No Problem Puzzles, Update #3

No Problem Puzzles provided over 100 amazing puzzles designs for the community between November 2020 and April 2023 until the tragic passing of Symen Hovinga on 7 April 2023.  Theo Geerinck, the other half of the No Problem Puzzles duo, decided to graciously allow the puzzle designs to be made available to the puzzle community for anyone to print their own copy to keep the legacy alive.  Mr BurrTools himself, Andreas Röver, is currently in the process of verifying and publishing the stl model files over the next several months.  These are being made available on the Printables site under the No Problem Puzzles collection. 

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #2), the next 6 No Problem Puzzles have become available.  They consist of Boon, Sliding Doors, Pivot Window, Orange Perplex, Salmiak, and Vixen’s Antlers.  For this batch of puzzles, the specified level of difficulty varied between 1 and 3.5 on a scale of 5, with 4 of them being a level 3 or higher.

Boon

This months review celebrates the addition of 6 new No Problem Puzzles designs.  Boon times indeed.  And the first boon is Boon consisting of 3 pieces that need to make an apparent cuboid within a frame.  To make it interesting, the frame is not fixed but consists of 2 intersecting pieces.  No rotations are required, but I can attest to the fact that there are rotational shortcuts.  My recommendation would be to avoid them and find the more elegant non-rotational solution requiring 8 moves to remove the first piece.  It is rated at a level of 3/5.

Sliding Doors

When one door closes, another one opens.
    -   Alexander Graham Bell

Sliding doors is awesome and has a very nice solution.  It does suffer a little from potential shortcuts but if you studiously avoid rotations, i.e., tilting pieces, the Cartesian path is very good.  Unfortunately, some of the rotations are very easy to perform and you will be tempted even as you look at it and say to yourself, I really shouldn’t do this.

Sliding doors is an apparent cube 3D packing puzzle with the goal of packing the 3 pieces within a frame.  And like many of the No Problem Puzzles, the frame has moving parts (this is why we like the No Problem Puzzles so much).  In this case, 2 of the sides have a sliding door that gets in the way of inserting and moving pieces.

The solution involves shifting back a forth between the sliding doors.  Since the tops of the doors come to rest on the pieces within, sometimes only the thickness of the door will keep an invalid move from happening.  Don’t be tempted to cheat the moves by tilting the piece over the door edge.  This will make sense once you start playing with it.

With a difficulty rating of 3.5/5, you know that you can expect a good time.

Pivot Window

OK, I’ll admit it.  I struggled on this one.  The prior puzzles did a good job of setting me up and leading me astray.  I thought I had learned some key movements that would guide me to a quick solve and in the end all I learned were things not to attempt with this one.

Pivot Window is a 3D packing, restricted opening puzzle.  The goal is to cram 5 tetracubes within a 2x3x4 box.  The box has a 2x3 lid that not only rotates about it’s midpoint lengthwise, but the pivot point is on a track allowing the window to move back and forth in the opening.  This window adds a paneful element to the solution.

I spent a lot of time trying many things outside the box before I actually tried putting something in the box.  Don’t be like Zen.  Do some experimenting with the pieces and the box.  It’s well worthwhile. 

There are supposed to be 2 solutions!  How can it be so difficult?

I got all excited when I finally got all the pieces in the box.  I had a good 5 minutes of exultation before I realized the that solution was not an apparent cuboid.  The instructions didn’t say it had to be an apparent cuboid but the picture in the original listing showed the box looking completely filled and that had been my original goal albeit temporarily forgotten.  Ugh!

I’ve also found a second way to pack the pieces in the box but unfortunately, I’ve yet to discover an apparent cuboid solution.  If the intended Pivot Window solution is not an apparent cuboid, I agree with the 3/5 difficulty rating.  If it is supposed to be an apparent cube, I think the rating should be higher.  At least that sounds better than degrading my puzzle solving prowess level.

Orange Perplex

Orange Perplex is a perplexing orange consisting of 15 segments that are divided into 5 pieces with each having 3 segments.  It was entered in the International Puzzle Party (IPP) Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition in 2019.  The goal is to pack all 5 pieces together to form a complete orange.

The segments of each piece are connected at a different level within the orange from the other pieces.  The 2 pieces with the connections near the outside can be used on the first or fifth level depending on how it’s oriented.  Similarly, the 2 pieces with the connections halfway to the center can occupy the second or fourth level.  The final piece always occupies the center level but can go in 2 different ways.

Picking the filament color for this one was a breeze but my NPSO made me use orange instead of perple.  And I did have some printing issues that I’ll address in a later post.  If you’re undecided, my recommendation would be to definitely use supports with a raft.

Unfortunately, I did not come up with a clever way to solve this puzzle and ended up just cranking through the permutations until it all went together.  For me, the 3/5 difficulty level was an indication of the time needed to solve it as opposed to figuring out an elegant solution.

Since it’s print in place, it’s easy to distinguish the top from the bottom, which reduces the complexity of the solution.  However, you can always print a second copy upside down and swap 2 of the pieces between the copies.  Or you could just take the 2 pieces with the uppermost connections and flip them upside down and print them alongside the original 3 pieces.  It’s up to you whether you want to be nasty when you share it with someone else by saying that it’s a print in place puzzle while failing to mention that you swapped some from a flipped print.

I didn’t realize until I was ready to publish this blog that I failed to print the Orange Peel.  Yes, there is a spherical shell that splits in half that you can use to store the puzzle.  Obviously, it’s not required to solve it.

Salmiak

Salmiak is a type of licorice (or liquorice if you’re from the other side of the pond) made with Salmiak salt that is popular in northern Europe.  This is the second salty licorice puzzle that has been featured on ZenPuzzler.  If you have a good memory, one of the Picnic Basket puzzles (A Tisket A Tasket, Puzzles In – Akaki’s Picnic Baskets) was named Salmiakki, which is the Finnish spelling.

Salmiak the puzzle is a 2D 5x5 packing puzzle with 6 pieces.  However, the puzzle has been skewed on all 3 axes.  Why?  Because it messes with your squary mind.  I always find it fascinating how even though the skewing reduces the possible orientation of each piece from 8 to 2, it still seems harder.

Although black would certainly be the most appropriate color for the pieces, I used the next closest thing, Orange!  It looks so nice!  It looks particularly nice as a diamond standing up on end and probably deserves a stand to display it that way.  There is also a lid that can be printed for the tray but I can’t comment on how well it functions since I decided not to print it.  The stl file for the pieces was especially well thought out.  And the stl file for the lid was especially not well thought out.  If you decide to print the top, don’t forget to turn it over before printing.

Salmiak has a difficulty rating of 2, which seems about right.  However, it’s really difficult to gauge because sometimes you get lucky and most of the time you don’t.  For me, it was a relatively quick solve but a fun little challenge.

Vixen’s Antlers

Vixen’s Antlers consists of 6 pieces that form a hexagonal box.  Or is that 3 pieces that form a hexagonal box.  It’s really up to you.  The intent is for you to print 6 pieces and then glue them together in pairs to form 3 pieces.  It is also recommended to use 2 different colors for a nice visual effect.

As a 3 piece puzzle, the solution requires coordination motion to solve and has a difficulty rating of 1/5.  And as a 6 piece puzzle, it’s even easier since it no longer requires coordinate motion.  It may not be difficult but it’s very appealing, displays nicely, and is a great example of a coordinate motion puzzle for non-puzzlers.

This is the third blog post continuing the review of No Problem Puzzles as they are released on the Printables site under the No Problem Puzzles collection.  The prior posts and the puzzles that they cover are:

Preserving a Legacy – No Problem Puzzles

• Sandbox
• Swinging Lid Tray
• 3U Frame

No Problem Puzzles, Update #2

• Turn Around
• Unmatch Box
• Quinta Cuboids
• Dizygotic

If you don’t have a 3D printer, you can obtain copies of these puzzles from Nothing Yet Designs based in the US or the PuzzleguyStore based in the EU.

No Force Required – Gentle Interlock

It’s the season.  If you’re from Jersey, juno what I’m talkin bout.  And puzzlers will soon be reaping their own bountiful harvest of packages brimming with wonderful new acquisitions.  Last week was the momentous conjunction of events in the puzzleverse – Baxterweb, Cubicdissection Marketplace, Puzzle Paradise, and Mega Free Giveaways on the Mechanical Puzzle Discord (MPD).

The free giveaways on MPD have taken a life of their own and provide a means of repurposing homemade personal use copies of puzzles that would be impolite to sell.  Many are 3D printed and there has recently been a wave of some realized via LEGO.

Today’s puzzle is Gentle Interlock designed by Junichi Yananose from Pluredro.  Junichi has many more buyers than puzzles, resulting in his puzzles selling out in minutes or even seconds when they are released.  And he rarely has a second release of a puzzle since he is always working on the next design.  So he does his best at discouraging people from buying his puzzles.  In the case of Gentle Interlock, although there were prototypes of level 10 and 11, Junichi opted for the design with the lowest level - 6.  In his defense, he opted for this design stating that it had better playability.  As brilliant as all Junichi’s designs are, I took a gentle pass.

Fast forward to this year’s New York Puzzle Party (More PPing in the Big Apple – NYPP 2025)  where someone brought a copy of Gentle Interlock that gently tickled my brain and reminded me of this puzzle and how much I like burrs.  With that thought worming it’s way through my wormy mind, I eventually got around to pulling one from the replicator.

Gentle Interlock initially looks like a typical 6 piece burr but on closer inspection one end of each piece appears to be twice as large as expected.  This pushes the pieces away from the center thus providing more space to add bits where the sun don’t shine.  It also adds a nice bit of confusion since it orients what you may consider the center-facing side of the piece towards the side or even away from the center.

Since this puzzle was extracted from the replicator, it arrived unassembled.  Perfect!  The assembly is not trivial and it took me some time to work out where all the pieces needed to go and then how to assemble them.  Junichi certainly hit the playability goal he was aiming for.  However, I’m left wondering what the higher level designs would have been like.

Gentle Interlock was a fun puzzle and maybe one day, it will end up in a free bundle on MPD.

In Mint Condition – Dr. Bell's Curiously Warped Mints

Dr. Bell’s mind is jam packed with mind-blowing packings.  Why, sometimes he’s imagined as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast.  His warped sense of humor has now brought us a minty fresh take on edge beveled cube packing.

Dr. Bell's Curiously Warped Mints was developed by George Bell and used as his exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Part (IPP).  Each of the 6 pieces is 3d printed in a different color and comprised of 4 warped edge-beveled cubes.  The objective is to artfully cram all the pieces within an accompanying tin.  The type of tin that you would expect to find a nice assortment of mints to enjoy.  However, you are not expected to enjoy these mints.  The tin explicitly warns to not eat them.  So then why are they made with yummy colors like grape, blueberry, raspberry, lemon, lime, and licorice?

To get you started, some of the pieces are already in the tin and you only have to add the remaining 2.  Of course, I dutifully took all the pieces out and separated them before starting on my journey of 1000 missteps.

Being warped always seems like it should make things easier but it always feels like the opposite.  Examining the pieces, I noticed some interesting clues that I filed for possible later use and proceeded on without them.

The first step in these types of packing puzzles is to determine what type of packing structure is required, i.e., how the web cubes are oriented.  I struggled a while working on a packing orientation that would allow the cover to go on.  Then I unfortunately discovered something significant.  I was proud.  Or I should say the puzzle was proud of the lip of the tin.  I thought that this was a problem until I finally realized that when you placed the lid on, it did not rest on the top lip of the tin and providing a little additional space.  And after considerable effort I was able to pack all the pieces except 1.

It turns out that what I thought was a problem that wasn’t a problem was a problem.  Eventually I reread the goal and it said that the cover has to be screwed down, which screwed the packing approach that I was trying to accomplish.  I hadn’t even realized that the lid was resting on threads.  I now had nothing to be proud about.  Dejected,  I went back to the drawing board mumbling to myself, screw it ... screw it … screw it.

I eventually discovered another packing structure with a lower profile that would allow the cover to be screwed shut.  I also made heavy use of the clues that I had remarked on earlier.  At one point, I had a 3 subassemblies that looked like they would go together to solve the puzzle but would require coordinate motion to accomplish that.  Of course it would require coordinate motion coming from Dr. Bell.  However no matter how hard I tried, I was not dexterous enough to get everything lined up and moving like I wanted it to.  Curiouser and curiouser!  I eventually convinced myself that they would not go together using coordinate motion.  I was so close to victory, I could almost taste it.  Stepping back a bit, a minor tweak allowed me to assemble the pieces within the tin and screw it.

Once all the pieces are assembled, it truly resembles a tin of mints that are all stuck together and won’t come apart as if they were one giant enticing gobstopper.

It’s a clever puzzle and by the time I finally solved it I have to say that I ended up licking it.  Thanks Dr. Bell.

A Solid Challenge? – NotchedTIC

ARC TICs are extremely cool puzzles and most of the ones that I have solved have been 4x4x4 cubes.  One notable exception being MagellanTIC (Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC), which is a 5x5x5 apparent cube and an awesome experience.  And now we have NotchedTIC, which is a non-apparent cube.

There’s just something so satisfying about solving a Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC).  However, it’s been a while since I’ve tackled a TIC by Andrew Crowell, aka ARC Puzzles {https://arcpuzzles.com}.  In 2020, I reviewed a different TIC by Andrew each month, with December’s being CagedTIC 1 (Ending With a Beginning - CagedTIC 1).  That post also had the links to the other 11 TIC posts for that year.  Although there were more ARC TIC posts, they weren’t as frequent and eventually trailed off.  How did that happen?  Well sometimes I get easily distracted. SQUIRREL!!!  Squirrel? Squirrel squirrel squirrelsquirrelsquirrel…

NotchedTIC is a 3D printed 6-piece 5x5x5 TIC designed by Andrew Crowell.  It gets it’s name from each edge having a missing voxel in the center.  And the puzzle arrived disassembled, which is my preference for attacking most burr puzzles.

The pieces to this puzzle fell into place fairly quickly.  Piece placement was obvious and pieces were able to be added 1 at a time with backtracking where needed to add a new piece.  Assembling the puzzle takes 28 moves with about a dozen of them required to add the last piece.  Along the way, 2 rotations are required but you don’t need to worry as they are not complex and obvious when needed.  In fact when taking the puzzle apart, the rotations will execute by themselves as pieces scramble to evacuate the TIC infested region.

I would classify NotchedTIC as more fun than challenging for experienced puzzlers.

Although I bought my copy second hand, you can buy the 3D Printable STL files for NotchedTIC and 5 other 5x5x5 TICs as part of a 6-puzzle set from Andrew’s site, ARC Puzzles.