I also highly recommend using the ' Floyd Steinberg' setting instead of the default when engraving, because it gives a much more natural wood-grain texture. For me, I found that 40 Speed and 70 Power gave good results. Raster settings can vary widely based on what machine you're using, too. For the 60W Epilog, this was 10 Speed, 100 Power, and 10 Frequency. Use the recommended Vector settings for 1/8" plywood based on your machine. All of these affect how deeply the laser cuts and engraves. The Speed setting controls how fast the laser head moves, the Power setting controls the amount of power it uses, and the Frequency is how often the laser pulses. If it's an option, set the job type to Combined for both raster and vector. From there, you'll need to set the dimensions of your media (the dimension of the plywood we measured earlier), and your Raster (engraving) and Vector (cut) settings. Go to Printer Preferences and open up the printer's dialog menu. Press Print in your vector editor and select your laser cutter from the list. Install the drivers from the manufacturer's website. Always, always ask for help if you're unsure of what you're doing. Makerspaces are great places to check for laser cutters and engravers, and you can often pay by the hour for access. The laser cutter I used was an Epilog 60W laser, so the below steps and settings may vary based on what machine you have access to. You can use this to create visual interest in your dice box! You may need to play with the color slightly to get good contrast, so feel free to reference the provided files. For most laser engravers, the color/lightness of the image is used as the laser power, so white areas will be untouched and dark areas will be heavily engraved. The more power the laser uses, the darker and more sunken the area will be.ģ. Engraving works by removing the surface layer of the wood. You can also use regular bitmap images too with most laser cutters.Ģ. Then, scale it so that it fits nicely within the hexagonal facepiece. You can pull images or designs off the internet and then use the Image Trace tool to turn it into a usable vector. If you've never used a vector editor with laser engraving before, here are a couple of tips to get you started:ġ. Both the top and bottom can be engraved- there are several sample faces included in the source files for you to get inspired by! It can show off your character or reflect your own interests, making it a great gift for friends. Personalizing your dice boxes is one of my favorite parts of this process. You can get the cut and raster files below. You'll need a vector editor for this step- Adobe Illustrator (not free) and Inkscape (free) both work great. They're a really cool small business selling handmade accessories for tabletop gaming, so please go check them out!)Īlso, check the images for additional details! ( Full Disclosure: While I did make the patterns myself through trial and error, these boxes are heavily inspired by Elderwood Academy's gorgeous hex chest dice boxes. This project relies entirely on the laser cutter and engraver to do the heavy lifting and otherwise can be assembled with basic materials. Many of them I found difficult to assemble, or required woodworking tools I had no access to. This project was born out of my own (mostly failed) attempts to follow other dice box tutorials. They feature strong magnetic closures that prevent your dice from tumbling out while battling hordes of gnolls and have felt linings that can be swapped out to complement and pamper your favorite dice set. These laser cut, magnetic dice boxes hold seven standard polyhedral dice and can be custom-engraved to give them some personal flair. D&D is such an incredible way to spend time with people, and I've finally built up enough confidence to start my own campaign! Being the crafty sort, I wanted a handmade way to carry my dice with style. I picked up Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition last year and have had a blast playing it with my friends.
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