An Easy to Make Tangled Puzzle

This is a very simple to build but fun puzzle, that you can make as a present or for yourself. ;-)

You will need a minimum of materials and only a few basic tools.

(Since English is a second language for me, please forgive me for the spelling mistakes I might make)

Step 1: Materials

Because of the simplicity of this project you only need these few materials:

• 4 beads
• a piece of string (at least 40cm)
• a small piece of wood (mine was about 10 x 5 x 0.8 cm)

Step 2: Cutting the Wood

1. The first thing you'll have to do ist to mark the wood. Outline two pieces of about equal size. I made two identical parallelograms but you can be creative with your shape. They should have enough space on them to drill two holes each. (In my case the two holes had a distance of 3cm)
2. You should drill the holes now while the wood is still one piece since its easier to handle. The diameter of your holes should be twice as big as the diameter of your string.
3. After that, cut the wood along your marks.
4. If you want, you can get as fancy as you like with your finish but I would definetly recommend smoothing out the wood with sandpaper. You should also remove any pencil marks left on your pieces.

Step 3: Adding the Strings and Beads

1. First you have to cut your string into two pieces of equal lenght.(In my case about 20 cm each)
2. Take one of the strings and tie one of your beads to one end. Then take one of the wood pieces and thread the loose end of your string through the first hole and back through the other hole. Then take a second bead and tie it to the loose end.
3. For the next step repeat 2. just make sure you thread the string through the loop created by your first piece before threading it back through the second hole. (look at picture 1 for reference)

And thats it, you finished your puzzle!

Step 4: The Challenge

The challenge is to seperate the two wooden pieces, without cutting the string or removing the beads.

Have fun!!! :)

Look at the next step for the solution.

Step 5: !SPOILER!-The Solution

1. Take one of the loops and thread it trough one oft the holes of the other woodpiece. (picture 1)
2. Once the end of the loop is on the other side of the wood you can pull the bead through the loop. (picture 2+3)
3. Now youre basically done. The only thing left to do is pulling the loop back through the hole. (picture 4)

Congratulations, you successfully seperated the two pieces!