Moving Maze

i saw this build on Opitec and i found it incredibly cool, but the dimension of the wood were a bit weird so you have to buy the wood from them. i found this a bit irritating so i made my own with dimension of wood can you buy at your local store, without having to alter them. it is a fun but also very challenging game.

tools

1. handsaw
2. miter saw
3. jigsaw
4. orbital sander
5. drill

material

1. pencil
2. tape measure
3. speed square (or normal ruler)
4. wood glue
5. 4 and 6 diameter drill bits
6. forstner bit 20mm
7. painters tape
8. sandpaper
9. superglue
10. rope
11. marble

wood

1. plywood 122x61x4mm
2. plywood 122x61x8mm
3. strip of wood 4x9mm
4. strip of wood 27x9mm
5. dowel rod 6mm
6. dowel rod 4mm
7. scrap wood of 2cm thick

the first step is to make the first box, this is the box that is going to be on the outside. this is made out of the plywood of 8mm. i cut the parts out ( all the dimension are in the photos) and taped the longest two together with painters tape so all the cut would be equal. then i drilled two holes, one 4mm and the other one 6mm, marked where i needed to cut and did this with a jigsaw. the smaller two i did the same but then i drilled one hole of 6mm. put them together with woodglue and let it dry overnight. when it was dry i sanded it.( sorry i forgot to make the exact photos for this, i also did this later because the wood had not been delivered, but i would recommend doing this as step one

the next step is to make the second box. cut the strip of wood to length on my miter saw and taped the long ones together and the shorter ones too. and drilled a 4mm hole in both sets of wood, and cut out the parts with a jisaw. and again glued them together with woodglue, let it dry overnight, and sanded it when it was dry

all the boxes are kind of the same, with this box i cut the wood on my miter saw with a 45 degree angle. drilled a 4mm hole in the both of the shortest parts. and you know probably what to do know, glue them together, let it dry overnight and when its dry, sand it.

finally something different. now were making the playing field, this is the pattern that Opitec made, but you can change it to however you want! so do what you want! cut out a 140x240mm part out of the 4mm plywood. taped the pattern with painters tape to the plywood and cut out the circles with a 20mm forstnerbit. sanded (as much as i could) the edges of the circles. from the 4x9mm wood i cut out multiple sizes and connected them to the board with woodglue, you can also change this to however you like! i also glued the third box on the multiplex.

cut out 25mm parts out of the 4mm dowel rod and cut with a handsaw 4 circles with a diameter of 20mm and a drilled a 4mm hole in each one. between the boxes i put the circles and connected them with the dowels.

cut the 6mm dowel rods to size (310mm and the other one 210mm) and cut with a jigsaw 4 pieces of 2cm thick scrapwood with a diameter of 30mm. put them trough the holes (as shown in the pictures) and added the cirkels on the end. this will be the part that you will be turning.

the last step is to make them actually move i did this to cut 3 pieces of string around 200mm each and wrap each one 3 or 4 times around the dowel rod. each piece of string in used of one dowel rod. connected the string to the underside of the playing board with superglue

and it is done! i absolutely loved making this. it is fun but surprisingly difficult to actually play. because you have to move the rods to move the marble side to side, or up and down you really have to think, that is what i think makes it so fun! have fun making!