Fold-out dice box (and dice tower)

A few weeks back, I posted a “Made on a Glowforge” post for a design I made for a dice tower that folds up into a 6"x3"x3" box for travel. I’ve made a few revisions to that design, and realized that the “Free Laser Designs” category might be a better fit for it.

Revisions:

  • Thinner supports, so more space on the sides for art.
  • Better hinge design for easier opening.
  • Secure “basement” area with a sliding door for storing extra sets of dice, mini figurines, or whatever you’d like.
  • Easy close no matter where the dice are.
  • Lid design keeps box closed when upright or when lifted by the sides.

I’ve also posted a Google Drive folder that includes the SVG, a README file, the video, and an annotated set of instructions with photos.


Video link (Embedding is still broken.)

SVG (I’d host on this forum, but it seems not to like my file right now.)

Project homepage for permanent links, updates, and what-not

Enjoy, and please post your results and customizations! I’d love to see what you build from this design.

EDIT: Be sure to check out @dan’s serrated-tab upgrade, which goes together easily without glue!

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Awesome job, that looks great!

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Well isn’t that nice of you, thanks! I’m not a game player but I can appreciate the design regardless.

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Yeah, I don’t do gaming either, but that’s a great design to share with everyone who does. :sunglasses::+1:

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This is wicked cool. Thanks for sharing the design. I’ll probably make a few of these for my DnD players.

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Thank you for sharing … Really like the more shallow tray on yours. Our family has always played a dice game … And think this will be great for the kids with smaller hands.

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Fantastic!!

How thick is the wood used?

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This was going to be my question too as i’m currently using 1/8" BB (comes in .117 to .127" in variability) to mock up stuff. No need to ruin :proofgrade: stuff on test runs.

I absolutely love that design. I’ve made a couple of dice towers so far, but I love how yours fold up on itself. I especially like the extra storage on the bottom.

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This is amazing, wonderful, and you are a king for sharing this file for free! Thank you!

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Thank you all for the compliments!

@bbum and @wesleyjames: I made the design for “medium” (1/8") Proofgrade, and have tested it on the maple plywood and draftboard. Though I didn’t design for a specific tolerance, the pieces aren’t particularly tight with Glowforge’s kerfs, and I bet a little bit of glue would handle a few thousandths of an inch. (The Glowforge kerf was measured to be ~0.01-0.02", so that should far exceed the variability of your material.)

As a side note for everyone, I’ve updated the file to v3.0.1, which fixes some labels and closes up the gaps on the basement door. The old file works perfectly fine, but you might prefer the new one. I’ve also uploaded the AI file for easy editing, and added a changelog to the README and Google Docs instructions.

As with most free files on the internet, QA is participatory: Please post here with what works and what needs tweaking! :slight_smile:

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Great design, thank you for sharing. I’ll have to make one of these for my next game night.

I made one of these today. I made a mashup of two different designs though. I took the box design and replaced the graphics. The top image is the logo of my local gaming group (The Saint Paul Irregulars) and the sides and inside are the graphics from this post: Dungeons and Dragons Minis

Thanks again for the design, it went together just great!

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That is sick, I may have to copy it. I love it.

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Some stick-on felt would look good in there.

Hmm, if a person were crazy they could get a couple of colors and cut out a design, so the felt landing pad had some art embedded too.

Loved this dice tower design! Compact, functional, and with some space to hold things as well. I’m stealing that locking lid design for the storage area in my other designs.

I went with my own engraves as well, and found some beautiful black and white fable drawings to put on the sides.

!

I also put what I consider the mantra of my PC’s on the back, so I can remember it every time I GM for them.

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@twforeman @rachel.a.worley Oh fantastic! Thank you very much to both of you for sharing how yours came out. I’m so glad you found the design useful, and the art upgrades are really great. Rachel, your fable scenes in particular are a lovely idea!

@GrooveStranger Though felt would be a nice touch, I also thought about gluing some cork sheets for bulletin boards, which are cheap, flexible, laserable, and good for coaster projects and other finishing touches as well. I have some cork sheet and it’s an easy addition, though I haven’t tried myself yet: the interior dimensions of the tray are a nice easy 1:2 rectangle, 2.48" by 4.96", and you can lay it in easily after the box is complete. I only worry about how nicely it’ll play with that main hinge, or whether it’ll rob you of the satisfying rolling noise that the box gives you already!

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That’s beautiful.

I love this design and I attempted to make one of my own for my Star Wars Legion game…I downloaded your file and the only thing I changed was the artwork on the side…except now none of the holes are big enough…I know you did this in AI do you think importing it into Inkscape screwed up some of the dimensions? I used proofgrade maple ply for my cut. I can post pictures later but pressed for time right at the moment…

Did you use the same thickness of wood?