 x 6-32 hex nuts to connect 8 identical 3D-printed parts into a seamless puzzle. The finished product is truly impressive, and I am proud to claim it as my first original puzzle design. I will be adding stickers to this puzzle in the coming weeks.