Dice Towers

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on a little craft project to make myself a set of dice towers. If you know me at all you know that I play a lot of board games with my friends. Many of these games involve rollings lots of dice that often fall off the table, especially if the players are tipsy. The main point of a dice tower is to randomize the dice and yet still have them contained in a confined space for ease of use.

So, for the past month or two I'd been looking around online for a dice tower to buy. It turns out that the nice wooden ones cost anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 and it occurred to me that it is silly to buy something that you can make for yourself. Also, I really wanted two towers because it is annoying to have to pass the tower across the table as turn order passes. This way players on each side of the table can share one. So, I searched around and found this set of plans for how to make your own dice tower out of foam board.

Then, I made myself a set. They look like this:
They are very simple. They way they work is that you drop the dice in the top, where they then clatter around on three separate, slanted steps on the way down, then they come out into the attached receptacle. Many dice towers have a separate tower and base so that each one is a two piece unit. I liked these because each one is a single piece. That way, if you do pass one across the table you only have to grasp it gently by the top to pick it up.

Basically, all they are is foam board held together with Elmer's glue and toothpicks and then painted with a textured spray paint, with red felt in the base receptacle. They are surprisingly sturdy.

Next up I plan to make my own pattern for a slightly larger set of towers with more steps on the inside and with windows in the sides and crenelations along the top to make it look more like an actual tower. Once that is done I plan to make a prototype out of foam board and a final set out of wood.