I’ve never played the game but those are gorgeous. I imagine the wood gives a great tactile sensation and makes playing even more enjoyable.
3 Likes
Gorgeous. But play Terra Mystica and it’s hard to go back to Catan 
2 Likes
Wowzers!!! That came out amazing…and that case!!
Much dedication, time, and effort. You crafted something truly spectacular!!
4 Likes
Good golly, that’s a nice pile of work.
1 Like
I have been waiting on the arrival of the official Catan board in the Glowforge Store, since as I understood it we were supposed to have access to the projects in the video. @dan any progress on that front?
You’re probably aware already, but just in case others drop by, the update only said “most” and “try” to get Catan. Though it did say “slowly over the next year”.
My guess is they’ll release it just after I cut mine out. 
2 Likes
This is jaw-droppingly amazing! So much loving detail put into all of this. I love that you sent them on a scavenger hunt for the pieces—it just draws out the delight of discovery.
2 Likes
Yep, the care and love that went into the creation of that set makes it all worthwhile. Just gorgeous! 
3 Likes
If they are having an issue licensing it from the original artist they could hire another.
I’m still waiting to print out a set for an October 2015 wedding present.
1 Like
That is really amazing! I can only imagine how wonderful it smelled while making it too! Did you use contact paper on the wood? What was the biggest challenge while lasering?
Beautiful and awesome work!
It was kind of surreal to actually play a game with these pieces. It’s one thing to stare at them for months as they take shape and you take care of each one. And then to finally play a game on it? Wow.
5 Likes
It was really fun to watch them figure out what it was. The one thing not shown here are three bags made with Black micro-suede. One big one to hold the pieces (to get random placements) and two small ones to hold the numbers and the fish pieces. For the first three or so gifts (bags and 2 or 3 resource tiles) they thought I was giving them a new game. Once they figured out that it was a “delux” Catan game their eyes bugged out and they got even more excited to find the pieces. When the box came out my mom had tears in her eyes. They had no clue that I was making this. So. worth. it.
11 Likes
A single tear from Mom makes all the time and effort more than worth it.
6 Likes
When I lasered the pieces I used Masking Tape to Mask the pieces (I have the 6 inch wide stuff).
Some of the biggest challenge on making the resource tiles was my lack of native artistic skill, and the tediousness of changing and modifying resource tiles. For instance, the GF provided artwork has “holes” about .75 inches in diameter. I needed the holes to be 1 inch diameter to fit the number tokens that I had made (Lots of experiments to figure out that 1 inch tokens would be the easiest to read from a normal playing distance). So I had to go in and edit EVERY node that was in the space, partially because I was new to inkscape and didn’t know any other tricks, and partially because I was fine with tedious as long as it got the job done (labor of love makes those things less burdensome). I also made the initial mistake of making the borders with the “hooks” in it, which is fine if you are only doing the Basic Catan board or even Cities and Knights edition. But once you get into SeaFarers edition, you have to be able to flip the boarders over to show only a water border instead of a border with a shore and port. The hooks were then going in a different direction and I had to eventually cut them off. But that was an earlier edition and I ended up completely redoing the borders (Thicker, no hooks, and clearer ports).
4 Likes
Epic!!
1 Like
This is absolutely amazing work. I only hope to achieve the same level of refinement.
But the piece of this that really makes me go “wow” is the box. Any chance you could give us more detail on how you made it/put it together? I’m really interested to hear how to assembled the lid and got all of your different woods to connect.
2 Likes
haha, yep, the box certainly has some “explaining” for it. I’ll explain the top and bottom as the whole explanation would probably be too long
Dimensions are 12.5" Wide x 12.5" I really wanted to make the box out of Walnut, but I only had pieces that are 6" wide. I settled on the design that you see and created it all in Inkscape. I cut the Walnut, Hickory, and Mahogany to thickness (1/4") and then cut out the shapes out on the Laser.
Here’s the secret part. I cut out a 12" x 12" piece of hardboard and glued the pieces to each other and the board with PLENTY of glue (glued on the non-slick side, so needed a lot more glue).
I used the Inkscape Box builder to make the box joint for the edges. I was able to cut the side pieces out on the laser, but I had to use them as a template to cut the tabs on the top and bottom and cut those tabs out on the bandsaw. (Yes I did consider turning it 45 degrees and do two sides at a time, I was concerned about perfect alignment and I was more confident of my ability to align everything than to trust the lasers alignment right now, 1/4" off was not an option.)
I chose where I was going to separate the top and bottom after I built the box and picked the height based on the pieces I wanted to store in it (specifically the height of the stacked Border pieces) and then I ran the box over the table saw to create the top and bottom parts.
I built the interior dividers out of Soft Maple and glued it to the interior. Then I cut Felt pieces to fit the spaces and covered both the top and bottom (I considered Flocking the entire thing, but I ran out of time to buy and have flocking shipped to me). Finally I added the shelf in the lid to hold the bags, cards and all the extra stuff.
Last part was all the hardware. But that is the easy part.
5 Likes
This is phenomenal. Catan has been on my list of projects to try and you’ve really set the bar high.
1 Like
Wow. My latest project pales next to this one. Truly beautiful!
1 Like
Lots of amazing stuff in this post! Thanks for sharing.