Boris' Dice Tower

By Boris Katafygiotis | Monday, February 12, 2024

To construct the desired dice tower, I first wrote my design on paper to see a viable way of constructing it with dimensions bieng 8 inches in height and length and 6 inches in width. I chose a 1/4-inch MDF piece to construct my whole design. I then presented my design to my class, and while receiving feedback I decided to make part of my design see-through, using 1/4-inch plastic, so that users of the product could see the dice roll. I further added extra features to my design, such as two dice holders to the side.

After creating the final design on paper, I translated it to SolidWorks for 3D modeling. After creating the 3D model, I realized my dimensions were too big, so I altered the overall design using global variables to fit the materials we had in stock.

I then took the design to laser cut the necessary parts; however, the overlap I used proved to be too small due to me not taking into account my tab width size for the different components. So, I had to restart on most of my pieces that included protruding tabs. After correcting this miscalculation, the dice tower was able to come together without any extra support (such as glue or tape). I also made it so that the dice holders were removable (slip fit). This was done by making the tab width size of the box insert to be 0.025 inches smaller than usual, so that it can easily fit in and out without too much friction. Reason for this feature is so that users could put the dice into the holders and use that as a tray to slide the dice into the top funnel.

The reason I decided to make two dice holders is because when users are sitting around the dice tower, it is convenient for people to access a dice holder from their closest side. Which prevents the need of reaching around the dice tower or spinning it to access the dice holders.

Dice Tower Final Show Case

Showing the final design in action, including the side trays’ functions.

What to Improve?

As noted previously, I had to descale my dice tower as the original design was too large. However, it still Unnecessarily large. The upsides of having these large dimensions is the large area in which it is possible to retrieve the dice at the bottom tray, which gives the user space to grab the dice using their hands without obstruction. However, this can still be achieved with smaller dimensions such as 6 inches in height and length, and then 4 inches in width. This then would allow for the dice tower to be more portable around a game setting and would take up less space on a table while retaining enough space to retrieve the dice at the bottom tray.