Maze

Hi, I'm David Tapias, and since my childhood, I have always loved creating mazes. If you checked my notebooks, the last pages always had some maze drawings. Sometimes, I imagined little extra obstacles like doors, keys, portals, etc. Cardboard is perfect for creating many things, so I remembered my mazes and took this opportunity to create a cardboard maze.

1. Cardboard (70cm x 50cm, 0.3cm thick)
2. Paper (Legal size)
3. Carbon paper (Legal size)
4. Acetate paper (Legal size)
5. Masking tape
6. Silicon
7. 1 pencil
8. 1 pen without ink
9. 1 Scissors
10. 1 Cutter
11. 1 Cutting board
12. 1 Steel ruler (50cm)
13. 1 ball ( size < 1cm)

I designed the maze using a legal paper grid, just like in my childhood. This process is very quick for me; every four squares equal 2 cm. The squares inside the maze (1 cm x 1 cm) will be holes, and I created a small paper template for that. You don't need it because I will share the template with you to print or draw, you choose.

1. If you are using old cardboard, check the inside corrugation and choose the best quality.
2. Always use the scissors to cut paper and to cut cardboard ONLY if it is a small piece and the cut is horizontal to the corrugation.
3. Never use a plastic ruler to cut cardboard with a cutter. It can be dangerous.

Use the template, check the measurements and cut it. The letters I and F is to indicated the start and end of maze, but those differences are not required, because you can play starting from F or I, so you will use the maze as two mazes.

Use the cutter and cut a cardboard rectangle as shown.

Again, use the cutter and cut a cardboard rectangle as shown.

The maze had two parts, the first part is a general base(rectangle, step 4) where the ball is picked up when it falls into a hole, and the second part is the maze (rectangle, step 5). Our maze has the inputs/outputs on the left hand and the ouput when the ball falls too. Cut the pieces using the measurements.

There are two parts for each long side, first glue those parts of each long side as shown.

These parts will give the height of the maze.

First, glue the rigth side as shown.

Glue the two long sides, use the maze base to slide it over the heigth and adjust the long sides if it is required.

Glue the left side as shown.

Well, we are finished the General base.

Take the cardboard base maze, put over base maze the carbon paper, now, put the template over the carbon paper, the template must get spaces on the outline as shown.

Join the papers to the cardboard using the masking tape.

Now, draw over template following the lines and squares.

Remove the tapes and papers to check if the result left perfect

You should be very careful in this step. The cardboard has three layers, so, use the cutter to mark the square, remove the first layer, if you turn the cardboard over, you will see some marks use them to cut again.

After making all square holes, use a pencil to round the edges of the holes, and test each hole with the ball.

Important: Cut the walls vertically to the corrugated direction

Use the cutter to cut pieces of cardboard to make walls, the height for each wall must be 1cm. I recomend take the measurement of the most long wall and cut a lot rectangles with that size.

Do you remember the little spaces on the outline ?, well, those spaces (0.3cm) will be using to glue the borders maze.

Put the wall on each line and draw a mark to cut the real size, while you put each wall to 90 deggrees every wall should be left standing, if there is a fix, I recommend adjust it using the scissors.

I recommend using scissors to make walls, it's more comfortable and faster.

After to get all walls, now use the glue.

Cut the borders using the measurements and glue them as shown.

Cut three cardboard pieces and glue them as shown.

Glue handle using the base and border maze as shown.

Insert the maze into the base, put the acetate paper over the maze and take measurements.

Use the pen without ink to make the marks and fold the acetate paper.

Cut the corners as shown.

Important: The weight of the acetate paper can create a curve. You should adjust this, so, apply a little tension on one side to keep it tight.

After to get the perfect size with the tension, use ONLY the sides to glue the acetate paper as shown.

I found some stickers, so I used a sticker for the maze inputs/outputs. Now, you can create different mazes and use the general base to insert them.

Important: If you want to create other maze designs, the only strict requirement is that the inputs/outputs must be on the left side. You could also create just one input and assign a hole as output, but in that case, it would be a strict single maze.

Watch the video to see the solutions.

Now, it's time to play!