Maze Board

Browse around for inspiration, or share your work to inspire others!

Moderators: al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon

Post Reply
User avatar
Kayvon
Posts: 552
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:46 pm

Maze Board

Post by Kayvon »

I've never posted any projects, so I thought I'd share my first attempt at a labyrinth toy I made.

First, a couple views of the actual board:
Overall view of board
Overall view of board
Overall view of board
Overall view of board
The path is first traced with a quarter-inch bit, then a ball bit plunges down into the wood in a single location and traces the entire maze without retracting. The idea is that the marble can trace the paths, but shouldn't fall out even if the board is held upside-down.

In practice, this almost works. The problem is that the marble can also fall out at some of the 3-way junctions. So this aspect still requires a bit more thought and math, but the idea is sound.
Close-up view
Close-up view
Last edited by Kayvon on Thu Oct 20, 2016 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Kayvon
Posts: 552
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:46 pm

Re: Maze Board

Post by Kayvon »

[continued here due to attachment limit]

The maze I made was a 6-junction maze. I also designed, but didn't cut, a 3-junction maze and a traditional 4-junction maze.
3-junction maze design
3-junction maze design
4-junction maze design
4-junction maze design
Note that, in the previews, VCarve doesn't have the ability to model the full ball bit. It can only model a ball-nosed bit, ignoring the top half of the round ball.

BillK
Posts: 885
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:08 am

Re: Maze Board

Post by BillK »

Very nice idea.
BillK
http://www.Facebook.com/CarvingsbyKurtz
Instagram: carvingsbykurtz
Twitter: @CBKwoodcarver

gordread
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Onoway, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Maze Board

Post by gordread »

Those look really cool. My Sister-in-Law wants something like this, so it is very fortuitous that I am now able to ask questions of someone who has done it. :)

Silly question. How do you make Aspire/VCarve create the toolpath without retracting?

Also, did you make the maze by hand? Or did you find a tool to create it?

Gordon

User avatar
Kayvon
Posts: 552
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:46 pm

Re: Maze Board

Post by Kayvon »

To answer both questions: I wrote a gadget.

The gadget creates a maze around and within selected elements, being careful to stay a defined distance away. Then it plunges and retracts from a specified point, tracing every path at least once. That means the gadget uses both a maze generation algorithm and a maze solving algorithm, which is kind of funny.

I'm trying to determine if there's a market to sell boards like this once I get the process perfected.

gordread
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Onoway, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Maze Board

Post by gordread »

You have definitely done a good job. Well done.

Gordon

Post Reply