Design by Peter Query

The Orion puzzle is derived from the Cube Cage and based upon a rhombic dodecahedron. The cube cage is made out of twelve rods which form six crosses over the surfaces of a cube. The Orion puzzle has in fact the same principle, but two times as much pieces. twelve crosses are being made out of 24 pieces. The crosses can be linked together to form a nice puzzle as shown in the figure below. As you can see the connection between the pieces is not right-angled but slanted. This makes this puzzle more complex than the cube cage.

The 24 pieces can be sawn out of wood. You can use several types of wood for this puzzle but pinewood would be fine for a first try. Take a beam with a diameter of 1,5 to 2,0 cm. The design of this puzzle shows two different pieces, twelve of each. The pieces are each other mirror images. All pieces have three notches. The angle of the two outer notches is 60°, de most middle notches angle is 70,5°. When making the pieces of this puzzle you can use the diagram below and the design graph.

If you construct the puzzle you have to make twelve crosses. For each cross you need two different pieces. After making the crosses you can hook these together to form the puzzle. If you look at the picture above you definitely find the solution of this puzzle.