My Mr Puzzle Limited Edition Burr

Lost Day, 2001 Limited Edition, Mr Puzzle

I had seen sketches of a 8 burr bounding frame before, but never actually seen one constructed until Brian Young, aka Mr Puzzle of Australia, created one in 2001 as a special edition.  This was one of my first special editions from Brian, and I have been collecting them ever since.

The puzzle is nicknamed "Lost Day", based on the time it will take to solve it.  Many people joke it is more like a lost weekend.  To quote Brian's website: "David Bruce designed this puzzle in 1985 and although he designed it by hand he did later have a computer check it’s assembly to ensure it was unique.  ...  The goal of the design was to make sure each of the eight corners was a different burr and that all were notchable burrs with no key piece".   The special editions for this puzzle are long gone, and about the only way to acquire one would be to find it on ebay or and auction site, or as many craftsmen might want to do, simply make it yourself.

 

AutoCAD for Mac Model of the Lost Day

This became one of the first puzzles that really inspired my thinking about making a habitable space.  The fact that each burr in "Lost Day" is different makes it nearly impossible to do at the scale of a timber frame, because it would be very difficult to raise and slide the timber and frame as you manipulate the puzzle.  This is easy when the sticks are a few ounces, but not when a 6 x 6 by 16 feet at about 130 lbs each.  On the Burr Puzzle Cabin, I made the burrs the same and designed them to be able to be assembled in a logical sequence, but when constructed it looks exactly like the "Lost Day" with 8 burrs.  Well actually the Burr Puzzle Cabin has evolved to 16 burrs when I added the roof structure. As you will see, it has become a lot more complicated.