Dovetail Cube is a 2x2x2 puzzle cube that is held together by dovetail connections. Oskar van Deventer designed a first version of the Dovetail Cube in the 1980's, based on a challenge by Prof van der Poel. Several other people have made dovetail-cube puzzles since then. This Dovetail Cube exposes the dovetails to the outside of the puzzle. The puzzle is hitting a sweet spot. It is fun to solve, not too hard, not too easy, and it has interesting near-misses.
The set of eight pieces took about 7 hours to 3D print on a Dutchy 3D printer. 63 gram (21 meter) of 1.75-mm filament was used. The puzzle itself weights 53 gram, as 10 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. The four types of wood used are birch, mahogany, oak 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.