Is This Possible Impossible?
by Maker Experiment in Workshop > Laser Cutting
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Is This Possible Impossible?
When I was a kid, I loved putting together puzzles. I decided to try and make a puzzle that is difficult, and by difficult, I may mean impossible. After many hours of trying to assemble this puzzle, I am still not done!
A friend of mine had made a puzzle out of clear acrylic that had no design and was just clear pieces that needed to be assembled together. At first I thought it may be a difficult puzzle and then I had an idea. I started by designing a puzzle with a design on one side of clear acrylic. After looking at the design, I thought it would be too easy to assemble. I wanted to make a puzzle that was difficult and possibly even impossible. Therefore, I decided to engrave the same design on the opposite side and rotate it 90 degrees to make it more difficult. This design has been the most difficult puzzle that I have ever tried to assemble and I challenge you to try and complete it!
GET YOUR OWN IMPOSSIBLE PUZZLE
LASER MACHINE SETTINGS
- Laser specs: 60 watt Epilog Fusion M2 40
- Vector Engraving: 60% speed, 40% power
- Vector Cutting: 10% speed, 100% power, 2500 frequency (100%)
- Engraving time: 7.5 minutes per side
Supplies
Acrylic: Clear Cast Acrylic USE CODE: 9PLB46 TO SAVE 5%
Designing the Puzzle
For this puzzle, I decided to take one of my more complicated designs and turn it into a puzzle. I used a puzzle generator to create the puzzle pieces in combination with some manual editing to get the circular shape. I used vector engraving on this design for two reasons.
1. I wanted it to be as intricate as possible. Creating a vector line engraving makes it harder to see the design than a normal raster fill engraving would have.
2. Speed. Vector engraving the design is much faster than raster engraving and helps me make the puzzle in a fraction of the time.
Engrave the Design Onto the Acrylic
For this project, I used 1/8" clear cast acrylic. I had seen a lot of clear acrylic puzzles just cut into pieces, but adding an engraving to a clear puzzle, on both sides, makes it that much harder.
Once I engraved the design on one side, I flipped the acrylic over and turned the puzzle 90 degrees. To make this as complicated as possible, I thought that offsetting the designs from each other would make it more difficult to see where the design is supposed to go and where pieces line up.
Spoiler alert, I was right.
Cut the Puzzle Into Pieces
Once the puzzle has been engraved, the next step is to cut it into pieces. This puzzle had over 200 pieces and some are very small. After cutting the pieces, clean them all up so they are nice and clear.
Test Your Skills
Now that your puzzle is made, test your skills by assembling the puzzle! I'll be the first to admit that I never managed to get it together after 10+ hours of trying. It was much more difficult than I expected. Good luck!
I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did. If you want to see more from me, feel free to follow me on other social media:
If you are inspired by this project to make your own puzzle, please share it here. I love seeing other people's completed projects. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask in the comments below!