I once brought a friend a birthday gift, wrapped in paper with a pattern of the labyrinth. A friend joked that it would be great if we had really found a way to open the gift. We began to discuss how to build a mechanical maze, with no use of any electronics.
Thus was born the idea for the next holiday to create a postcard-puzzle. In this article I'll show you how to make it and what you need to take into account the subtleties.
Labyrinth in the process of passing. i>
Description h4> The labyrinth is a multilayer structure. The lower layer - the base of cardboard; the middle layer - self maze composed of matches, glued to the cardboard; upper layer - a thin Plexiglas. Top glass cover sheet of paper with the windows at the start and at the finish. Opaque sheet makes it difficult passage.
Labyrinth with skim the top layer. i>
The hole at the start of the magnet is laid flat. The task - to hold it through the maze of blind by moving across the surface of another magnet. A player with a magnet in his hand feels good, like moving a magnet inside when he moves freely along the corridor, and when it rests on the wall. During the passage of the player gradually draws on a sheet of paper the structure of the maze, step by step, learning of his passes, branches and dead ends.
At the finish of the lock is to be opened magnet. Hook holding loop, and that in turn fixes the bar with the back side of the labyrinth. If you rotate the hook and release the loop, it is possible to raise the bar and open the envelope with a gift.
Production h4> 
1. The chip is glued to a magnet. 2. The walls of the labyrinth of matches. 3. Glass. 4. The movable magnet. 5. cardboard base. 6. screws, nuts and washers. 7. The cardboard frame.
The arrows with the symbol "K" shows the glued joints. I>
For the base of the maze is very necessary to take a piece of cardboard or thin plywood. I had a piece of cardboard 20x30 cm and a thickness of 2 mm.
Base rascherchivaetsya grid with a pitch of 10 mm. On the walls are pasted grid of matches and pasted on the perimeter of the frame of the same thickness as the matches, ie 2 mm. Matches should be selected with a square or close to square section. The head office knife cut off in advance.
On top is covered with a sheet of Plexiglas maze. I took the glass of the display backlight laptop with a cracked matrix. Its thickness is about 1, 5 mm. It does not take too thick glass, otherwise the magnets are weakly attracted through it.
Construction contracted on the perimeter and in the center of the nine-screw M3. If a small maze, you can get by with less. It is important that between the matches and the glass had no significant gaps, which can be stuck magnet.
Under the screw and nut, it is desirable to put a large washer to reduce the pressure. Nuts are best taken self-locking i>, with a nylon ring inside. This nut is tightly screwed onto the screw, it can be only a wrench to tighten. But it does not unscrew by itself. Thus, it is not necessarily much to delay, so as not to push the cardboard and glass.
Magnet wandering through the labyrinth has a diameter of 5 mm and a thickness of 1 mm. With these dimensions it is free to move along corridors height of 2 mm and a width of 8 mm. Outside the magnet can take a little larger to enhance the attraction. For convenience, it is pasted into the chips, printed on 3D-printer.
The magnet can be purchased in stores specialized in electronic components, or online stores magnets.
The hook is made of fiberglass thickness of 1, 5 mm with a hacksaw and file. The thickness should be less than the height of the corridor (2 mm), but the remainder of the gap should be less than the height of the magnet (1 mm). Hook painted black marker to a more accurate type.
Next to the hook on the photo you can see a hole in the glass. It is made to the outside can easily rotate the hook in the closed position and the open - only a magnet inside.
The loop, which fixes the hook, made of narrow strips of paper coated with an adhesive tape. This strip is quite thin and very strong.
As it turned out, this lock design - not the most successful. If the loop is hanging free, the hook can be opened by a light push. If the loop is tight, then hook it will be difficult to turn the magnets. Those who want to raise their maze, I recommend making a weak free loop, and adjust the hook spring-loaded, locking the lock in the closed position.
To make the frame and complete the form you can paste over the back wall of colored paper.
At the end of the labyrinth glued to a sheet of paper with a light carved windows at the start and at the finish. On a sheet of printed marks at 10 mm to make it easier to navigate and understand where they can be placed walls and walkways. Without mesh features of the study sites much more difficult. The paper can be attached to small pieces of double-sided tape on the corners and in the middle.
To the present, it is necessary to make sure a bag of chips and spare magnets. Fine details get lost very easily.
Labyrinth assembly. i>
Features h4> The development of a puzzle to pass blindly drawing differs from the usual maze on paper.
1. As in any maze, a good solution - make a lot of long false branches dead end.
2. When the maze on paper lies before his eyes, the player will pass by all small pencil puffins, without stopping. However, blind passes them easy to please, and they also take away a lot of time.
3. Man intuitively tends to move toward the finish line. Therefore, in the labyrinth insert more places where the player wants to lead the magnet directly, although there is a right way to the other side.
Conclusion h4> Work on a puzzle took me a week, 30-40 minutes each evening, except for the idea of deliberation and selection of materials.
Maze I gave to a friend to the wedding. According to the newly-weds, it took about an hour to get to the contents of the envelope.
The game can be played more than once. Used paper can be easily removed and replaced with a new, and then offer a labyrinth friends.
Source: geektimes.ru/post/260414/
