Snake cube (parametric)

After my printable Rubik's cubes, I'd been planning to design and print a snake cube - a puzzle which is basically a string of cubes that when solved form a bigger cube.

Before I could design it though, epideath uploaded his own design to Thngiverse, saving me the trouble. But when I started printing it, due to the details in the design I couldn't print it well using my Cupcake CNC. So I designed my own anyways.

More pictures and information here:

http://myshumi.net/2011/10/31/snake-cube/

The code is very simple, I just made hollow cubes and added holes to their faces. The code is parametric, so you can easily change the size of the cubes, the thickness of their walls and the radius of the holes.

The most popular version of this puzzle is the 3x3x3 cube, and 4x4x4 versions can also be easily found. Each puzzle has 3 types of pieces, I cubes, L cubes and end cubes, as shown in the schematics http://bit.ly/umkOIZ . For the 3x3x3 version, you have to print 2 ends, 9 Is and 16 Ls, while the 4x4x4 version needs 2 ends, 17 Is and 45 Ls.

I printed a mini snake cube with each cubie measuring 10x10x10mm. I printed them one by one, but I also uploaded a plate with all the pieces for a 3x3x3 cube in case someone wants to try printing them all at once. For the string I used a strong and stretchy poliurethan string. Assembling it took a look of effort, since the holes are tiny. I used a paper clip to help me pass the string through the cubes, especially the L ones. My printer oozes a lot, so right after printing each cube I poked the holes with a small screw driver to take clean them up while the plastic was still soft.

I wonder who will go one step further and print a 5x5x5 version ;)