Bruns Cluster Puzzle

This one intrigued me, and as I like to support Engineer Bruns directly, I ordered a copy off his website soon after it appeared. There’d already been some talk about it on discord, so I knew that I’d need to pay close attention to the instructions…

A few weeks later, my puzzle had made it out of Putin’s war zone, via Poland to the bustling metropolis of Barnt Green – which is all pretty mind-blowing, to be fair.

As you’d expect from Bruns, it’s beautifully machined in aluminium with a neat Bruns logo on the one end… it’s a handy size to avoid any repetitive strain injuries and not small enough to roll into tiny crevices. It comes with a sheet of instructions telling you that the object is to disassemble and then reassemble so that the following criteria are met:

-         - All pieces need to be the fixed to the central column, beneath the line indicated,

-         - Any threaded pieces should be screwed fully into their threads, such that

-         - The assembly is stable and vigorous shaking won’t dislodge any bits…

…which all sounds a bit weird until you start playing with it.

OK, so disassembly isn’t really a puzzle and you find a couple of end-caps, a central column (with said line) and a number of rings with pegs and holes… ah, so it’s one of those puzzles…

…and you can make some progress trying to solve that puzzle… until you can’t. 

…so it’s worth a Think(c).

…and sure enough, there’s something else to discover, and you’re on your way again…

…until you aren’t, again…

…now you really need a serious Think(c)!

I think the final solution is really fun – it does indeed satisfy all the rules and makes you work for your A-Ha!s. Bruns leads you up the garden path a couple of times and then sends you back to the drawing board again and again… you can’t ask much more from a puzzle.

Bravo Bruns!