How I Made a Set of Four Dice. I Made It at Techshop Detroit!

http://www.techshop.ws

Dice are  ancient and powerful random number generators.  Most commonly, dice are associated with games for fun or leisure.  However, games of dice have started and ended wars, moved civilizations, and decided many a fate.  This instructable shows the steps I went through to make some dice.  ENJOY!! :)

I made this at Techshop Detroit!

Things you will need:
A piece of wood.  (The piece I used here is .75" thick)
A pencil
A ruler
A laser cutter/ engraver
A table saw
A chop saw
A belt sander

Measure out a cut that is the same width as the thickness of the wood.  Make this cut on the table saw.  In this case, the wood is .75" so I cut off a strip .75" x the length of the board.

To actually cut out the dice, you must measure out sections that are the same length as the width and height of the current piece.  Remeber, when spacing out your cuts, you must take into accout the 1/8 inch of kerf for every die.

Make sure there are no rough edges.  Make sure to lightly sand each face of the die evenly to ensure consistent size.

Draw squares that match the dimensions of your dice now (now .73" per side after light sanding) and carve those out of a piece of scrap on the laser cutter.  These will help hold the dice in place and allow you to keep them in position for etching.

Place the die in the bracket and engrave each side with corresponding pips, numbers, symbols or whatever.

Standard pip placement:
If the one is facing up and the two is facing left, then three is to the right of two.  Five is opposite two.  Four is opposite three and six is opposite one.

ENJOY YOUR SWEET NEW HOME-MADE DICE!