Wooden LEGO Tiles

All LEGO builders know the 2x2 tiles. They are the most common tiles in the LEGO world. The concrete tile of the plastic world. I don't want a concrete tile in my living room and no standard 2x2 tile in my LEGO house.

Time to create a wooden 2x2 tile!

Materials:

3mm or 4mm plywood

Tools:

a lasercutter (or makerspace)

I started with figuring out what the dimensions of the real tile are. A duckduckgo search gave me this great files from Christoph Barneck. To be sure, I also did my own measurements.

Next I drew the bricks in Gravit Design. Your lasercutter can cut and engrave. I want the laser to cut the outer border of my tile, so for my cutter I have to draw those lines in a thin red line. The inside of the brick, I want to engrave. Everything that I draw in black, will be engraved out of the plywood.

To be clear: Everything that remains white will be HIGH in the cut and everything that is black will be LOW in the end result.

Now go to the laser and put the engraving settings on much slower than you would normally do, because you want to have a really deep engraving.

I started with the exact dimensions from the measurements. The laser has a kerf (like a saw) so this first tile was to lose.

There are 4 measurements to dial in:

• 1 The outer dimensions of the tile. > this is the easiest to dial in. Simply measure the cut brick and add the difference to the dimensions in the drawing.
• 2 The depth of the engraving. > This should be somewhere around 2mm. Simply measure the depth and calculate the new engraving speed. So if your engraving is now 1mm deep, than you need to half your engraving speed to double the depth.

Now it is time to cut a new tile.

measure and finetune the outside dimensions of the tile and measure the depth of the engraving and slightly increase or decrease the engraving speed. (more speed is less depth)

• 3 The tile has probably a lose fit on a real LEGO brick at this point. > slightly enlarge the inner ring in the drawing and cut a new tile. Repeat this step until the tile had a tight fit.
• 4 The tile has a tight fit, but can still turn a little bit. > Reduce the size of the outer (black) square slightly until the dimensions of your tile are perfect.

I had to reduce the outer square by 0.25 mm to get a tight fit.

Now you can cut a lot of tiles. Not to much at the same time, because when I tried to cut 104 tiles in one run the wood bulged during engraving and that made the dimensions go way off. For me it worked great to cut 24 tiles in one run.

It is time to sand your tiles now. That works best if you keep them in de plank where you cut them out of. This way the tiles all stay in place while sanding. I worked my way up the sanding ladder from 120 grid until 400 grid.

I used a compressor to blow them clean in a big sieve. A lasercutter makes a lot of dust and sanding only adds more.

You can keep them like that, but you can also stain and/or varnish them. This is also easiest to do in the plank where you cut them out off.

Now it is time to floor your new, brick build, apartment.

I am still searching for my ideal brick apartment, so I have the flooring ready to put in as soon as I find it.

The result is much better than I expected, but still there are some points of attention:

• The fit is great, but not like a real LEGO brick.
• The sides and bottom of the tiles will slightly deposit some black soot.
• You will need to remove the tiles straight up, or the sides will probably break off.
• The tiles smell like burned wood. Some people love is, some don't.
• It is really hard to give the tiles a perfect stain or varnish finish. (so I kept them untreated)

I am thinking of selling them on my website, so if you are from the Netherlands (or Belgium of Germany) and you don't want to make them yourself, than ask me what I can do for you.