Project Information
My family tries to get together at least twice a year (4 sisters and one brother), once for a campout in June and always at Thanksgiving. When our mother downsized from out childhood home, now many years ago, two of my sisters have been very generous with opening their homes to our large family to celebrate Thanksgiving. I would gladly host; but my house is not nearly big enough to accommodate the horde.
The amount of effort required to prepare their homes to receive 20-25 family members and the aftermath of such a gathering is significant. I try to show my appreciation for their efforts through doing some small project that might make their lives a little easier or to give them something that is useful or has meaning.
The family likes to play all manner of dice and board games. Two family favorites are Yahtzee and Farkle, in part because they both allow many players of all ages and odd numbers of players - and they're both fun to play. Casting dice onto a hard table makes a lot of noise, in an already loud and rambunctious environment, and as the evenings progress, some people seem to have increasing difficulty keeping the dice on the table, as their motor skills deteriorate.
With this in mind, I decided to build a little box to contain the dice and help to reduce some of the noise level.
I don't have the dimensions for this anymore (it's a couple of years old); but its roughly 10"x10"x2.5". This was one of the first boxes I have built and I wasn't anticipating sharing on any forum. It's pretty simple construction… the casting cup was sized to just fit into the box with the lid closed (I threw a little ash into the cup, but it's barely noticeable. The lid slides open and stays closed with friction, due to a slight taper in the dado on the sides. I cut the slot with the table saw and had to chisel out the last bit to compensate for the curve of the blade - allowing me to size it to"stick".
Supplies:
Reclaimed oak (from a pallet), felt cloth (from hobby store), dice, glue, stain, spray polyurethane
Tools:
Table saw, band saw, router/table, belt sander, hand sander, clamps, file/rasp, ruler
I'm not going to claim this to be a work of art by any means, just thought I'd share to see if anyone has something comparable, and to maybe provide an idea for others to create a functional gift.
Happy gaming!
Horus
The amount of effort required to prepare their homes to receive 20-25 family members and the aftermath of such a gathering is significant. I try to show my appreciation for their efforts through doing some small project that might make their lives a little easier or to give them something that is useful or has meaning.
The family likes to play all manner of dice and board games. Two family favorites are Yahtzee and Farkle, in part because they both allow many players of all ages and odd numbers of players - and they're both fun to play. Casting dice onto a hard table makes a lot of noise, in an already loud and rambunctious environment, and as the evenings progress, some people seem to have increasing difficulty keeping the dice on the table, as their motor skills deteriorate.
With this in mind, I decided to build a little box to contain the dice and help to reduce some of the noise level.
I don't have the dimensions for this anymore (it's a couple of years old); but its roughly 10"x10"x2.5". This was one of the first boxes I have built and I wasn't anticipating sharing on any forum. It's pretty simple construction… the casting cup was sized to just fit into the box with the lid closed (I threw a little ash into the cup, but it's barely noticeable. The lid slides open and stays closed with friction, due to a slight taper in the dado on the sides. I cut the slot with the table saw and had to chisel out the last bit to compensate for the curve of the blade - allowing me to size it to"stick".
Supplies:
Reclaimed oak (from a pallet), felt cloth (from hobby store), dice, glue, stain, spray polyurethane
Tools:
Table saw, band saw, router/table, belt sander, hand sander, clamps, file/rasp, ruler
I'm not going to claim this to be a work of art by any means, just thought I'd share to see if anyone has something comparable, and to maybe provide an idea for others to create a functional gift.
Happy gaming!
Horus
