Grooved 6 Board Burr #3 & #4

Note from the designers site:

#3

This is the third version of Juno’s grooved 6 board burr series puzzle which requires 34 insane moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape. The difficulty of the puzzle is extreme and even disassembling is quite challenging. You can easily be disoriented and lose the idea whether you are assembling the puzzle or disassembling.

Puzzle solving computer program BurrTools says that it has 1676 assemblies and a unique level 34-9-9-6-2 solution but there is at least one shortcut solution to remove the second piece from the assembled shape using a rotational movement. Thus, we simply say that it is a level 34 burr. #1 was level 22 and #2 was a relatively easy level 25, so these numbers will indicate to you how tough #3 would be.

Our original plywood of New Guinea Walnut and European Beech is used for the main part of the puzzle and its white eight teeth that are hidden when the puzzle is assembled are made of Silver Ash. It was a bit challenging to produce the puzzle pieces because they have grooves on the side. Concave for the teeth parts were also having to be shaped out by a CNC router not to lose decent accuracy. The puzzle required time-consuming work and we produced more numbers than #1 and #2 to keep the retail price the same as the former series.

#4

We have produced Grooved 6 Board Burr #1, #2 and #3 in the past and #4 is the hybrid version of the former three designs. The rounded pins and the flat pins are extruding to X, Y and Z directions and the grooves are on the side and the surface of the pieces. There is also a sort of step on a couple of pieces but most of these features are hidden inside once the puzzle is assembled.

The puzzle has a unique level 28-10-5-3 and we can say that it is easier than #3 because of fewer steps and possible assemblies of the pieces. But it doesn’t mean the puzzle is easy at all. We can guarantee you that it is a hard puzzle and just disassembling the burr is quite a tough challenge. Reassembling the burr without any clue is almost beyond a human’s ability.

It was the first time for Juno to use Hickory for our puzzle products. He loved its durability and the character that the surface can be very smooth. He wanted to make sure which of the following two options, using our original plywood or adding reinforcement splines on the end of the pieces, are optimal for puzzle production since he took the latter option long ago when we produced #1, and didn’t remember how much work and effort were needed at the time. So, he decided to use Rose Alder for the reinforcement and as a result, the production process took a lot longer than using our original plywood, the use of material was economical though. We may not take the option to use reinforcement spline again.