After seeing a few other really nifty dice towers on this site (like this one and this one), I wanted to try one of my own. Designed in 3 components (19 separate bodies) in Fusion 360. Still needs decoration, a cork or felt landing pad, and a few design tweaks, but I’m pretty happy for a first attempt! I’m particularly pleased with how sturdy it is, how well the hinges work in practice, and how the bottom hinge is hidden.
Printed in Proofgrade Draftboard and glued together with Elmer’s. Finished size is exactly 3"x3"x6". Print finishes at 10.5"x13.5" but I could probably rearrange it to better go edge-to-edge. I bet it’d work with any 1/8" material, but you’re going to need the glue.
Will you tell me your thinking for why the top fold-up lid? Is it more aesthetics to give a tidy fully squared fold-up? Or is it intended for function, such is to be a directional shield for dumping in a handful of dice?
Sure! To be honest it was a little more form than function: I’d wanted to keep the box as a featureless rectangular prism hiding its purpose, and to make an additional surface for decoration. (I’d also wanted it to keep dice from falling out before I’d thought to put the little fins in, and to keep any dust or cruft from accumulating inside.) Of course, once I’d designed it that way, I started thinking of the lid as a deflector for funneling the dice in like you’d mentioned, and the offset hinge could double as a tray to dump in dice all at once.
The little catch in the lid is to hold the lid in when the tray is closed, so you could put a single rubber band around the top of the closed box to keep it shut in a bag or backpack. I’d originally hoped to use the lid to make a latch, so the lid itself snaps shut to hold the box closed, but I didn’t get to that for version 1.
The trick with those fins is that they only hold one or two sets of seven 20mm dice, and if the dice aren’t positioned well they keep the box from closing. I’ve made a try at fixing that in version 2, with a clasp that holds the lid down and a tray that can be entirely filled with dice without blocking. (I also put the bottom of the tower on a hinge, so you can use the space underneath as extra storage.) I’m going to give it a try tomorrow; if it works out, I’ll post back here.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. After I’m back from vacay I hope that I can give your plan a spin and share some thoughts of what I think about it. I like what you’ve done so far.
If I can share an insight for creating rotational hinge that works very smoothly, here’s a shot of the rotational structure of a twist-lock box I did. The negative area (at far right of my screen shot) can be “x-keyed” to make it even more sturdy and then that circular piece of wood, with some beeswax rubbed/burnished around the perimeter, becomes a very smooth and stable at articulating. The kerf’d out difference is just enough space needed so that it moves freely, yet stays secure, compared to a “rectangle in a circle” hinge approach.
Thank you; I did see your design in the other thread a few days ago, and it’s a very nice box, though I’m surprised you saw to repost it in this one unsolicited.
For this design I’d wanted to see if I could do a 100% hidden hinge (no tracks visible to the outside walls) in a very small space, on a surface that doubles as an unobstructed dice bounce, which for me meant a very narrow rectangular axis with no cross-pieces. For my “main hinge” on the tray, there’s a third guiding surface–the outer edge of the tray’s circular track, in addition to both inside edges of the circle. That gives it a little more strength and smooth rotation.
There’s a little bit of play to the hinges, but I’m okay with that, particularly given how far the hinged pieces protrude and how much leverage one could get. Ultimately I’m sure I could get a smoother rotation with an additional cross-piece (as yours has) or a wider radius to put it in (as yours has–it looks like about 5x your material thickness where mine is 2x), but I’m pretty happy with how this hinge design fits my constraints.
You have a point. Size could be a factor to implement well at the scale of your tower. And I didn’t post to criticize nor to shallowly self promote—only to offer as a possible solution for improving smoothness of rotation factor, in case you hadn’t seen something like that before, as it isn’t a solution I invented nor own. You said your project is a first attempt, so thought the hinge idea could be helpful as you move through revisions. Best regards.
I’ve updated this design to have stronger and better-hidden hinges, more space for art, better use of the space including an extra little storage “basement”, and more!
really cool design. Going to cut this out of a combination of wood and perspex. I think it may look cool to show some of the inner workings. Just need to figure out which pieces to cut from what I’ll post once done.
I’ll post once done.