Rut Box — a keepsake box locked shut by two stags' antlers

A keepsake box that closes into a pair of locked antlers.

Two racks stand on the base and two on the lid. Drop the lid on with the racks splayed apart, twist a quarter turn, and the tines thread through each other — two stags with their horns locked in the rut. Twist back and they sweep apart and the lid lifts free.

108 x 62 x 84 mm assembled, 64 ml cavity, about 36 g sliced. No hardware — no magnets, no screws, no glue. No supports anywhere.

What holds the lid is the bayonet, not the antlers: two pins on the lid skirt run into lock arcs in the base neck. The racks are the handle and the rotational landmark. Closed, the two sets of tines clear each other by 2.1 mm, so nothing rubs.

4 STLs, 6 pieces: rut_base (1), rut_lid (1), rut_antler_base (2), rut_antler_lid (2). The two racks are NOT interchangeable — mirror-handed, with tine ladders at different heights so they mesh instead of butting. A D-key in each socket means a rack cannot go in the wrong place.

Printing

everything prints as exported. Base cavity up, lid skirt down, racks flat back down. That flat back is deliberate — a round rack laid down touches the bed along a line, stood up it is a 66 degree overhang. Do not rotate them.

Assembly

push each rack into its boss until the collar meets the boss face — crush-ribbed tenon, firm push, not a slip fit. Base racks reach clockwise, lid racks counter-clockwise. Close: lid on with racks ~50 degrees apart, twist counter-clockwise ~24 degrees to a positive stop. Open: twist back, lift straight up.

Honest limitation: the locked lid can lift ~1.5 mm before the pin catches. It holds, but it is not rattle-free.

rut_fit_test.stl is a four-size tenon gauge for tuning the rack fit to your printer. Parametric OpenSCAD source included.