Days 4-11 of the Advent PuzzleTree

Some of you may have been following on FaceBook as I post photos of George's advent gifts. Since I'm not open to public viewing, I shall continue to post them here. Today I give you a rather large clump of puzzles caused by a glitch in the editing program of blogger. When I tried to add days 4-5 last week, I was confronted by html code. I can't do anything with that so I gave up and let the blog post. Only later to realize there is a little button that got pushed.  Who hasn't been at this for a while?

On Day 4 George opened DDD burr set. Made by Darryl Adams, Brian Turner, and Eric fuller. It was purchased from www.Cubicdissection.com. There are 12 tiny burr pieces in the box. Of course the first thing he did was to enter the pieces into burr tools to see how many solutions there are for it. These pieces are tiny. about 1/2"x 1 1/2". Very small for my lovers big mitts. Brian has a webpage selling other burr pieces, I'm told none of which were included in the DDD set. 

Day 5 brought him 2-in-one puzzle Designed by Oskar and made again by Eric over at cubicdissection. As with the earleir puzzles, he chucked this one into burrtools but this time there was a twist. He didn't know the finished solution so he did a bit of creative programming of it. After he got the burrtools solution to work, he set about solving the puzzle. This time it was more difficult and required the aid of rubber bands and an extra set of hands. Our puzzle is now assembled (incorrecly) and on the shelf in my office. 

Day 6 was the tumbler puzzle by Jon Keegan. He did not like it at all. He opened the box and went straight to a video of the solution. After one botched attempt, the puzzle was thrown at me to attempt. I was sick that day and had a brain of mush. Needless to say, I didn't get far with it either. It now resides up in the metal room alongside the cylinder puzzles it was named after. 

Day 7 was yet another hit for puzzles. Back to something he likes. Get in the Box by Andrey Ubtjuzhanin. He initially thought it was a TIC, but after disassembly, he realized he was wrong. He made short work of this puzzle. It was disassembled and analyzed within all of 10 minutes. (He's a clever one, unlike his wife.) He then set about putting it into burr tools along side the other Advent PuzzleTree puzzles.

Day 8 was caged poly cubes designed by

John Rausch

made by

Eric Fuller

. It almost got tossed away because yours truly is an idiot and only gave him the cage. After a photo on facebook and some help from a friend, the cubes were found in the box for day 17. That would have been a long wait to finish a puzzle. Day 17 was then swapped out by yet another puzzle I had in my top secret gift hiding spot. FYI: burr tools says it will take two years to solve. It is now up and running on his desktop that he rarely uses. One day he'll be able to solve it.

Day 9 was yet another burr set. This time from Rombol. He has yet to put it into Burr tools. I'm not saying much about this because I am sure I'll post on his burr sets later. He's amassing quite the collection and burrs are like Berrocals. You can never have too many. Right?

Day 10 George received T-one by Osanori Yamamoto. I thought it would take him a while, but he had it finished in no time. He rather enjoyed it I think. There were a few twists and turns that I could never manage. But looking at this photo now, I do believe I have a 3D printed version of it up in the circular room.

Day 11 was opened and inside he found Stepping Burr by Eric Fuller. This one was purchased back in March so to be honest, I totally forgot I had purchased it. I'm sure it will go into Burr Tools tomorrow. Tonight he got called to dinner soon after he opened it. It was a fun one to watch him solve. 17 moves and a shake and he had it in pieces.

I hope you've enjoyed this week. More to come.

My Christmas Advent PuzzleTree

 Anyone who knows me knows I love Christmas. In years past I would go crazy from Thanksgiving evening decorating the house.  I married a self-proclaimed curmudgeon in 2018 and haven't really decorated since. Last year we had children in the house so there was a bit, but not a tree.  George has put a ban on Christmas trees because he hates putting them up, he says the needles get all over, and then there is the problem of disposing of it when the holidays are over.  (He even vetoed a live potted tree like I had in HK.)

In an evil plot to get around this ban, in 2019 I gave George a small puzzle advent calendar made by Professor Puzzle.  Each morning over our OJ, we would play with the puzzles.  He enjoyed it and I started planning my next adventure.

Starting around April, I started buying unique puzzles I knew George would like. In November I gave him my design of a Christmas tree advent calendar that I was going to build myself (not the word myself!). He jumped in and offered to help.  Our first version used plastic squares and 3d printed joints.  While it looked amazing and stood over 7 feet tall, it just didn't work.  You see, we couldn't get it to stand up.  

assembly

Overlooking his great work

Finished failed prototype

Scratch that idea.  Next came George spending three days cleaning his workshop and moving lumber around. When he finished that monumental task, he set about building my PuzzleTree.  I think it turned out just swell. To make it, he used flooring purchased at Home Depot and put in a lot of cuts.  It assembles much like the protective cardboard in a case of wine.  Each of the ornaments you see on it are also puzzles that I have either put together or built myself.  

This year he has decided to open each box just before dinner so he has time to play while I am cooking.  Hmmm.  Doesn't sound fair to me. So far he's been happy with what he's found.

Day 1: Tetra Contact

Day 2: Trap R2 

Day 3: T-Slot Burr

Day 1 was disassembled, analyzed, and Burr Tooled before I was finished cooking.

Day 2 is still sitting bedside.

Day 3 is now on my work table in pieces.  Perhaps he will put it together again soon.   

I shan't post the list of puzzles here because it's early days, but at the end of each week leading up to Christmas, I will post about his puzzling gifts.  

I wish one and all a very happy holiday season. 

A final plea

 Less than 50 hours left. If you or any one you know loves Crystal puzzles, Go fund this.  Let's make it happen! 

Neuschwanstein castle!

Happy Thanksgiving all.  Back next week.