Abbott's 3D Maze

Product Info

Abbot’s 3D Maze is a 4x4x4 dexterity maze. The object is to get the ball out of the maze, and then get it back to the indicated corner.

The puzzle is a remake of a classic maze design by Robert Abbott. The puzzle is a 4x4x4 cube grid with holes between adjacent cells. The holes come in two sizes: small and large. The ball goes through large holes, but not through small ones. The ball starts at the marked cell in the corner. One of holes at the outside is a large one. This is where the ball exits. The brilliance of this classic Abbott design is that the maze has a whole bunch of interconnected loops. There is one place in the middle of the puzzle where one "inner" loop connects to an "outer" loop. It is very easy to miss this place and just keep wandering around.

The puzzle was custom-made by Oskar van Deventer on his new Dutchy 3D printer using a material called “3D-printed birch wood”. It is actually transparent PLA with a lot of very fine birch wood grain mixed through. This makes the puzzle smell of scorched wood. He chose this material because of its smooth non-plastic look. The puzzle takes twelve-and-a-half hours to print, 32 meter of 1.75-mm filament, and a 12.7-mm steel ball.

Oskar van Deventer has created many different puzzles including his brand of Oskar Puzzles which are mechanical puzzles and objects that can only exist thanks to 3D printing technology.  Since 1978, he has been creating hundreds of mechanical puzzles, making him one of the world's most prolific designers. Several of his innovative designs are commercially available.