Making Interlocking Tiles

#1

Anyone have any tips for cutting interlocking tiles?

I’d like to make some dungeon tiles for dungeons and dragons. (I’ve seen the “puzzle style” auto generated tiles someone else posted, but I want something bigger for use with miniatures).

I’d like it if they interlocked in some kind of flexible way. Not like puzzle like, but just some generic tabs that will hold them and keep them from sliding away from each other randomly when I have placed them. Does anyone have any advice for how to do this? (I have illustrator)

#2

Not sure what you’re asking. Should they fully lock together or are serrated edges that fit together or tabs going to do for you?

#3

You could make a universal interlock and hexagons of any size f rom the Catan free design and make your own engraved designs on them… there are several other posts here on similar topics. I am on my tablet atm so posting the links here would be hard. But a search should reveal them or I am someone else will put up a list of links.

#4

I think serrated edges or tabs would work. Or fully locking if that’s easy.

#5

Cool idea, but I don’t want hexagons. Squares.

#6

So, check this out for some examples:
https://makezine.com/2012/04/13/cnc-panel-joinery-notebook/

This might inspire you also:

#7

Do you want them to lock together permanently or temporarily? Should they be able to rotate 90 degrees and still lock, or is 180 only acceptable?

#8

Temporarily… 90 degree rotation and locking is good.

#9

Ok, then I would make each of the four sides of the square look like an elongated ‘Z’, so the notches could fit together. (If 180-only is ok, you could also do it with two “innie” sides and two “outie” sides of a traditional jigsaw puzzle connection.)

I’ll try to sketch something to illustrate:

shape

It would hold together better if you made something more curvy than just the bare ‘Z’ shape, but that should give you an idea of what I was thinking.

#10

Possibly too pricey, depending on how many you want to make but: neodymium magnets?

e.g., two of these pocketed on each edge: https://totalelement.com/collections/disc-magnets/products/1-16-x-1-32-inch-neodymium-rare-earth-disc-magnets-n48-500-pack

#11

just make squares and place them on a yoga mat for your playing surface. It’s how I play my tile based board games and you really have to try and knock them out of place.

#12

I made a youtube video about how I made my interlocking tiles last year:

These are the tiles I came up with:

You can buy the pattern on my etsy store too:

#13

I know what you’re going for and: awesome. Please post pics with your experiments.

My advice is to use a two-layer system. The top layer should be the actual gaming squares. The bottom should be how they connect. If all the “female” connection points are under the gaming squares and you use “male” connectors to tie them together you can make a flexible arrangement without the visible top-side seams messing with whatever design you want visible on the surface. To reduce the number of ties needed to snap pieces together, make an assortment of shapes, like 2x2s, 3x3s, 1x7s (that spooky corridor), etc; along with a pile of the standard 1x1s.

Having just typed that up, I’m all inspired. I think I’ll try some of this out.

The Idea Thief strikes again…

Good luck, and share your progress!!

#14

Those card boxes on your site are pretty nice too.

#15

Thank you.