A math-related woodworking project

[Alex Franke]

I did one of these with paper triangles with my son recently. This one, made of wood, looks quite easy to make, and I bet it would be a great project to do with kids.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/201...les-again.html

[phrog]

I was always pretty good at geometry but that hurts my head just thinkin' about it.

[cabinetman]

It looks more involved than it is. Not hard to make. A bit more challenging to assemble. IMO would be a good project for the two of you.

.

[atgcpaul]

It's funny that MAKE adds, "or just download this STL file and have your 3D
printer make the model for you."

Yeah, let me go run out to my 3D printer and do that. Kinda' like when Norm
would run all his work pieces through that enormous Timesaver sander as if
everyone had one.

[JoeyGee]

It's funny that MAKE adds, "or just download this STL file and have your 3D
printer make the model for you."

Yeah, let me go run out to my 3D printer and do that. Kinda' like when Norm
would run all his work pieces through that enormous Timesaver sander as if
everyone had one.

That's funny since the current TOH project features a house owned by a guy who either owns or works at a company that makes 3D printers.

I have a dumb question...once this is made, do you assemble it once and glue it, or is it a puzzle made to confound people? Obviously they have done a great job of confounding me already .

[Alex Franke]

It looks more involved than it is. Not hard to make. A bit more challenging to assemble.

There's a version with four paper (card stock) triangles that we did -- three of them were cut so that they could interlock the others. It was a challenge getting it together the right way!

It's funny that MAKE adds, "or just download this STL file and have your 3D printer make the model for you."

Yeah, they're really pushing the home maker movement. I've been seriously considering pulling the trigger on one of those 3D printers myself. Here's one on kickstarter with 11 days to go. The guy was initially trying to raise $25,000 to get started, and now with over 900 backers at around $500 a piece, he's up over $332,000! :-o So there's definitely demand out there...

...do you assemble it once and glue it, or is it a puzzle made to confound people?

Probably either way. For the paper one, once all the triangles were in the right orientation, everything kind of snapped into place (as you could imagine card stock "snapping"). It's as if all the pieces want to be in that configuration, and so once you get them almost there, they just go into that configuration and stay there.

I haven't done it in wood, though, so I don't know how different it might be... I have it on my list now!

[Alex Franke]

Here's a pattern for the card stock version that we did: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/201...triangles.html