Excalibur Cryptex Puzzle
Excalibur Cryptex Puzzle
3D
Published 2018-07-02T19:12:27+00:00
This is a basic logic puzzle inspired by Excalibur and the legend of King Arthur, taking the form of a cryptex.
This model is an entry into the make anything puzzle design competition. It combines the features of a physical puzzle and a logic puzzle into one design, for the purposes of this model I wanted the solution to be pretty straight forward, however the concept can be taken and redesigned to be set to have any desired word with any number of letters as the combination and any complex shaped key. Unfortunately, due to how this design will need to be printed, the solution is found during the assembly process, once it is assembled however, the cryptex can be scrambled and it works as a great toy for kids, or a cool conversation piece and desk topper. This was very much a simple version of this puzzle; however, the design can be easily modified to make it more difficult for different age ranges.
The inscription around the top and base of the stone is a basic word puzzle which reads as follows: "The sword must be pulled from the stone by the rightful king of England".
The design is currently quite large with the height of the stone being scaled to 10 centimetres, the thought process behind this is it will give the cleanest looking final model with the best details, it can be scaled to a desired size for the final printing though.
Be careful with tolerances, the current scale of the model has a 0.25mm tolerance.
The disassembled views also show how the puzzle can all be printed with no/ little support material, as each piece has a flat orientation to be printed.
When assembling, the tower must be aligned in height order, then the cryptex must be aligned so all the internal slots line up, then the sword is inserted, and the letters of the cryptex are scrambled. This ensures that the sword is locked until the right combination is entered.
Depending on how comfortable you are with your printer, you may choose whether or not to use support material. Most of the parts are quite flat, but the internal cutaways do have a somewhat steep overhang, which may require support materials and then some clean up work to allow the mechanism to fuction properly. Furthermore the top piece has a cutaway from the bottom which depending on your printers bridging capabilities may require support material as well.
| Date published | 02/07/2018 |
Thanks! Very nice puzzle. Scaled it little bit down. Made 3d printing timelapse video: https://youtu.be/T4u4i3BhmVk