Some Soma
As many of you may recall, last year I purchased a metalworking machine by Shopmaster. It was something that I had longed to get back into after leaving school. Since then, not too much has happened on the machine other than a few projects here and there. But this past week I had the opportunity to do what I would consider a "real" project. I made a Soma puzzle out of brass.
Soma is an interesting puzzle, invented in 1933 by a guy attending a lecture by Heisenberg. His mind must have wandered, because he figured out that there were only seven shapes (excluding convex shapes) you could fashion out of 3 or four cubes. Moreover, those seven shapes, totaling 27 cubes, could themselves be fashioned into a 3x3x3 cube, thus creating the puzzle. Much more information can be found on Wikipedia.
I sketched out my plan, and decided on a scale. Too big and it would get prohibitively expensive, too small and it gets hard to manipulate. A finished puzzle of 1-1/8" seemed about right. I purchased a couple of brass bar stock from Small Parts, Inc which ran me $30, with an additional $10 shipping.
When you chop off pieces, you must give yourself an extra bit of material to work within. After squaring off the faces, you can bring them down to the finished dimension.
After that, it's a matter of carefully removing material where needed. I took many passes and stopped within 10 thousandths of the desired dimensions. Then I measured and adjusted my finishing cut to try to be within 1 or 2 thousanths. I wasn't always successful, and it's amazing how errors creep in. It was definately a good learning experience.
Finally, after many hours of turning cranks and making measurements, I had my rough cut pieces and an enormous pile of chips
Some filing and sanding, and here is the finished product.
The amazing thing about soma puzzles is that you can make hundreds and hundreds of figures with the seven pieces. There are 260 ways of making the cube alone. Here is the "crystal", which can be made by moving just 1 piece from the cube.
And here are the gallows.
And here is a zig-zag wall.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I actually made two sets. The second was for my good friends Monty and Celeste, who have managed to get me great Christmas presents for each of the past 7 years. I really wanted to give them something cool, so I wrapped theirs up for the occasion.
Soma is an interesting puzzle, invented in 1933 by a guy attending a lecture by Heisenberg. His mind must have wandered, because he figured out that there were only seven shapes (excluding convex shapes) you could fashion out of 3 or four cubes. Moreover, those seven shapes, totaling 27 cubes, could themselves be fashioned into a 3x3x3 cube, thus creating the puzzle. Much more information can be found on Wikipedia.
I sketched out my plan, and decided on a scale. Too big and it would get prohibitively expensive, too small and it gets hard to manipulate. A finished puzzle of 1-1/8" seemed about right. I purchased a couple of brass bar stock from Small Parts, Inc which ran me $30, with an additional $10 shipping.
When you chop off pieces, you must give yourself an extra bit of material to work within. After squaring off the faces, you can bring them down to the finished dimension.
After that, it's a matter of carefully removing material where needed. I took many passes and stopped within 10 thousandths of the desired dimensions. Then I measured and adjusted my finishing cut to try to be within 1 or 2 thousanths. I wasn't always successful, and it's amazing how errors creep in. It was definately a good learning experience.
Finally, after many hours of turning cranks and making measurements, I had my rough cut pieces and an enormous pile of chips
Some filing and sanding, and here is the finished product.
The amazing thing about soma puzzles is that you can make hundreds and hundreds of figures with the seven pieces. There are 260 ways of making the cube alone. Here is the "crystal", which can be made by moving just 1 piece from the cube.
And here are the gallows.
And here is a zig-zag wall.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I actually made two sets. The second was for my good friends Monty and Celeste, who have managed to get me great Christmas presents for each of the past 7 years. I really wanted to give them something cool, so I wrapped theirs up for the occasion.
