Wooden Dice Tower (Magnetic, Foldable)
Introduction: Wooden Dice Tower (Magnetic, Foldable)
This project was inspired by a really cool kickstarter from a couple years ago. I thought it was a great idea, and decided to make one of my own.
Materials:
* 1/4" and 5/8" thick wood (this is just what I had laying around; these sizes are not required)
* Wood glue
* 8 small magnets
* Super glue
* Wood stain
* Adhesive-backed felt (you could also use regular felt and glue, but I never have)
Tools:
* Scroll saw or something equivalent
* Drill and a bit the size of the magnets
* Paintbrush/rag for staining
I also used Tinkercad to figure out the basic shape of the tower and see how it looks, which I do for almost all of my woodworking projects (including a chess set!). I have also included a picture of the d20 silhouette that I made in Tinkercad.
Step 1: Prepare Parts
I started out by cutting three 6.5" by 3" pieces from the 1/4" wood, and one the same size, 3x6.5, from the 5/8" board. I then cut the 5/8" and one of the 1/4" in half, "hamburger style" (which means I made two 3x3.25 pieces from each).
The first step after cutting the wood to size is to glue one of the thicker blocks onto a 1/4" board, as shown in the pictures. These pieces will be the inside of the upright part of the dice tower. After gluing, it is time to cut out the inside. I do not have a pattern that I printed for the inside parts. I took a square and measured and drew on the part itself. You can do this too! Start on the thicker block of wood, and draw a 1/4" margin on each side. This will keep the part fairly strong and durable, and make some steps easier later on. Next, draw the lines for the entrance and exit holes according to the size that you want. I made them both about an inch and a half wide, which gave me 5/8" thickness on each side. 622
This worked as well as I could have hoped, but if you want to change the size, I would not suggest doing anything smaller than an inch, because dice would probably start getting stuck. After you have the 1/4" walls and the exit holes drawn, all you have to do is connect the holes to the side walls with a 45° line (I used a square for this entire thing, but if you don't have one, you can do a wee bit of arithmetic and measure out the point on the side wall to which you need to draw a line).
Now, move to the thinner part of your workpiece. Draw 1/4" walls on the long sides, and connect them with the out hole in any way you want. I just made an angle from the edge of the hole to the wall, but if you are feeling fancy, this would be a great place for some fretwork. Next, figure out where to put the line at the bottom of the part. For my wood thicknesses of 1/4" and 5/8" and plan to cut an angle of 45° right there (see later steps), I calculated the distance from the bottom to be 1/4 + 5/8 + tan(45°) * 1/4 (45 is the angle you would set your blade to compared to the table). I also drew a line at 1/4 + 5/8 to help with the angle cut.
Step 2: Cut the Interior
Now that you have drawn out where to cut, just do it. If you don't know how to use a scroll saw or whatever type of saw you are using, find another instructable or a youtube video. When you are cutting, make sure you go to the first line on the thin part, not the second, and I will explain why.
Once you have cut out the general shape, you need cut the bottom of the part at an angle (see pictures). This will redirect falling dice into the tray, and keep them from bouncing up and out. To do this, set your saw table to the angle you decided on and used for the calculation in the last step, and cut to the second line you drew. On my scroll saw, I can only go 45 degrees in one direction, which means that I ended up with only one sharp edge. To fix this, you can either file the corner a little bit, or flip the blade around on the saw, which is super dangerous and you should not do it.
Anyway, after you cutting this piece, you should sand the inside corners of the thicker part of the part. 599