001 / Octagonal Barrel | Rubik's Cube Build Video
So you wanna build a "Rubik's Cube" as the layman say?
Twistypuzzles come in many shapes and forms. The mechanisms inside that allow those puzzles to turn can remain functional even when most of the outside is removed. Because of this (with a few limitations) you can transform the outside into whatever you want with just a few basic rounds of cutting and filling.
The Octagonal Barrel isn't actually much of an amazing puzzles. I've literally built them by accident numerous times. But it has a few key things going for it.
There are only four cuts, one on each edge surrounding one axis. And those cuts are at 45° which is the maximum table tilt for pretty much any bandsaw you can buy today. If you don't have a bandsaw 45° is pretty easy to eyeball too. Then it's just a round of filling up all the pieces you've cut through, which is about as easy breathing. Then sanding then stickers aaaaaaand you're done! Thats really it.
But it's more than just "easy"
Cutting cubes isn't smooth sailing. The pieces are hollow with hidden caps and lots of movable pieces. Safely cutting though them isn't intuitive and the larger the puzzle the more likely it is to do something dangerous. Soooo in the interest of harm minimisation, starting out with a small simple puzzle is a cheap and easy way to get introduced to puzzle modding. Without breaking the bank or your hands.
Not only that! This puzzle is the precursor to another staple of Twistypuzzles. The Fisher cube. And from there the Fisher Cube can be modded into the Slice Cube, or a House Cube, or an Inverted House Cube..... And the list goes on and on and on. Basically this is it, the best bang for the proverbial "buck" of getting you comfortable with building puzzles.
If you nail it try another. If you don't nail it, try again. And maybe, juuusst maybe. You might start making videos like me :D
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