Puzzle Design Challenge

Kortney Klipstine
Intro to Engineering Design

12/4/15

Overview:
The Puzzle Design Challenge was meant to challenge you as an individual in many
different ways. You were to create 2 in by 2 in buy 2 in puzzle cube made of wood.
Its purpose is to challenge your creativity, sketching and modeling skills. It also
challenges your ability to create your puzzle pieces using computer software. This project
has taken me over a month to complete the puzzle cube.

Materials List:

27- 3/4in wooden cubes

Isometric grid paper
Orthographic grid paper
Pencil
Spray Paint
Wood glue
Sandpaper/Belt sander
Computer
Autodesk Inventor 2016 on the computer

Procedure:
The first thing I did before starting the Puzzle Design Challenge was look at the design
brief. The design brief tells me everything I need to know about the project. It tells me the
problem and what I need to do to solve the problem. The problem is a local office furniture
manufacturing company has no use for thousands of in that will go to waste. Their solution to
this problem is to have me design a challenging puzzle cube out of their extra scraps. After I
looked over the design brief I began to brain storm how many different combinations of parts I
could make with three, four, five and six blocks (Figure 8-9). Once I completed that I started to
brainstorm different ways I could make a puzzle cube challenging and yet simple at the same
time. I began to think of different ways I could combine parts. I was having problem visualizing
that so I built a model out of Legos and that helped me out a lot to visualize the puzzle cube. The
cube had to include five parts with at least four and no more than six wooden cubes. I created two
different puzzle cubes so that I would have options later in the process. I then sketched the cube
on isometric paper (Figure 11) I then choose my best cube and sketched a multi-view drawing of
that puzzle cube (Figure 10). Each sketch has to include a top front and right side view as well as

an isometric drawing of the part. The sketches have to be fully dimensioned so that you have
enough information to build the part. After you get your sketches done you can begin to start
creating your parts on Autodesk Inventor 2016 on your computer. Inventor will test your ability to
be patient and your computer skills. You will need to draw each part individually on inventor. You
start with a basic sketch on inventor then you can extrude that sketch to the specified thickness of
3/4in. After you create all five of your pieces you start an assembly in inventor and you will
assemble all of your parts to create the full puzzle cube. After this is done you can then start
putting together a drawing file of all your parts (Figure 1-5), puzzle (Figure6) cube and then the
exploded version of the assembled cube (Figure7). These drawings also have to be fully
dimensioned. Once the drawings are done on Autodesk then I started to create to the actual model
of the puzzle cube. I began by getting 27 wooden cubes, and then I started to create each puzzle
piece. I used wood glue to attach cubes together, after I glued it I clamped the pieces together the
help make sure that the pieces will stick together. I also used clamps to help make the edges flush
to each other. After I created all the pieces I used a belt sander to sand down the edges and makes
everything smooth and nice looking. The final thing to do is to paint each individual piece. I used
different color spray paints because I didnt want to use expo markers. I wanted it to look good so
I put more work into making the final product (Figure 12). After all that I finally have a finished
product and finished sketches with working dimensions.

Concepts Covered:
There are many different concepts that we covered throughout this project. Some
of the concepts include sketching, multi-view drawing, dimensioning, computer skills
and building a model. We used Auto desk Inventor on the computer to create a working
model and sketches. A big part of the project was using sketching and dimensioning skills
that we worked on in the beginning of the year. Our whole project was based on
sketching and dimensioning. Without our sketches we wouldnt know how to make each
part, without dimensioning we wouldnt know the size of the part. Overall, dimensioning
and sketching were a huge part of this project.

Summary:
I really enjoyed this project. It was a simple task but yet still challenging at times.
This project showed me how to apply the skills that we worked on in the beginning of the
year. Some of the skills include dimensioning, Multiview sketching, and visualization.
For me dimensioning is the hardest part of the project. I know the dimensions but
knowing where to put them is the hard part. There are so many different rules to
dimensioning, that makes it confusing at times. My project meets all the criteria that was
needed. If I would do this project over again I would make my sketches better and make
my puzzle pieces more complex. I would also make all my pieces interlock with each
other so that all the pieces would stay together and not just fall off the rest of the block.
One thing that I am most proud of in this project is the actual puzzle cube model. I think I
did a good job of sanding and painting it so that it looks good. When I sanded, I used a
belt sander so I could get all the edges smooth and flush with each other. Overall, I really
enjoyed this project and I cant wait for a more challenging project next.

Figure 1

Figure 4

Figure 7

Figure 10

Figure 2

Figure 5

Figure 8

Figure 11

Figure 3

Figure 6

Figure 9

Figure 12