Free the Heart - Wire Puzzle - Wire Bending

A long time ago I have already made such a wire puzzle. Because of the contest here on instructables.com I decided to make it again!

At the time I did it with a slightly stronger wire. As a stronger wire requires much more force for bending und cutting, I decided to use a slightly thinner copper wire here. The fact that the joints are going to be soldered, this relatively soft wire gets a certain stability.

This wire puzzle - as far as the degree of difficulty is concerned - is rather an easier one.

This is a metal work that requires some skill, fingertip feeling and a good eye. As this wire strength is relatively easy to work with, it doesn't matter if you need a second or third try to get a satisfactory result.

For the construction of this wire puzzle you need the following material and tools:

• electric cable (NYM-J 3x1,5 mm² about 50cm, 1 copper wire, Ø 1,4 mm)
• various pliers (for bending, cutting)
• cutter (for stripping) and/or wire stripper
• ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen (Ø 10-11mm)
• soldering iron
• solder
• flux
• sandpaper
• small metal file
• a "third hand" can be helpful

Cut a piece of cable of about 55 cm. Then remove the outer sheath piece by piece with the help of a cutter or a wire stripper. Now you have 3 cables with different colors. You only need one of them. Now this one has to be stripped.

Try not to damage the wire core when stripping and bend it as little as possible. Small bends are difficult to remove and damage to the wire surface will spoil its appearance.  

Bending the first eyelet is the easiest. It should have an outer diameter of about 12-14 mm. All 4 eyelets should have the same diameter. A good aid to bend something approximately circular can be, for example, a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen. The diameter of the felt pen should not be more than 11 mm.

The wire remains in full length. There are no predefined cut lengths. Only when the second eyelet is finished bending, it is separated from the rest of the wire.

The remaining wire is now used for the "crossbar".

You can bend the first eyelet as before using a felt pen as a bending aid. The second eyelet is bent at right angles to the first eyelet. Doing it this way is not a must. Of course you can also bend the same way.

You can also work on the crossbar separately from the "U". This is easier, but then you have to open the eyelets of the "U" a little for insertion. Afterwards, the opening must be closed again by pressing it together.

Now, the remaining wire is used for the "heart". It is the rest of the initial 55cm.

Take the middle of it and bend them as shown in the photos, so that they are practically parallel. To get a distance of about 2 mm, it is necessary to help with a flat pliers.

Now gently shape the long sides into a heart and bend them until the heart shape remains stable. Only when the wires at the cross point reach the approximate length dimension for the heart, the protruding wire ends can be clipped off.

For this step you need:

• soldering iron (with small point)
• solder
• flux

To prevent the eyelets from bending open, it is necessary to solder the gaps. In addition, the relatively thin wire thereby receives more stability and the object is qualitatively upgraded! 

To improve the flow properties of the solder, it is useful to apply soldering grease to the wire ends. It is important that the wire ends are as close together as possible.

If the solder joint has become too thick, you can carefully sand it with fine sandpaper or a small metal file.

I hope that you will like the result and will enjoy it when you ask others to solve this wire puzzle.     

In this video you'll find the way ... how to free the heart!