My
Exploding Ball Puzzle has arrived in polished white, strong and flexible. I am very happy with this new material. With the old WSF, I found that I needed to sand the pieces in order to get the puzzle to work properly. In the polished WSF, it works perfectly.
This puzzle is made from 10 identical pieces which I have dyed in 5 different colors. This model includes a small icosahedron which fits nicely inside. The hollow version you see in polished SWF, and the translucent one was printed by a friend using an SD 300 printer. The icosahedron has also been sized so that one can use a standard Game Science D20 die. On the yellow pieces, you can see strange black marks which are caused by dyeing pieces that are hollow with trapped powder inside. This has happened to me before, but the good news is that in the past these dark areas have gone away after a month of drying.
It is hard to see in the photos, but the pieces are much smoother than standard WSF. It seems to me that some of the smoothness went away with the dying, they seem slightly rougher now. The dyeing process works well even with the polished material. It is hard to see in the photos, but the surface is almost shiny from some angles.
The wood version of this puzzle has a unique and fascinating property. If you spin it, it will spin for a second or more and then suddenly explode into pieces. The first time you see this it is quite a shock. This property is difficult to reproduce in the 3D printed versions of the puzzle. Even my sanded SWF versions always explode immediately upon spinning, or not at all.
I am happy to say that the polished WSF version of this puzzle is the first 3D printed version to explode properly like the wood versions. I am very happy with this new material, it has made this puzzle possible!