Beginner woodworking project for illusionists?

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By Matt Mets
Posted 2010/02/09 @ 12:49 pm
Category General

Erik Minnema made this really nice woodworking piece, called side by side. It’s pretty easy to build, all you need are a few pieces of wood and an inter-dimensional table saw.

Can’t get your hands on one of those? In that case you will have to resort to trickery. If it’s not photoshopped, how do you think it would be built? [via neatorama]

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9 Responses to Beginner woodworking project for illusionists?

Jonathan Johns on February 9th, 2010 at 1:19 pm said:

In this link are some interesting observations, but not so much an explanation…

http://skitch.com/richardbronosky/nwqbk/illusion

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Marc Mengel on February 9th, 2010 at 2:33 pm said:

Okay, so consider the following top view

### ###
### ###
### ###
### ###
#o# ###
### ..##
…… ….# <— step down here
…… ###

that is, the piece on the right has a diagonal notch
cut in it, and the piece on the left is shorter; then
from the correct angle, you can see through the notch
in the piece on the right, and see the end of the piece
on the left. It looks like you have to shave down the
end of the piece on the right to give a clear view of
the one on the left, hence the slight step down visible
at the edge of the diagonal cut.

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- mtbf0 on February 9th, 2010 at 6:28 pm said:
  
  think what we have here is a photograph of a hand resting on a photograph of two pieces of wood stacked one on top of the other. the illusion is the result of fingers of the hand appearing to be resting on a flat surface. which they are.
  
  the screws are a nice touch.
  
  Reply ↓
retrolab on February 10th, 2010 at 7:19 am said:

I’d say it’s a combination of the theories you’ve already posted. It’s two pieces of wood screwed together side by side, the piece on the right is shorter and the end that was cutoff was screwed into the bottom of the left piece. A veneer was added to disguise the cut and the proper angle was found to make it work and the picture was taken.

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retrolab on February 10th, 2010 at 7:23 am said:

and there may not even be a veneer.. the dark lines around the second piece could be shadows from a notch being cut into the right piece. when viewed from the correct angle, it looks like it’s 90 degrees vertical when it could be a 140-160 horizontal cut.

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Cristian on February 17th, 2011 at 4:08 pm said:

It’s potoshoped:
[IMG]http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx330/Vdggcrt/side_by_side_escher_woodworking-1.jpg[/IMG]

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Cristian on February 17th, 2011 at 4:08 pm said:

It’s photoshoped:
[IMG]http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx330/Vdggcrt/side_by_side_escher_woodworking-1.jpg[/IMG]

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Gregory Wren on February 17th, 2011 at 9:26 pm said:

It is all in the funky end cut of the front piece and the camera angle…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqrunner/4344348240/in/photostream/

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Jay Gerig on November 16th, 2011 at 3:01 pm said:

is it a rabet that gets gradually shallower from the back until it’s flush at the front?

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