Parts

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We took a trip to Home Depot to buy some parts.  We were able to find hinges, and a variety pack of springs.  We were unable to find a glass/plastic material, and ball bearings.

Figure One: Hinges

The hinges were $1.98.  The hinges are 3/4 inches by 11/16 inches, as seen in figure one. They're small enough to fit the ideal size of the cube.  The problem with these are that the screws are as long as the ideal thickness of the walls, so the wall thickness must be increased.  The walls will need to have screw holes drilled into them.


The variety pack of springs were $4.37.  The assortment kit was most ideal to get so that there are a multitude of springs to test and figure out which was the most ideal.

TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $6.35

The Maze of Piggy Bank

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Figure One: The Maze of Piggy Bank
We bought a competitor's toy for comparison, as seen in figure one.  For $6.99, "The Maze of Piggy Bank" was bought from amazon.com.


Figure Two: Instructions

It took about five minutes to complete.  There are instructions on the box, as seen in figure two. to help aid in solving the maze.  It fits nicely in the hands, it is a 3.5 inch and 3.5 inch cube.  It rattles a lot when you move it.
The biggest problem with this toy is that the door is incredibly difficult to unlock. The door takes about a minute to open, and must be opened with precision or else the door will lock itself again.

3-D Printing Tests

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Our goal is to send in Creo files so that there can be pieces printed out to test.

Figure One: Cube

The a test of the main cube will be printed. It will be hollow and 5 centimeters by 5 centimeters. There will be 100 dots per face.

Figure Two: Test Pieces
There will be four test pieces tested out. Two normal face pieces and two edge pieces will be created with two different kinds of bottoms.  One bottom will be so it can fit over each peg and the other bottom will be a circle that will fit snugly in the middle of the pegs.  This will show which type of bottom would be most ideal to use with the ideal project, and it will see how well the edge pieces will work.



Current Problems

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How to go from face to face?

Figure One: Edge Piece

There can be edge pieces, as seen in figure one.  They would connect each face to face, using a single tunnel.  It makes it so there are less pieces overall.  Prototypes of this piece will be printed later this week.  

How the ball would go from face to the top face?

The edge piece in figure one would not be ideal to connect the side faces the top face since the top face must be able to come off. The edge piece can't simply be cut in half, or else there would be holes and problematic. 

How much room should we leave for the lock?

The insides of the cube will hopefully be large enough so it can just fit a gift card at most.  The walls are .5 centimeters each, allowing for 9 centimeters inside. Depending on how noisy the material of the 3D printed objects will be, there will also be a layer of foam inside. 

What should the pieces look like?

The pieces must have enough variety to be difficult, but not too easy as well.  There are 25 pieces per face.  There are many possibilities. 

How does the ball exit the cube?

Once the ball unlocks the chest, how would it exit? It cannot be released within the cube, because if the chest was closed while it was still there, the ball would be locked as well.