Beecher's Medieval Dice Tower

By Beecher Porter | Tuesday, February 13, 2024

After clarifying what a dice tower was, I began brainstorming what I could do to put my own unique twist on it. Although I have never actually played, the game Dungeons and Dragons immediately came to mind. This medieval theme led me to think about castle towers and turrets and I became fixated on how I could make my dice tower resemble a Middle Age fort while still being fully functional.

Initial Tower Sketch

After committing to this idea, I began to sketch initial drawings for my tower. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to build a cylindrical tower with laser cut pieces, I opted for a hexagonal shape for the tower and an octagonal shape for the base. I varied the shapes so that the side length could be equal where the tower and base meet, but the base could still be larger than the tower and allow more space for the dice to roll around. I also planned to place two interior walls within the hexagonal tower to make it easier to connect the slants that the dice would bounce off of, and to ensure the dice would not get stuck inside the hexagon at the bottom. After having success with my cube design, I decided to stick with medium density fiberboard and press-fit connections for all of the pieces. I also thought this might provide a more natural earthy feel than acrylic that could contribute to the medieval theme. I sketched out designs for each of the pieces and took them to the design review. 

Initial Sketches of Tower Pieces

After showing my designs to the class and listening to their suggestions I made some altercations to my original sketches. Having learned we had access to a belt sander, I scrapped the press-fit tabs on the sides of the wall pieces for both the tower and the base walls, and instead planned to sand the edges of these pieces on an angle so they would line up flush along the edges. Additionally, I decided to inset the tabs along the edges of the base piece so that the wall pieces would be firmly contained at either end and not slip out. Finally, after learning that 1/8” MDF was not available, I decided to use 1/8” acrylic for my interior walls and slant structure.

CAD model of dice tower

I then began to build each piece in SolidWorks using an equations.txt file and parametrically defined dimensions. I wanted to do this so that I’d be able to change the size of the tower easily later on in case a dice wouldn’t fit all the way through. I was successful in doing so and the pieces fit together nicely minus the overlap on the corners of the hexagon and octagon. I also made sure to account for the kerf as well as the overlap on each piece’s tabs. 

CAD of Tower Pieces

Interior View of the Tower

Fully assembled tower

Once I had each part laid out in CAD, I set about manufacturing them using the laser cutter. I encountered some difficulty when trying to engrave a brick pattern on my tower wall pieces. In the adobe file, the pattern overlapped with the edge of the piece and therefore the pieces did not cut out fully. This was quite the disappointment considering the engraving took a hefty amount of time, however, I was able to salvage some of it by cutting my base wall pieces out of the engraved portions. The sanding went smoothly and I was able to take enough off of each edge so that the pieces fit together at all of the corners without much trouble. In hindsight, I wish I set each piece to a prescribed angle with the sander rather than eyeballing it but I was pressed for time. I decided to use clear acrylic for the interior pieces so that it was see-through and less noticeable. Overall, this was a fun and enlightening project that has given me more confidence in my CAD skills and introduced me to laser cutting. It was awesome to see my idea transition from paper to real life. 

It Works!