Publish or Perish D6 Die

[dwardio]

@ca_worth

where do you get the dice?

These were sourced on Amazon: http://a.co/ceqOmch

I specifically went with the 25mm (1 inch) dice for increased visability and “real estate” for engraving. They are cheaper in bulk, but as this was an initial test for a limited run, I thought it was a reasonable deal.

Btw, since these are > 0.5", the crumb tray must be removed, so there’s a bit of math needed to get the engraving face back into the focus zone as well as setting the exact focus distance. It took a few ceramic tiles I had handy to shim the die up for proper focus.

In case folks haven’t seen it, Henry did a fantastic writeup of the calculation / shimming process not too long ago:

Tutorial: How to cut without the Crumb Tray (Honeycomb)

Tutorial: How to cut objects too thick to have the honeycomb in place The GlowForge has a maximum material thickness it can cut through, but there is a maximum thickness you can even put on the honeycomb (crumb tray) even if you are surface engraving as the laser has a limited focus range of 0.01" - 0.4" *** above the surface of the honeycomb at the time of this tutorial. But let’s say you wanted to engrave something thicker that fits quite nicely inside the GlowForge but not with the crumb tray…

I wanted a visual cheat sheet as a quick reminder why the magic number is 1.4", so threw this together:

Yes, the PRU focus range seems to be ~0.4", but I’m planning for the future…

[ca_worth]

Thanks!

that sound you hear? Daughter double prime going ballistic.

Chris

[jamesdhatch]

@ca_worth

My daughter likes to make games, so if we can create custom dice, she is going to go ballistic.

Check out my thread on doing custom dice using the PRU. Read through the thread because there are some tips and things (including some techniques to color them with inks) further down in the comments/responses.

Dispatches from the front (Pre-Release Report) - Snake-Eyes!

Some asked about the ability to engrave dice that I get from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Blank-White-Dice-16MM-Storage/dp/B00LW5CBL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493001514&sr=8-1&keywords=blank+dice+100) These are a compression molded granular urea compound. They are your traditional heavy dice similar to the weight and feel of dominoes. I grabbed a GF logo off Google Images and tried some different engraving settings. The best was the 1% power/335in per min/1355LPI but the 675LPI was pretty clo…

[ca_worth]

Thank you so much!

[hansena]

This is great!
I know some professors here who would love to have one of these!

[gmckayca]

This gives me an idea. I need to find blank LOADED dice, and then imprint on the favored side of the die whatever is the choice you want to come up regularly. For example, a die that has options for everything to do over the weekend…chores, go shopping with wife, visit in-laws, etc. etc., make stuff on GF. Guess which side will always turn up.

[jacobturner]

Getting to this thread WAY late… but why didn’t you just stack one die on top of another to get the surface into cutting range?

[dwardio]

1. The air assist is strong enough to blow each die around, so the jig holds then tight.

2. I didn’t think of it.

[Jules]

Cool! (Just stuck a link to that into the Matrix. Let me know if you don’t want it there.)

[jacobturner]

About to place an order for some blanks and add to our Story Dice collection. So good to know that I want to be wary of the air assist.

[dwardio]

I made my first jig out of foamcore (DTFB) and used it for multiple runs, but I noticed that one of the holes has loosened and was letting one die rotate about 10° back and forth. Next version will be cheap ply or scrap acrylic.