If you like burr puzzles, here are four plans to help you create different six-piece burr puzzles, which represent the most famous, and probably the oldest type of burr puzzles.

The six-piece burr puzzles consisting of six notched rods of square cross section, forming an interlocking assembly of three mutually intersecting pairs of rods that are at right angles. Six-piece burr puzzles are the most known burr puzzles. Since there are many possibilities of how to notch each piece, six-piece burr puzzle is a very big puzzle family.

There are a number of different six-piece burr puzzles, even though they are quite similar to each other - all have the same shape, and most include a "key" piece. Of course, the pieces are different in shape so that each is solved differently. For most people who consider solving puzzles to be just fun, the existence of a large number of similar puzzles is no problem at all. Others, who take a more critical stance on this issue, find that solving puzzles similar to one another is not enough of a challenge.

 

Six-piece burr puzzle plans
Project type
Project difficulty
Simple, requires precision
Skill level
for advanced beginners
for DIY enthusiasts
Level of workshop equipment
Hobby – Hand tools, power tools and machines
Dimensions

 

Six-piece burr puzzle with beveled notches: 80mm (3.15'') x 80mm (3.15'') x 80mm (3.15'')
Six-piece burr puzzle with simple notches: 102mm (4.02'') x 102mm (4.02'') x 102mm (4.02'')
Six-piece burr puzzle without internal voids: 120mm (4.72'') x 120mm (4.72'') x 120mm (4.72'')
Six-piece interlocking puzzle: 120mm (4.72'') x 120mm (4.72'') x 120mm (4.72'')

 

Burr puzzles are not difficult to make, you can make small series using hand tools; if you want larger series, then we recommend that you make a jig that you can cut pieces with on a table saw much faster. The most important thing in the production of all puzzles, including these, is precision. We recommend hardwood material to make the puzzles offered here, and since you won’t need much wood, look for some leftover wood from your past projects in the workshop!

 

Exploded view and parts list
Six-piece burr puzzle with beveled notches plan
Six-piece burr puzzle with beveled notches - Parts list
Six-piece burr puzzle with simple notches plan
Six-piece burr puzzle with simple notches - Parts list
Six-piece burr puzzle without internal voids plan
Six-piece burr puzzle without internal voids - Parts list
Six-piece interlocking burr puzzle plan
Six-piece interlocking burr puzzle - Parts list

If you are interested only in solving the six-piece puzzles, you have two options: to buy them, or to download a free program BURR TOOLS by which you can create and assemble your burr puzzles and the program offers ready-made puzzle solving. If you are interested in their production, we offer these exciting six-piece burr puzzle plans with which you can make yourself a burr puzzles.

 

 

Standard six-piece burr puzzles

Standard six-piece burr puzzles are puzzles that do not have internal voids and consisting of rods with simple notches. There are 25 possible types of rods that can be used in a standard six-piece burr puzzle. Their appearance can be seen on the following picture.

Standard burr puzzle types of rods
Download project (high resolution images)

Submitted by Ceh Jan