Ring and Rope Puzzle

Ring and Rope Puzzle

The objective is clear: completely free the golden ring from the other parts and the rope (without using force, untying knots, etc., of course).

I saw this puzzle as a child at a classmate's house. I found it so fascinating back then that I rebuilt it several times. Here is my latest interpretation of the puzzle, this time from a 3D printer.

The puzzle is not too difficult and a nice introduction to rope puzzles.

Printing

I arranged all parts on a smooth print bed and smoothed the surfaces. This creates a uniform look of the parts.

If necessary, the parts can also be printed individually if no AMS is available.

Assembly

Two pieces of thick, tear-resistant string (approx. 30 cm and 15 cm, 1 mm diameter) and a little glue are needed at the end.

The assembly steps are shown in the model images:

1. Thread the long string through the side hole of the base plate and knot the end.
2. First place the golden ring on top of the base plate, then thread the other end of the long string successively through the oblong large hole in the base plate, the red cube and the red disc. Thread the string back through the second hole in the red disc and knot the second end of the string. The long string is thus fixed.
3. Thread the two ends of the short string from the outside through the holes of the two red rings and knot both ends.
4. Thread the first red ring through the rod of the base plate. Thread the second red ring first through the loop that the long string forms at the red disc, and then also from above through the rod. Thus, the long string and the short string each form a loop that are connected to each other.
5. Apply some glue to the conical part at the top of the rod and glue the sphere firmly. The sphere must no longer detach.

Note: If the knots in the string are not thick enough and risk slipping through the holes, a double knot or some extra glue can help.

Have fun puzzling out how to free the golden ring!