D&D Dice Box - Laser Cut hand painted

This Dice Box has been in my mind for a long time. And I saw some XPS foam pillar templates on the internet that I want to try myself. On top of that its been a while since I go to the office to meet friends. So I went to office to talk with friends and try the new goodies.

Lasercut XPS foam pillar template

I originally 3d modelled some template to use with hotwire table but the problem was when you stay more then 1 second on a spot, the PLA plastic starts to melt. This makes the templates not truly re-usable. After couple of use the template will deform. The versions I saw on the internet was all lasercut wood. Probably that is the main reason why there are no 3D printed versions of this templates. It makes sense.

The things I learn from this test piece are quite usefull. Next time i'll improve the design. The main thing is I did not leave enough straight space on top and bottom of the pillar to act as a reference point for the thickness. Right now when you cut two side and turn the piece, the xps foam has no thickness to stay inside snugly. Other thing is tiny details does not translate to the foam correctly. The radiant heat from the wire deform that tiny details and the thickness of the wire is important too. You can see the original idea and how the template works from this youtube video

Lasercut Dice Box

My job has been a product designer for a company very similar to Kiwi Co. Our products are mainly made out of lasercut wood. Thus I have experience with lasercut process. I learned to use the machine by myself over the years. I went to office and download the file from the website. I excluded the graphic design of the model since I dont have to use copyrighted design even though it is shared free. I might sell this to others in the future. The other one is a gift for a friend , it has a design on the cover.

The main design is geometric shapes and not really a copyrighted design. It can be found everywhere on the internet. Its just a honeycomb design nothing special. Anyway, lets go back to the build.

Laser cut pieces

there are many parts to assemble. I made two identical dice box for testing purposes. The idea is to stack them on top of each other with glue. Layer by layer build the dice box. I specially like to have little hexagon shapes that came out of the dice holes. I will definetly find a use for them in the future for terrain building etc. There are 9 3mm pieces. The cut takes aprox. 3 minutes start no finish. The cost is less then I expect.

Painting

The brown one is mine and the candy colored is for a gift. I originally plan to use a wood stain for the paint job for mine but they are expensive to use right now. I searched on the internet for a while and find out watered down acrylic paint can be used as a wood stain. I apply 2 to 3 coat and sanding in between. Same as the pink one.

We are planning to make 25 of them. I'll share with you later. See you next time.