Super Nova - Interlocking puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #14)

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

Super Nova
Interlocking puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #14)
Assemble the six pieces into the polyhedral shape shown on the cover photo. This is a considerably more difficult variant of Coffin's earlier design Nova. Like Nova, it is an extension of the basic Sirius geometry. But whereas Nova extends Sirius symmetrically, Super Nova is badly asymmetric, making the assembly much less obvious and more confusing.
Coffin wrote of this puzzle: "It has the same assembled shape as Nova #8 - the second stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron. With six dissimilar non-symmetrical pieces, now it becomes more of a puzzle." There are two distinct solutions; see if you can find them both!
Printing Instructions
Print one copy of coffin.super-nova.bases.stl and six copies of coffin.super-nova.tips.stl. Use one filament color for the bases and one (different) color for the tips. Then snap the tips onto the bases (before attempting to solve the puzzle).
The pieces are assembled using "snap joints": simply snap the male and female connectors into place. If they come out too loose, they can be reinforced with a few drops of superglue, but this usually isn't necessary. The joints are designed to be printed without supports.
Note that there are two distinct tip types that are mirror images of each other. In order to ensure proper assembly, the male joints on the tips are marked with the letter "A" or "B", and the corresponding female joints on the bases are similarly marked. Be sure that you only connect joints of matching letters.
The puzzle is modeled using puzzlecad, and I have included the .scad file in case you want to remix it.
About the Designer
Stewart Coffin has been called "the most outstanding designer and maker of interlocking puzzles that the world has ever seen". He is credited with over four hundred designs, has pioneered numerous ingenious puzzle forms, and has written extensively about puzzle design and manufacture. More information on Coffin, and a variety of other printable models of his designs, are available in the Stewart Coffin Puzzles collection.
Happy puzzling!