Looking Glass - Tray-packing puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #184-A)

Looking Glass

Tray-packing puzzle by Stewart Coffin (STC #184-A)

Pack six pieces into an obstructed tray.

Looking Glass is one of many tray-packing puzzles by Stewart Coffin. It's somewhat unusual in that the pieces enter through a slit in the side of the tray, rather than through the top of the tray. It's similar to Coffin's related design Window Pain; but in Looking Glass the slit on the side is the only way in.

The top of the tray is modeled with a semi-transparent thatched pattern with a large finger-hole in the center, so that you can more easily manipulate the pieces and see what's happening inside. The pattern and finger-hole are purely aesthetic and are not relevant to the puzzle itself.

Printing Instructions

Print one copy each of coffin.looking-glass.pieces.stl and coffin.looking-glass.tray.stl. After printing, you will first need to assemble the tray, before attempting to solve the puzzle. The tray has five glue holes, and the tray cap has five pegs that fit into the glue holes. Put a drop of super glue into each glue hole, mount the tray cap securely onto the tray, and wait for the glue to dry. Then you're ready to attempt the puzzle!

The Printable Puzzle Project

The Printable Puzzle Project aims to make available high-quality open-source models of many puzzle designs. All of our models are posted with the generous permission of their designers and are licensed for non-commercial use only. Anyone may print copies for their own personal use, but selling or otherwise monetizing them is not permitted, and puzzle designers retain all rights as copyright holders of their work.

Our puzzles are modeled using the open-source puzzlecad library. The .scad file is included with this model in case you want to modify any of its design parameters; more information on how to do this can be found in the PPP Puzzle Modeling tutorial.

About the Designer

Stewart Coffin has been called "the most outstanding designer and maker of interlocking puzzles that the world has ever seen". He is credited with over four hundred designs, has pioneered numerous ingenious puzzle forms, and has written extensively about puzzle design and craftsmanship. More information on Coffin, along with many other printable models of his designs, can be found on the Stewart Coffin Puzzles overview page.

Happy puzzling!