Heptagon Disc Puzzle

Heptagon Disc Puzzle (small & large)

The object of this puzzle is to stack all the discs onto the base with all 21 pegs placed inside the discs peg holes, with no pegs left over or sticking out the top or bottom. The letters are only used for naming each disc and have nothing to do with solving the puzzle. The small and large puzzle are exactly the same. The smaller puzzle is provided here for those that want a small puzzle that can be printed faster on their printer.

There are 177,843,714,048,000 possible distinct permutations of discs, with at least 4,000 distinct solutions. Distinct solutions are those which cannot be inverted to produce another distinct solution. We suspect there are a great many more.

For those of you who like a less challenging puzzle, you might want to try my easier Pentagon Disc Puzzle. It has only 7 discs, 10 pegs, and 5 holes per disc.

You will need to print the following .stl files

For the large puzzle the following files should be printed:

17 disc files: 1 copy of each: Large_Disc_A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q.
Large_Peg.stl, 21 copies of this file. (Easiest to load Large_Pegs.3mf file into the slicer.)
Large_Heptagon_Base.stl (1 copy)
Large_Heptagon_Cover.stl (1 copy) (Optional, not necessary for solving the puzzle.)

For the small puzzle the following files should be printed:

17 disc files: 1 copy of each: Small_Disc_A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q.
Small_Peg.stl, 21 copies of this file. (Easiest to load Small_Pegs.3mf file into the slicer.)
Small_Heptagon_Base.stl (1 copy)
Small_Heptagon_Cover.stl (1 copy) (Optional, not necessary for solving the puzzle.)

Peg storage boxes

I have added a large and small peg storage box (optional). The files are:

Large_BoxLid.stl,  Large_BoxBase.stl,  Small_BoxLid.stl,  Small_BoxBase.stl

Printer Settings (Prusa MK3s+)

Common settings to all stl files:

   Filament:      PLA
   Nozzle:        0.4 mm
   Layer height:  0.2 mm
   Perimeters:    2
   Solid layers:  6 top, 5 bottom
   Fill density:  15% to 20%
   Fill pattern:  Grid
   Elephant foot comp:  0.12 mm

Support is recommended, but not necessary, at the build plate for the Assembly Cover and peg storage lids. The other parts need no support. (For the Large/Small puzzle, I also added a "torus" support blocker on the outside edge to save filament. It is not necessary to add this "torus".)

Seam positions:

   Aligned:  Pegs, Discs, Base, Storage Box Lids
   Random:   Cover, storage box bases

Filament color changes:

If you want to use different colored filaments as I did, here are the filament height changes for each model:

For large puzzle use the following values:

   Base: 10.2 mm
   Cover: 0.8 mm, and 1.6 mm

For small puzzle use the following values:

   Base: 9.2 mm
   Cover: 1.0 mm, and 1.6 mm

For the peg storage boxes the color changes are:

   Large Lid:   1.0 mm, and 1.8 mm
   Small Lid:   1.0 mm, and 1.6 mm

Inspired by the "Hexa Dowel Puzzle", by Creative MinerX, I proceeded to design my own variations to his original puzzle.  Credit goes to him for his creative award winning design. Check his puzzle out here:

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/28634-hexa-dowel-puzzle/comments#comment-181148

For those of you who would like a hint solving the puzzle, download and look in the Heptagon Disc Puzzle.pdf file in the Files section.