Dice

Discussion in 'My Shapeways Order Arrived' started by MrNibbles, Oct 24, 2013.

  1. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    Well this is not Earth shattering 3D design but I decided to give all the kids in the family some dice this year as holiday presents (along with cold hard cash). My prototypes (0.64 inch or 1.63 cm sized) came in and they look nice. I also had some one inch versions made. For presents the small ones seem a bit cheapish and the large ones are just a little too large for kids' hands. I also designed some halfway in between at 0.82 inches that I will order soon. But for now here are the results of the 0.64 inch sized solid interior dice.

    dice_wsfp_blacksanded.jpg

    The die at the left is wsf-polished. The pips could be highlighted with paint or other coloring if desired. The one at the right is sf in black but I sanded the faces with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the dye and get more contrast for the pips. I thought that painting might be messy, especially if I try to do it! With my luck the paint would seep into the face and look messy. I will experiment with different colorants before I decide what is the best way to get more contrast.

    With a tumbler and tumbler media bigger than the largest pip holes you could probably remove all the dye except for what is in the pips. In this design the gaps between faces along the edges are a bit narrow to I widened those up in the 0.82 inch version to make any sanding variations less noticeable. The dye on the surface of the die is attached very well. It took a lot of elbow grease and about 20 minutes to sand down all 6 faces and a few faces could use a bit more sanding. The only trouble I had was in the pips for face 6. When I tried to remove sanding powder from those holes the dye came out very easily with hardly any pressure. I assume that's because there was enough powder left in the pips that prevented good dye adhesion. Not a big problem though since a black fine point Sharpie should be able to cover up the reveal of the white underneath.

    die_blacksanded.jpg

    I also have some segmented designs with cavities under each face that allow filling of each die face with paint or something so it can dry before flipping the die and working on the next face. This allows different colors for different pips and it increases the weight of the die as compared to a hollow one. I'm guessing that filler is also cheaper than printing a solid die. Unfortunately I have not yet experimented with any fillers and I'm not sure what might work best.