Dice

[brianhabby]

This morning's project.

Take an oak offcut:

Glue it to double thickness and cut some cubes. I finished up with three but only photographed one :?

Make some templates on the computer to aid hole location:

Actually the above was completed prior to today.

Glue them to some appropriately sized bits of MDF:

Following the cross hairs on the templates drill pilot holes:

That is my grandson drilling those holes, not me

Fasten some bits of MDF to the sides to create the finished jigs:

Place the jigs over the cubes and drill pilot holes:

This is what they looked like with the pilot holes drilled:

We then had to enlarge the holes:

You'll notice there are only two by now. I messed up by trying to drill too big a hole too close to the edge on the first one and this is what happened:

Make some dowels from some scraps of mahogany:

By hammering a thin peg through a hole in a steel plate drilled with the same drill used to drill the holes in the cubes, we had dowels of the exact size needed.

Cut the dowels into short pegs and glue into place:

Cut off the excess:

After sanding and a coat of danish oil:

I'll give them another couple of coats of oil and then they are done. Hope there weren't too many pics.

regards

Brian

 

[Philly]

Very smart Brian! You're definitely on a roll with those...... :lol:
Cheers
Philly

 

[wizer]

nice idea there. Might do some of them for the bubba

 

[PowerTool]

Nice little project,Brian - and nice to see the younger generation getting involved as well

Andrew

 

[motownmartin]

Thanks for sharing this Brian, how about making a giant set of Dominoes that you play on the lawn or patio......................Might do that myself 8)

They do look good :wink:

 

[brianhabby]

I like the idea of the dominoes, will have to think about that one. Don't tell Brad we're thinking of making our own :lol:

My grandson usually accompanies me in the workshop on Sundays and likes to get involved where he can. Not many power tools he can use but the pillar drill is okay (he uses one in school).

Nice to be able to use up the offcuts as well.

Thanks for all your positive comments so far

regards

Brian

 

[OPJ]

Nice way to use up some offcuts there, Brian. Good to see your grandson spends time in the workshop as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent, out of curiosity, should the dots be on certain sides ? Always wondered.

Koolwabbit

 

[Boatfixer]

Excellent, out of curiosity, should the dots be on certain sides ? Always wondered.

Koolwabbit

Opposite sides add up to 7 i.e. 6+1. 5+2 etc...

Graham

 

[dh7892]

Excellent, out of curiosity, should the dots be on certain sides ? Always wondered.

Koolwabbit

Opposite sides should add up to 7. So the six should be opposite the 1; the two opposite the five etc.

 

[Richard Findley]

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Very nice job!!!

If I was to be SUPER critical I'd have put the spots a little closer to the centre (or should that be further from the edge :?: ) but I guess you kind of found that yourself!! :wink: Real good job. I love the transformation from the unpromising:

to the grand reveal:

Well done!!

Richard

 

[richburrow]

Nice
Good to see your grandson having a go as well.

 

[joiner_sim]

Looking good, I wanna make one now!

 

[brianhabby]

As for which sides the dots/spots should be on and the opposite sides adding up to 7, I didn't realise this, just copied from another dice, turned out okay though.

Richard,

You're right, the spots should have been further away from the edge as evidenced by the broken one on the pic above. I wanted to use a larger hole and when I started to drill the edge chipped away. This might have been because I was drilling by hand since my bench drill has a maximum capacity of 10mm which is what I finished up using.

regards

Brian

 

[Setch]

I made these a little while ago, as bases for some gaming trophies. They're made from air dried cherry I cut down with my Dad in my grandparents garden, and the base is teak which I salvaged from a skip.

Instead of making templates for the dots, I setup a fence on the drill (actually a tiny vertical mill) and got the combination of dots by rotating the blank. You only have to setup 2 positions, since all the numbers are composed of dots in the corners, or centre of the dice. I bored the dots with an end mill and filled them with black acrylic lacquer - I was a bit tight on time to inlay them.

 

[Derek Willis.]

Snap,
Used to make these purely as ornaments to sell at craft fairs, very popular a few years ago, Solid Ash blocks, with mahogany inserts, always remember opposing sides add up to seven.
derek.

 

[Paul.V]

i like those, i may have to have a go at making some.

how do you round of the edges/corners, by hand, router, sander ?

 

[Derek Willis.]

Round-over bit on the table.
Derek.