Dovetail Soma Cube

Dovetail Soma Cube was suggested by George Miller. The idea was to take a classic Piet-Hein Soma Cube and add dovetail connections to it. Ideally, the addition of dovetails would reduce the number of assembleable solutions to exactly one, whereas there are solved states that could theoretically exist, but that could not be assembled. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find such a puzzle-design sweet spot. So instead, I optimized the puzzle for disassembly fun. One could give the puzzle to a friend and challenge them to take it apart. Even though the puzzle slides apart without any effort, it only works when one places their fingers correctly. In this sense, the puzzle is more similar to the classic Steward-Coffin Pennyhedron puzzle.

The set of eight pieces took about 9 hours to 3D print on a Dutchy 3D printer. 104 gram (35 meter) of 1.75-mm filament was used. The puzzle itself weights 89 gram, as 15 gram of material was used to support the overhanging dovetails. The filament is based on transparent PLA plastic that is infiltrated with 20% wood fibres, giving its wooden look-and-feel (and smell!). The five types of wood used are birch, mahogany, oak, green and black wood.

Oskar van Deventer has created many different puzzles including his brand of Oskar Puzzles which are mechanical puzzles and objects that can only exist thanks to 3D printing technology.  Since 1978, he has been creating hundreds of mechanical puzzles, making him one of the world's most prolific designers. Several of his innovative designs are commercially available.