4x4 Colour Dot Puzzle

Hey, this one is for all you puzzle fanatics out there!!

So I've been conjuring up a few game designs recently and I came up with this 1 player game puzzle that I find quite interesting basically if a Rubik's cube and a 15 puzzle had a baby this would most probably be the result.

The aim of the game is to rearrange the 16 coloured tiles in a way that all the 4 different colour tiles form four 2x2 squares within a 4x4 square.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

This 4x4 Colour Dot Puzzles 3D printable files have since been updated with a faster printing smaller more reliable design

The initial files are still available but I recommend downloading the new improved design files at the bottom of this Instructable in the Update section.

The whole puzzle is 3D printed so you dont need anything other than a 3D printer and some filament to construct this puzzle

For this instructable you will need 6 different colour filaments I used PLA feel free to choose your own custom colour combination the one I made consisted of these colours

• Black
• White
• Red
• Green
• Blue
• Yellow

All the STL files for the puzzle are available to download below they are available either in group printing format or as individual parts

I used a Creality Ender 3 FDM 3D printer to do the job

Infill: 15%

Layer Height: 0.3mm

No brims rafts or supports should be necessary

For group printing print the following files in the following colours

BLACK : GROUP BASE X2

WHITE : GROUP STICK X8

RED : GROUP TILES X4 & INDIVIDUAL CLIP

GREEN : GROUP TILES X4 & INDIVIDUAL CLIP

BLUE : GROUP TILES X4 & INDIVIDUAL CLIP

YELLOW: GROUP TILES X4 & INDIVIDUAL CLIP

Congratulations now you have all the parts you need to build this puzzle

Now this is the tricky bit as the sticks fit quite tightly into the bases for the sticks to be able to slide with a bit of friction.

The best way to insert the 8 sticks in to the 2 bases is to slightly bend the bases and force clip the sticks in place using pliers as shown

Now its time to place the tiles inside the bases

Place them so as that the tiles are already in their finished position as shown

The clips clip everything together quite tightly its best to slightly bend one side of the clips with pliers to ease their insertion into their slots in the bases.

When inserting the clips make sure each different colour clip is clipped in to the slot next to their 4 designated tile colours

So there you have it now its time to mess the colour pattern up and see how long it takes you to reorganise the tiles to make the initial pattern again it seems hard at first but after a while I'm sure you will get the hang of it and master the technique of solving this 4x4 Colour Dot Puzzle!

This 4x4 Colour Dot Puzzle has since been updated with a second version V2.

This version is faster to print, more compact and more reliable.

For the assembly it is identical to the first version.

All the STL files for the puzzle V2 are available to download below they are available either in group printing format or as individual parts.

I used a Creality Ender 3 FDM 3D printer to do the job

• Infill: 15%
• Layer Height: 0.3mm
• No brims rafts or supports should be necessary

For group printing print the following files in the following colours

BLACK : GROUP BASE X2 V2

WHITE : GROUP STICK X8 V2

RED : GROUP TILES X4 & CLIP (WITH BRIM) V2

GREEN : GROUP TILES X4 & CLIP (WITH BRIM) V2

BLUE : GROUP TILES X4 & CLIP (WITH BRIM) V2

YELLOW: GROUP TILES X4 & CLIP (WITH BRIM) V2

After printing the brim on the tiles will need to be peeled off.