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This week ill be using a laser cuter to make dice.A laser cutter uses a focused laser beam directed at the material to melt and slice through materials, CNC (computer numerical control) is used to direct that laser in pattern to cut onto the material.
Joints?
As the laser cutter works to a 2D geometry the question was what joints were available with the laser cutter and could be used to make a 3D item. These are the option i found.
- Hem
- Interlocking
- Loop Insert
- Flap
- Finger
- Tab Insert
Cutting things
1st task is making a item made from the laser cutter, I’ve decided the 1st thing i’ll cut using CNC is a simple 6 sided dice, essentially a cube. i planed to laser engrave the dots onto the pieces but the main laser cutter we have didn’t accommodate my wish. now that it think back to it though i could have added scribbles on the inside of the to give the appearance of them being shaded in when kiss cut.
dice: sketch plan
I used Solideworks to mock up the pieces form the sketch plan for the dice. it meant I could easily set the dimensions i wanted and also use parametric to automatically adjust the sizes.
6 sided dice: parts
Parametric’s?
Parametric’s change certain dimensions depending on the value of other dimensions automatically. I’ve used them to insure that the joints fit regardless of the martial used as long as i set the size of the slots the other dimensions will change and make for the structure to still work.
To set these parametric i used relations in Solidworks
The Solidwork files were saved as DXFs then taken into illustrator to keep the part sizes and have the ability to copy and paste all the pieces to the amount needed for the dice, it also meant i could arrange them in a neat order to be material efficient when cutting. doing this this way was easier to do via illustrator rather then repeating the sketch on SolidWorks
illustrator: attempt 1 Dice
In illustrator i also added circle to get a sense of 8mm dots on the dice the parts were saved as a DXF again and moved onto…
practice pieces on ethos
Attempt 1 was in card and didn’t include any dots as i wanted to check if the sizes and shape of my pieces where correct. it was extremely quick to cut on 2mm card but it later became problematic when assembling the pieces, the pieces where small and easily bent so making the dice was a problem but i half assembled it anyway to check the sizes.
6 sided dice: Practice pieces
6 sided dice: Assembled Practice 
when assembled the card dice wasn’t great as the keys were flimsily but when assembled all was well so could move onto cutting the real thing using 2mm MDF.
Ethos: 6 sided dice
laser cut pieces for 6 sided dice
End Product: 6 sided dice
12 Sided Dice
There was less of a plan this time but I could use the things before as reference. All I had to do was take the SolidWorks file turn the square to a pentagon adjust the dimensions and relations of that then change the angle of the keys to 190 degrees.
12 sided dice: parts
As before I then took that into illustrator arranged the pieces saved as a DXF and laser cut them on 2mm MDF. Once done I assembled the dodecahedron attaching the keys to the pieces before adding them making it easier to assemble.
Assembly: 12 sided dice
End Product: 12 sided dice
