This is one of the funner things that I've made using my 3D printer (a Prusa MK3S+). My wife and I like playing Catan, which we discovered so long ago that we call it "Settlers". It's a board game that involves a lot of die-rolling, and we used to have a problem that our dice would sometimes go flying off the table and onto the floor, even if we used a box to roll them into. Then I discovered the concept of a "dice tower". RPG fans will no doubt already be familiar with the idea: it's a device that you can drop your dice into, and they'll elegantly roll out the bottom with the desired entropy.
However I learned about it on Thingiverse, where Lau85 designed an beautiful one that you can print yourself.
To make it look more like masonry, I ordered some "white marble PLA filament" from Sunlu by way of Amazon. I sliced the models with PrusaSlicer, with supports enabled. The speckled color gives the surface a nice appearance.
The design of the model is clever: you cut the top and bottom off a 1.5 liter bottle of SmartWater, and use the middle section as a clear cylindrical wall so you can see the dice descending the staircase. If you're using a SmartWater bottle, scale all the 3D-printed parts by 103.5%. The bottle comes with a label that's stuck on with some strong adhesive so I used some Goo Gone solvent to remove it. Here's a test-fit, where I'm almost ready to measure for the second (bottom) cut.
After chopping it off with a box-cutter and scissors, the bottle slides in the middle and the top of the tower fits over it. I then used some acrylic adhesive [Amazon] to attach the printed pieces together. It's still my favorite PLA glue, although I think it's pretty toxic so I'm careful to only use it outdoors with a facemask, gloves, and safety goggles.
The final piece is a tray that goes in front to catch the dice. Ready to play!
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2022 Aug 7