Chipboard Tests / D&D Map-making

I have no idea… :slight_smile: I’m just learning as I go. I think the thinner it is, the easier it would be. I’m just trying to utilize some offcuts from larger sheets, so trying to make those work at that thickness.

When you’re talking scoring V-shapes… I’m really not sure what you have in mind. Like little teeth pointing either way into the fold?:slight_smile:

I glued up some paper and did the score on the inside. It’s not a super-crisp fold, like origami or something, but it at least looks nicer.

Maybe you’re just thinking thinner chipboard with a lot less ply’s. I think you could get much crisper/nicer results with thinner stuff. The thinner material I’ve tried, the more I’ve been able to get a crease.

yeah, for paper or thin stock, the score would be on the inside. For cardboard or thicker stock, I would assume you have to take away more material on the inside in order for it to fold properly, hense my idea of a “V” shape on the inside of the corner. Maybe it works, maybe not :man_shrugging:

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no matter what you do with a laser, your scoring for folds will always be a little sub-optimal when you compare to what you see out in the wild normally.

when a company folds chipboard to make a box (or paper to make a booklet), they’re using a thin bar and pressure to score it, which doesn’t ablate any of the material away, it just creates a thinner section of material at the fold line with pressure scoring. Usually done with a folding machine or by using a piece of scoring metal in a die.

so what we’re trying to accomplish here with a laser will always create a weak spot, and often a visible weak spot, in the material as opposed to the traditional pressure score.

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I’ve been prototyping with 0.05" (50pt) chipboard acquired from Amazon. I’ve been doing the “living hinge” route with the Fusion360 sheet metal tools, assembling with tabs and/or Elmer’s glue. I’ve been really happy with the results. Cuts have been at 270@90, and etching (not pictured) works well with 1000@10.

(I’d meant to post the designs or workflow into here, but I didn’t quite get it solid enough to feel like it’s worthwhile.)

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That’s awesome! Does the Fusion360 sheet metal tool add the living hinge design as well, or do you have to add that after the fact?

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Thank you! For the living hinge, I added it after the fact. With help from the Project tool in Fusion, I got the bounding box for the bend lines onto the flat pattern, and then in Illustrator I just created the hinge from scratch (a short path that I duplicated with the Transform tool to make the lines fit within the box). I’ve thought about switching to Inkscape and its living hinge plugins, but right now I’m just messing around.

For the record, I created a new “sheet metal” material for the 50pt chipboard, setting the thickness to 0.05" and the k-factor to 0.5. I roughly followed this tutorial, and the bend line projection happens at about 10:10 in the video. I used the same gap that Taylor used (0.005") in my design, which is thinner than the roughly 0.008" kerf that the Glowforge produces.

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Such a cool idea and it turned out great.

I have a number of maps that you have opened up as options for me
Source of the Nile (Avalon Hill)
Advanced Squad Leader (Avalon Hill) - this will be a combination of etching and topo work

Have you thought of making modular dungeon parts? There appears to be a market for them.
You know, a few 10x10 rooms and connecting corridors and the like? Great for ease of miniature play and a lot more re-usable

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Not really. @sawa has some cool modular dungeon tiles, though! Check out his website!

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Wow next level stuff… great work @Sawa

the living hinge design looks brilliant there. i’ll be looking at trying that and curious to see how adhesive prints on top work with the hinge.

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I just got the patent completely confirmed and the patent number issued on my roleplayed a month or so ago. Gonna work on mold casting and get them ready for sale in the spring (hopefully). The flood last year really set me back.

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Could have been worse… could have been a Bear spider!! (Run away!!) Ha!
spiderbear

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For scoring and folding thinner cardboard/chipboard, you could make your own scoring board like the Scor-Pal (below), by engraving grooves into some acrylic.

IMG_0419

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I’ve got the Martha Stewart version of that - works a treat. The idea of doing some wider grooves to let you score chip is freaking brilliant! :grinning::boom::tanabata_tree::confetti_ball:

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They were lucky it was not a Gazebo or a Davenport!!

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A friend had a housewarming party. He attached an arrow to the hot tub gazebo and did a CSI-style outline of a dead fighter on the grass next to it with a bow and scattered arrows.

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No Gazebo yet, but the Owlbear brought some friends when the Map got bigger!

Here are the pieces seperated.

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Thats awesome!

Finally finished the map.

@gernreich Crap, there was a Gazebo!

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Looks like a winner! :grinning:

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