Impossible Dovetail Box

thingiverse

Here's another mind-bending geometric puzzle - the Dovetail Box, which appears impossible to open at first glance but reveals its secret through a clever sliding mechanism. Simply tilt it 45 degrees and voilà! The two interlocking parts slide out of each other with ease. I've included a base piece that serves as the foundation for the box's structure, from which you can build upwards by adding more pieces in a systematic manner. You'll encounter straight parts, where each layer maintains the same diagonal orientation as the one above it (like the orange piece), and twisted ones, where the orientation reverses (as seen with the blue piece). Things get interesting when working with twisted parts: once you've used one, all subsequent pieces must be "rotated" to ensure a perfect fit. Mathematically speaking, this translates to increasing the twisting level "t" by one for each twisted part added, starting from zero. If "t" is even, use normal parts; if it's odd, switch to rotated ones. Feel free to experiment with the Dovetail Box and share your creations - I'm eager to see how you'll build upon this concept!