MagnenautMade with 414 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.
Tutorial: Rigid Icosahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-07 | Made with 414 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.ZMS Victory (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-06-21 | Made with ~21,000 Zen Magnets. Photo album here: flickr.com/photos/51434923@N07/albums/72157670364840268
The ZMS Victory is a starship named in honor of Zen Magnets' final victory over the CPSC - as of June 12th, the ban has been permanently overturned! This is one of the biggest builds I've ever done, measuring in at about 53 cm (21 in) long, and as such it's just too big for my tabletop photo studio.
Apologies for any shakiness of the video, I did my best to keep the camera moving as smoothly as possible but I can only do so much with just a steady hand.
Thanks to Damian O'Connor (youtube.com/channel/UCwrcPWi30Yqa6k2mbj3OrAA) and to Dandrelin (youtube.com/channel/UC8mJwWG9wqvn_nHJ9MT86KQ) for discovering some of the structures that were used in building this ship.Tutorial: Hyperboloid Cube and Dodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-06-15 | Made with 600 and 1380 Zen Magnets, respectively.Tutorial: Grid Cylinder (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-05-13 | Made with 7106 Zen MagnetsTutorial: Truncated Octahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-04-27 | Made with 1176 Zen Magnets.
As always, leave a comment below with any questions, I'll do my best to answer them all!Tutorial: Rhombic 180-hedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-02-16 | Made with 8385 Zen Magnets.
I've gotten a couple of requests for this tutorial, so here it is! I'm trying to make these videos look a little more professional, so I'm using a new camera and including music now. As always, questions and comments are welcome.Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V12 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-02-02 | Made with 8895 Zen Magnets.
The Interlaced Polyhedra V12 definitely ranks up there with my personal favorite constructions. It's made of a stellated icosidodecahedron interlaced with a pentakis dodecahedron.
As always, questions and comments are welcome, and I'll try to answer everything I can!Tutorial: Pentakis Dodecahedron V2 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-01-19 | Made with 2760 Zen Magnets.
Today, I'm continuing to catch up on making tutorials for some of the older shapes that never got them. This pentakis dodecahedron is an exceptionally strong frame, as far as these things go.
As always, questions are welcome, and I'll try to answer everything I can!Tutorial: Nine Cube Lattice (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2018-01-07 | Made with 7501 Zen Magnets (as in the original shape), or with 7441 magnets as done in this tutorial.
As always, questions are welcome and I'll try to answer anything I can.Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V11 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2017-12-25 | Getting up to my old tricks again! Gonna try to revive this channel, assuming anyone is still watching. Expect more uploads in the coming weeks. I'm trying out a new format - every new shape will be uploaded with the tutorial.
This shape is made with 6228 Zen Magnets. It's a stellated snub cube, interlaced with a pentagonal icositetrahedron. That's a mouthful and a half, I know.
As before, I'll do my best to answer any questions, so don't hesitate to leave a comment!Tutorial: Alternate Diagonal Cube (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-09-23 | Sorry for the delay in getting this tutorial uploaded! As I say in the video, this is a shape that is geometrically identical to the popular "diagonal cube" shape, but magnetically quite different. Just as with traditional diagonal cubes, it can be scaled up or down almost indefinitely to make very large and very small cubes.ALTERNATE Diagonal Cube (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-09-20 | As I say in the video, this is a shape that is geometrically identical to the popular "diagonal cube" shape, but magnetically quite different. The one in this video used 858 Zen Magnets, but just as with traditional diagonal cubes, it can be scaled up or down almost indefinitely to make very large and very small cubes.Pentakis Dodecahedron V2 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-07-07 | Made with 2760 Zen Magnets.
I made a pentakis dodecahedron quite a while back, but I like the look of this new version much better.Pentagonal Icositetrahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-07-07 | Made with 1488 Zen Magnets.
This is a fragile one! The dual polyhedron of the snub cube.Tutorial: Snub Cube (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-07-07 | Made with 2352 Zen Magnets.Tutorial: Truncated Tetrahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-07-07 | Made with 528 Zen Magnets.Snub Cube (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2013-07-05 | Made with 2352 Zen Magnets.
It's been a long time, but I'm back! This snub cube frame was something I'd wanted to try for a while, but couldn't figure out the asymmetrical vertices. As it turns out, they're surprisingly simple once you know how.Wheel of 96 Tetrahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-29 | Made with 11,520 Zen Magnets. Sorry about the wobbly video, but I don't really have a good way to get videos of structures this large.
This huge circle is made out of 96 connected tetrahedra. The tetrahedra are made out of C60 spheres and pentagon tubes.
Like the huge octahedron frame I made a while ago, this shape is too large to fit inside my photo studio.Truncated Tetrahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-29 | Made with 528 Zen Magnets.Nothing too complex here. It's just a small polyhedron frame that (as far as I know) hadn't been done yet.DESTRUCTION Montage! (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-27 | Holy crap you guys, 1000 subscribers! I can't believe it. To express my thanks, here's a little something I put together - a montage of (almost) all of my shapes being crushed!Layered Icosahedra/Dodecahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-22 | Made with 11,040 Zen Magnets. This shape is an icosahedron, inside a dodecahedron, inside an icosahedron, inside a dodecahedron, inside an icosahedron, inside a dodecahedron (3 of each shape, and 6 layers total).Layered Cubes/Octahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-21 | Made with 5136 Zen Magnets. This shape is a cube, inside an octahedron, inside another cube, inside another octahedron. Simple in theory, tough in practice!
Also, I'm experimenting with adding music in my videos. Should I continue doing this for future videos, or do you like them the way they were?Tutorial: Sphere Matrix V3 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-19 | Made with 8831 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Rhombic 180-hedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2012-02-08 | Made with 7501 Zen Magnets. I'm not sure what the actual geometric name is, but it has 180 rhombic faces.
This shape is one that really doesn't want to cooperate. None of the subunits fit quite right, so there are some noticeably bent edges. As such, this one falls into that category of shapes where sooner or later you just have to say "close enough!" and move on, because it's probably not possible to get it perfect.Tutorial: Great Dodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-09 | Made with 3480 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Compound of Five Tetrahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-08 | Made with 5150 Zen Magnets. I tweaked the internal support structure from the original version, hence the different magnet count.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Small Rhombic Triacontahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-07 | Made with 540 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Deltoidal Icositetrahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-07 | Made with 1428 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Deltoidal Icositetrahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-03 | Made with 1428 Zen Magnets. Building new polyhedron frames can be an irritating process, but it's always worth it in the end! This is a Deltoidal Icositetrahedron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltoidal_icositetrahedron), and building it was an interesting challenge because the edge lengths aren't all equal, so I had to mess around with the scale quite a bit. It seems to work at this size, though!Sphere Matrix V3 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-12-02 | Made with 8841 Zen Magnets. This is the third "Sphere Matrix" I've created (not to be confused with the Sphere Matrix: stage 3, which is the final stage of my first Sphere Matrix).
This version is built from 100 small "C60" spheres, as well as 12 larger spheres made from 120 magnets each. The overall symmetry of the outer shell is similar to a truncated rhombic triacontahedron.Quadruple Crystalline Octahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-30 | Made with 8754 Zen Magnets. This structure is a set of nested octahedral frames. In contrast to the "Quintuple Octahedron" I built a while ago, this uses crystalline frames instead of the easier stick frames.Nine Cube Lattice (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-29 | Made with 7196 Zen Magnets. This structure consists of nine cubes. Eight are easy to see, and the ninth one (which is tougher to see than I had hoped) is in the center, intersecting the other eight.
Because the center cube is hidden so well, this shape has a pretty cool, albeit unintentional, visual effect, where it almost looks like the eight outer cubes are completely separate.
Credit goes to Flickr user Jimmo5842 for his "Ultimate Joint", which I used in this shape. Also to COCOAUB, since I was inspired to build this while watching his "Contest #6" video.Compound of Five Tetrahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-11 | Made with 5040 Zen Magnets. I did it! There's nothing quite like the feeling of retrying an old shape you had long ago given up as impossible, and finally succeeding!
The Compound of Five Tetrahedra, or Tetrahedron 5-Compound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_of_five_tetrahedra), is a structure made up of five interwoven tetrahedron frames. In the case of this specific construction, an internal spoke system keeps them held in place relative to each other, but the five tetrahedra themselves are completely separate and independent structures.Interlaced Polyhedra V10 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-10 | Made with 3024 Zen Magnets. Some of my "Interlaced Polyhedra" shapes can be grouped in to pairs based on their geometry. V5 and V6 are such a pair, as are V4 and V8. This one consists of an octahedron interlaced with a stellated cube, and as such, it forms a pair with V7.Small Rhombic Triacontahedron (Neoballs/Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-10 | Made with 480 Neoballs and 60 Zen Magnets. This is just the result of me playing around while watching Doctor Who. Nothing really groundbreaking, but I thought it looked interesting enough to get a short video.Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V5 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-09 | Made with 8868 Zen Magnets. Credit goes to Jasonbarnes711 for the original idea for this shape, and for the icosidodecahedron that I used in the original version.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Great Dodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-08 | Made with 3480 Zen Magnets. The Great Dodecahedron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_dodecahedron) is a polyhedron that, while relatively simple in theory, has proven surprisingly tough to build in practice. But here it is!Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V9 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-08 | Made with 4685 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Small Triambic Icosahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-08 | Made with 3465 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V8 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-08 | Made with 4702 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Stellated Rhombic Dodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-07 | Made with 3118 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Interlaced Polyhedra V4 (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-06 | Made with 4488 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Stellated Cuboctahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-06 | Made with 3156 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Caged Bubble Star (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-05 | Made with 6205 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Quintuple Cuboctahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-05 | Made with 5232 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Stellated Icosidodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-05 | Made with 6648 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Compound of Five Octahedra (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-04 | Made with 5280 Zen Magnets. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away! I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.Tutorial: Rhombicosidodecahedron (Zen Magnets)Magnenaut2011-11-04 | Made with 1740 Zen Magnets. Credit goes to dinofx35 for the original idea for this shape.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Or, if you've got a question, ask away - I'll do my best to answer everything as well as I can.