A pair o’ bolts…

This week, dear reader I bring you news of a pair of bolts that arrived at Puzzling Times HQ recently. 

The first is a large, handsome brass beast to add to my little selection of Gillen bolts – Gillen Bolt #2 came courtesy of a friend wishing to unburden himself of a few of his puzzles – it would have been really rude not to help him slim down his collection a little. 

Bolt #2 looks and feels like the others in the series – it’s a big chunky brass thing that looks ostensibly like a heavy duty bolt… only a lot prettier! The only thing distinguishing it at first glance from the others is the number 2 stamped on its base. 

From the couple of others I already have (and the one or two I’ve played with at James’ place) I know that they increase in difficulty as the numbers increase… so given this is number 2 in the series, I’m not expecting it to be super complicated…

…and in some respects it isn’t – it uses a pair of tricks to keep the nut attached to the shaft of the bolt… and in spite of its relatively lowly number, it will keep an unwitting puzzlist at bay for quite a while. 

Having seen some of the later bolts in the series, I had a bit of an inkling as to what was up so it didn’t take all that long to have the nut off and confirm my suspicions… and drive a heap of respect to Marcel, not only for the design (it ensures that you cannot get it anywhere near solved by luck alone – this puzzle has TEETH!) but also the implementation, where there are a few extra little mechanical features just to make sure that everything works smoothly every time…

That’s Gillen Bolts 1,2,5 and 6 in there now… there a few more to get yet though…

I’ve dubbed the second bolt in today’s little bloglet the Morris Bolt (#1?) – I first saw a picture of this puzzle on FaceBook where it seemed that my mate Ali had designed a new puzzle in the shape of a bolt … at that point Oli had seen it and pronounced it good and the lads were saying that they hadn’t seen any other bolt puzzle like it out there… which really raised my interest levels – as if they needed that at all!

A quick note to Ali and my interest (nay, lust!) had been noted and a short while later one appeared in the post – with Ali resisting all attempts at payment. (Mental note – I owe the man a favour!) 

 

This is a rather large medium carbon steel bolt (according to Google and the markings on it) that stands 10cm tall – it’s a serious piece of hardware!

It has a suitably serious nut attached rather solidly to its shaft – with some sort of a grub screw holding it in place and presumably stopping it from rotating…

Finding this bolt’s secrets involve some wonderful little discoveries – including a genuine moment of sheer wonder when you ask yourself how the heck he did that in there…

One of Ali’s mates helped him out with some of the machining and apparently he wasn’t quite satisfied with them – all I can say is that he really should be – the work on these things is fantastic – the secret-y bits are very secret-y – you aren’t going to stumble across anything by accident on these puzzles… and you are guaranteed a “How the heck?!” moment when you solve it… absolutely brilliant Ali!

Thanks mate!