Telescoping Dice Tower

A dice tower is an object used by gamers to roll dice fairly. Dice are dropped into the top of the tower, and bounce off of various hidden platforms inside it before emerging from the front. Dice towers eliminate some methods of cheating which may be performed when rolling dice by hand. (Wikipedia)

This dice tower features a telescopic design that allows it to collapse into a more compact and portable size, but keeps it easy to unfold into full size for playing. Its hexagonal design makes for an interesting addition to any gaming table.

Disclaimer: This is only a rough prototype, and its telescoping function is not yet fully operational. Please do not try to force anything. Thank you for understanding.

You will need:

• 2x MDF Sheets (400x600x3mm)
• Super Glue

Download the attached files. These contain ready-to-laser cut files, provided you have access to a laser cutter and the UCP laser cutter software.

Laser cut the files out of the MDF sheets, taking care to note their positions with respect to the above diagrams.

Yellow piece 5 connects yellow pieces 1 and 3. Affix these onto the inside of red piece 1, such that neither piece 1 nor 3 are in contact with a side that has a smooth outside edge. Affix yellow pieces 6 and 7 to the inside of red piece one, on the sides that have smooth outside edges. Affix yellow pieces 2 and 4 to the remaining inside edges, away from the sides that have smooth outside edges.

Red piece 2 goes on the bottom. Red pieces 3, 4, 5, and 6 go on top to form walls. Red piece 1 and everything attached to it goes on top of those. Be mindful of the orientation. Yellow piece 5 should be inside the walls formed by red pieces 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Use super glue as necessary to keep them in place.

Affix pieces 1, 2, 3, and 4 onto piece 5. The flat edges of pieces 1 and 2 should line up with the flat edge of piece 5. Use super glue to keep them in place.

This forms the drawer of the tower. Slide it into the base created in the previous step. Once it is in place, take a black piece (see diagram in step 3) and slide it into the holes of pieces 1 and 2.

Disclaimer: at the time of this writing, the drawer does not fit into the prototype I created. I chose to leave this step in, so that when I fix the files I need not make another step.

Each of the layers is constructed in the same way. Start with the green layer, then blue, purple, and grey. Build these directly onto the tower.

First, take the pieces of the select color from the file tower-minus-slats.pdf. Take the corresponding slat from the slats.pdf file and glue the other pieces to the ends of the slat by putting these ends into the small holes in the horizontal center of the piece. Make sure they are all oriented with the slits in each piece perpendicular to the slat, and are pointing in the same direction as each other.

Place this component above the previous layer, and slide it into the tower such that the tapering holes taper downwards. When these are in place, take the T-shaped black pieces (see diagram in step 3) and slide them into the holes of the previous layer, so that the heads of the T's point outwards and are horizontal.

Repeat this step for each of the colors.

You're done! Now you have a cool dice tower to show your friends at the next DnD or Pathfinder session!

(Disclaimer: The product is still in the prototype stage. Please wait while I fix and test the design so you don't waste good MDF. You could also try changing up the design yourself. I mean the files are there anyway. I will update this as soon as I have a working design. Thank you for understanding.)