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"Ring through a spring" brain teaser/trick...

B

BirdOPrey5 [JU]

Archived
So like 10 years ago I brought this "brain teaser" as it was marketed where you try to remove a ring from a spring, the spring is welded "closed" on each end so you can simply spin it free... The ring also appears to be solid...

Every few years I pull it out of a draw and spend a few hours trying to figure it out... I never looked at the original intructions which are long gone...

Now I don't even know if it is possible or not..



Anyone know what the 'trick' is?
 
V

Virgil [JU]

Archived
Probably easier than figuring out that three-pronged object that appeared in Mad magazine many years ago. I can't seem to find a picture of it nor can I find out what it was even called. :puzzled:
 
S

skeptic [JU]

Archived
I must be missing something, perhaps if I had it in my hand it would be different. BOP is a pretty smart guy and looking at the picture the solution looks easy and obvious. But if what he says is true and he spends a couple hours working it every few years maybe it's not as easy as it appears??

It looks like you can take the left side of the ring and lift it over the left end of the spring such that the spring goes through the middle of the ring. At this point the spring is too long for the right side of the spring to rotate through the ring, but you should be able to "screw" it until the spring is far enough through the ring to rotate out.

The screwing it out part that appears to be necessary is missing from the other descriptions of how to do it.
 
T

toadies [JU]

Archived
skeptic said:
I must be missing something, perhaps if I had it in my hand it would be different. BOP is a pretty smart guy and looking at the picture the solution looks easy and obvious. But if what he says is true and he spends a couple hours working it every few years maybe it's not as easy as it appears??

It looks like you can take the left side of the ring and lift it over the left end of the spring such that the spring goes through the middle of the ring. At this point the spring is too long for the right side of the spring to rotate through the ring, but you should be able to "screw" it until the spring is far enough through the ring to rotate out.

The screwing it out part that appears to be necessary is missing from the other descriptions of how to do it.
Click to expand...
i thought the same thing on the diagram. We will see.
 
K

KoolBreeze [JU]

Archived
thread spoiler

skeptic said:
I must be missing something, perhaps if I had it in my hand it would be different. BOP is a pretty smart guy and looking at the picture the solution looks easy and obvious. But if what he says is true and he spends a couple hours working it every few years maybe it's not as easy as it appears??
Click to expand...

wow. uhm... no. he's lying. I would be surprised if somebody carried that around in their pants pocket it wouldn't fall apart on it's own.

BOP is only as "pretty smart" as just messing with individuals such as yourself reveals. tell you what... go grab an appropriate sized spring or make one from a coat hanger or such and use a key ring... don't cheat though. but you'll find out quick enough you don't need to "cheat" in the first place.
 
L

LoneJeeper [JU]

Archived
perhaps there's something deceptive about the photograph.... but is the diameter of the spring less than the diameter of the ring? if so, center it up and pull it through.

lj
 
C

Chris142 [JU]

Archived
My 80 yr old father is a master at those things. I can figure em out but not as fast as he. send it to me and I'll return it in 2 pieces and uncut :brows:
 
B

BirdOPrey5 [JU]

Archived
You cannot center the ring on the spring because it's "locked" inside of it... and the ends are welded closed so you can "spin" it out of it.

You can fold the ring over the ends, but that only changes it from being locked in 1 spiral of the spring, or locked in 2 spirals...



 
B

BirdOPrey5 [JU]

Archived
Holy crap...
I don't know what I did, but I visualized what I would do if I could straighten the spring... ultimately it would just be a long piece of metal with a loop on each end...

2 seconds later, not even sure what I did, it popped right off!

How could I not have even come across it accidently earlier?
:banghead:

 
B

Broke Back Jeeper [JU]

Archived
BirdOPrey5 said:
You cannot center the ring on the spring because it's "locked" inside of it... and the ends are welded closed so you can "spin" it out of it.

You can fold the ring over the ends, but that only changes it from being locked in 1 spiral of the spring, or locked in 2 spirals...
Click to expand...
so, you cannot rotate the ring (i.e., center it) and if you fold it over the end on the left then it is locked in 2 spirals? then, when it is locked in 1 spiral, twist it down to the other side and flip it over. Instead of making that go over two spirals, it should unlock it from the one.
 
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