Classic Dovetail Puzzle

The goal: This is one of my first projects and it was a great way to learn the machine (Tormach 1100) and the CAD/CAM software (Fusion 360). It is a very of the classic woodworking dovetail puzzle. This one is made out of aluminum. The puzzle aspect is when you look at the part from the different sides it looks like you have two joints at 90 degrees with respect to each other going through the part (which would never work). When you get the two halves apart you see the dovetail joints run diagonally through the part.

Enhancements: An enhancement I made to this classic puzzle was to add a pin and a couple magnets to the design. The pin locks the two halves in place, and a magnet holds the pin in the locked position. So you can rotate, twist and turn the puzzle and you can not get it apart. To get it apart, takes a firm impact of the cube on a surface to dislodge the pin.

Fabrication: I quickly learned that to get the too halves to align well when assembled I needed to think about fixturing. Hence you can see that I moved to an approach where the two halves are mounted to the same fixture, and share a common reference point. This allows the final product to mount together and with the flush surfaces on all four sides. To mount the halves to the fixture, I have 4 holes in the corners of each part, which I simply incorporated into the design. The holes get filled with a black hex bolts, giving the cube a nice industrial look, and under one of the strews is the compartment for the locking pin.