Free Mesmerizing Sheep From Entanglement

I have fascinated with the puzzle of entanglement. Sometimes it also called tanglement or disentanglement puzzle. It is a puzzle that involves a mechanical advantage to free a rope to entangle from the puzzle. For more information about this puzzle, please click here. Therefore, I have been challenged to make this puzzle with 3D printing. The reasons are right now most of the entanglement puzzles are made from wood and also I love making things in 3D. Why don't I combine those reasons to make this puzzle with 3D printing? No more procrastinating, let's start this project.

I share my design in Thingiverse, myminifactory, and Cults3d.

Materials you will need:

3D printer and slicer

PLA Filament (yellow, dark wood, blue, red, green, and white)

Hot Glue

Blue spray paint

Wood filler

Sandpapers

White Rope

Crochet hook, to help hook the rope when playing the puzzle

For the base, drag and drop box to the workplane. Make the length of 117 mm, width of 70 mm, and height of 15 mm.

Because we would like to make some poles to attach to the base and use different colors, we need to make a hole on the base to secure the pole's attachment. Therefore, the poles will be sturdy and robust when gluing. For doing this, use polygon and change the side to 6, so later you will have hexagon shape for this. Make sure the size of the hexagon is 9 mm because later we want to make 8 mm size of the hexagon for the poles. The height of the holes does not matter as long as you make holes on the base. Do not penetrate the hole to the bottom of the base.

Select all parts and group them together.

For making the end pole, simply drag and drop polygon to the workplane. Change the shape to 6, so you will create a hexagon. Make the size of the hexagon of 8 mm. Extrude the hexagon until it reached 78 mm height.

Use N lobe rod (convex) from the shape generator. Scale it to the size as shown in the picture. The important thing is the size of the flower should be bigger than the end pole.

To make the shortest pole, just use box and hexagon. Scale it to the size shown in the picture. Make a hole to the box. Scale the hole and group them together.

To make the medium pole, the step is the same with the shortest pole, except the length of the hexagon pole is longer than the shortest one. Drag and drop a box and hexagon to the workplane. Scale it to the size shown in the picture. Make a hole in the box. Scale the hole and group them together.

To make the highest pole, the step is the same as previous step, except the length of the hexagon pole is the longest than the others. Drag and drop a box and hexagon to the workplane. Scale it to the size shown in the picture. Make a hole to the box. Scale the hole and group them together.

For making sheep's head, I used my previous design. Click here for the design. Make a hole to the sheep's head by using cylinder. Group them together.

Save all parts into .stl files. Print it one by one. It is up to you to use the color of filament. I used colorful of PLA Filaments, which are dark wood, yellow, red, green, blue, and white. For most of the printing, I used 0.2 mm of layer height, no support, using raft and infill 20%, except for the end pole, I used 0.1 mm of layer height, no support, using raft and infill 20%. Total printing is about 4 hours and spent about 26 meters long of PLA Filament.

When printing, I experienced a failure in printing medium pole with using blue PLA filament, which the hexagon pole failed to print. I do not know what is wrong with that. I took action immediately by cutting the failed hexagon pole. So I printed the hexagon pole again. I sanded it first with sandpaper. After it smoothed, I used wood filler to fill the hole because of the failed printing. I waited for 10 minutes until the wood filler dried completely. After that, I sanded it again until all surfaces were not rough anymore. I painted with blue spray paint. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture when I was painting because my hands were painted with blue accidentally.

Glue parts one by one by using hot glue. First, glue the end pole with its flower on it and start to glue the shortest pole to the base.

Second, glue the medium pole to the base.

Third, glue the highest pole to the base.

Forth, glue the end pole to the base. You are finished making and assembling the puzzle now. Here is the result of the puzzle.

Cut the rope about 60 cm long. There is a hole in sheep's head. Insert the rope to hole. Attach the rope to the puzzle. Glue the end of the rope with hot glue and secure it with tape.

You are finished with your puzzle.

Please watch the video for the solution of this puzzle, but I show the solution in pictures, too, step by step.

With the help of the crochet hook, take out the rope to the hole of the shortest (yellow) pole. Bring the rope to the end of the highest (red) pole and bring it down. Stretch it gently.

Take out the rope to the hole of highest (red) pole with upward direction. Bring the rope in front of the end (green) pole. Stretch it gently. The rope is in the highest (red) pole now.

Take out the rope with upward direction into the medium (blue) pole, then, take it out to the highest (red) pole with upward direction, too. Bring the rope to back of the end (green) pole. Bring the rope down and stretch it out gently. Now, the rope is tangled in the end (green) pole.

Grab the rope with crochet hook and bring the rope to the back of the highest (red) pole with upward direction. Pull the rope gently. Now, your rope is tangled in the medium (blue) pole.

Bring up the rope until it is on the shortest (yellow) pole. Take out the rope with upward direction to the hole of medium (blue) pole. Pull and bring it to the back of the highest (red) pole. Stretch it. Pull the rope out.

Pull the rope out and bring the rope out from the medium (blue) rope. Stretch it gently, so now your rope is tangled in the highest (red) pole.

By using crochet hook, pull the rope out of the highest (red) pole. Bring it back to the end (green) pole. Pull it down gently. Now, your rope is on the base and you are freeing the Sheep. Is it fun or confusing? If you are stuck, try it again and see the video many times.

Happy puzzling and free the Mesmerizing Sheep!

For more project idea, visit 3D Printing Center.