Lee Krasnow crafted this amazing puzzle at one time using some very exotic woods and of course his skills and high quality are unmatched by any craftsman to this day!
This blog however was written to shed light on my venture into the making of my version of the geometric design that is know as 'Five Intersecting Tetrahedra'. George Bell has a very cool PDF describing the math design for both versions.
Years back in the Renegade puzzlers forum, Stephen Chin had been tinkering with coloured pencils with his lathe and had sent me and others a stack of short pencils with magnets in each end with a little base? I messed around with it for some time with no luck until I realized the intended shape and of course that sent me on a lengthy puzzlemaking adventure.
I had four lathes at that time so it didn't take me long to start making round stock in exotic woods which I had on hand from pen/pencil making. Most versions featured a different wood for each rod and I also made some in Brass and Copper.
They really are more of a sculpture than a puzzle but if you ever had to put one together without a multi-level stand, you usually would end up with a clump of sticks!
The code name for this 'project' was PMM (Poor Man's Merkaba) which was obviously a play on Lee's 'Merkaba' version.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention and dedicate this blog to my dear puzzle friend Rolando Pontalti who is a very talented puzzle craftsman/designer from Italy that helped me a lot with this puzzle, Rolly if you read this, just know that we all miss you!
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