Description

I wanted a D20 shaped dice container for my daughter. After looking thru the models on Printables, they were either arbitrarily sliced for the lid, or had the numbers glued into recesses. So I decided to make my own that allows for the faces to be printed separately and glued onto an inner blank isosahedron container.

By printing the faces separately, you can have smooth faces (due to printing face down on glass or smooth PEI) that have the numbers a different color by changing the filament at a particular layer height.

Instead of the lid being a horizontal slice at an arbitrary height that would need both magnets and pegs to stay connected, I sliced out a 5 face section that follows the geometry. It is a convex lid that fits into the concave base. The lid is held in place with 20 4x2mm cylindrical neodymium magnets. 10 on the lid and 10 on the base. To open the lid, you press with your thumbs and slide the lid off. The lid will self align closed when placing the lid back on.

Printing Tips

Print the lid with one face down. See the image with the purple lid. You shouldn't need any supports.

Print the container with one face down, with the container opening facing up. See the image with the purple base. You shouldn't need any supports for this either.

The magnet holes in the lid and base are sized at 4.2mm in diameter and 2.2mm deep. They should fit a standard 4mm diameter by 2mm length cylindrical neodymium magnet snugly.

The faces are printed face down. You don't need any supports. The cut outs for the numbers are 1mm deep. So if you are printing using a standard layer height of 0.2mm, you need to change the filament at layer 6. Honestly, i messed up and changed filament at layer 5 and can't tell any difference. You just need at least 3 or more layers of you base color before changing to your text color. I actually changed back to the base color at layer 12, so more of my container was black. Printers should have no issues spanning the thickness of the numbers.

I have 2 different fonts available. They are both open source fonts from Google Fonts.

Poppins is a standard looking font, while Gaegu is more of a hand written looking font. Download the version you like best (or both!).

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Poppins

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Gaegu

I printed 10 faces at time, but i uploaded the individual faces if its easier to arrange them on your own.

Print the gluing jig. You shouldn't need any supports. I cut out the corners so that the faces can really squeeze together on the edges. You can also use this jig as a stand for the completed container. In Cura, if you set the z seam to sharpest corner, the seams should be on the outside of the jig, leaving the inner support surfaces smooth for assembly.

Assembly

Keeping all the faces oriented correctly during the glue up is accomplished by printing out the face holding jig. You start by placing 5 faces down into the jig, then using Gel Superglue, add a triangular ring of glue to each face. Gently place the lid on top and gently press the corners of the faces till they are even all around. Let the lid sit for a good while, like an hour. Don't press the corners to tightly, you should be able to nudge them so they are evenly spaced. Gently press down on the lid as well. Everything should slide into place.

Then do the same thing with the base, staring with 5 faces for the bottom of the container. After the 5 faces on the bottom of the container are dried, add faces, 2 at time by placing the 2 faces into the jig, adding glue to the backs, then gently placing the container in such that the already glued 3 faces line up with the 2 new faces to add. Let it dry an hour, then keep working your way around the rest of the container.

You want to make sure the faces don't go above the edges of the lid, or the container. The need to be level, or slightly below so there is no interference with them coming together when the container is closed.

The magnets are easily glued into the holes by using a small puddle of the gel superglue and a stack of the magnets. Using the stack of magnets, dip the top one in the gel superglue puddle just a little, then, using the column of magnets, press it into the hole and slide off the column to leave the deposited magnet in place. Don't try putting the lid and container together until those magnets are completely dry. By using the column to add the magnets, it is very easy to ensure all the magnets have their poles in the same direction. Be sure the magnets in the container and lid are set to attract each other…

Finally, the dice echoed a bunch banging around in the plastic container. So i went to Michael's craft store and bought a sheet of thin foam with an adhesive back for $0.99.

https://www.michaels.com/product/9-x-12-adhesive-foam-sheet-by-creatology-10032002

The adhesive on this sheet foam works great. Just print out the foam triangle template I provided and use an exacto knife to cut out triangles. Be careful placing them inside, the adhesive is fairly strong.

I highly, highly recommend not skipping this step. The entire thing just feels better with the foam inside.

Future Improvements

As of now I have two different fonts available, Poppins and Gaegu. Send me a message if there are other open source fonts you would like to see. Not all of them will work correctly in Blender.

I am working on a version that uses thinner faces. I will say that the thinner faces make the container feel cheap. The standard version I have uploaded here has a satisfying clunk when the lid is placed and feels solid when removed.