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Everyone should have a Pair
of Big Brass Dice.
With Father's day coming up, I wanted to do something a little different. Now, dad plays a lot of board games and occasionally I've seen him have to squint a bit to see how the dice wound up.
I used to work in a gaming store (board, not video) and saw a lot of dice styles cross the counter. One of them was the long polygon style from Crystal Caste. I liked the basic idea and its stuck in the back of my mind ever since I first saw them.
Now that I thought of doing something for Dad, the two things, easy to read dice and the "rolling log" style from Crystal Caste clicked and I was off to the races. The fact that I could make up a little box and label it "Big Brass Ones - One Pair" when giving it to him was too good to pass up.
I did a test run with a threaded rod coupling nut (instructable here) and liked the result. Now it was on to the real stuff - Solid Brass 360 Alloy hexagon stock.
Here was where my love of steampunk came in handy. I have been following the adventures of Jake von Slatt at Steampunk Workshop and saw that he has a nice tutorial on etching brass with chemicals that I could get locally, unlike circuit board etching acid. At this point it was time to gather my tools and materials and dive in.
This is a continuation of my dice themed instructables. My dice tower tutorial is available here. This one should be towards the end of the dice theme - I'm running out of new ideas.
NOTE: As part of the Etsy/Instructable contest, I have made a few extra pair and put them up for sale on Etsy. While making your own is part of the fun, perhaps you don't have the time or tools needed. Not to worry! Now you too can have your own Pair of Big Brass Ones.
Check out the listing on Etsy and see if any of these bad boys are still available. Order early and often!
of Big Brass Dice.
With Father's day coming up, I wanted to do something a little different. Now, dad plays a lot of board games and occasionally I've seen him have to squint a bit to see how the dice wound up.
I used to work in a gaming store (board, not video) and saw a lot of dice styles cross the counter. One of them was the long polygon style from Crystal Caste. I liked the basic idea and its stuck in the back of my mind ever since I first saw them.
Now that I thought of doing something for Dad, the two things, easy to read dice and the "rolling log" style from Crystal Caste clicked and I was off to the races. The fact that I could make up a little box and label it "Big Brass Ones - One Pair" when giving it to him was too good to pass up.
I did a test run with a threaded rod coupling nut (instructable here) and liked the result. Now it was on to the real stuff - Solid Brass 360 Alloy hexagon stock.
Here was where my love of steampunk came in handy. I have been following the adventures of Jake von Slatt at Steampunk Workshop and saw that he has a nice tutorial on etching brass with chemicals that I could get locally, unlike circuit board etching acid. At this point it was time to gather my tools and materials and dive in.
This is a continuation of my dice themed instructables. My dice tower tutorial is available here. This one should be towards the end of the dice theme - I'm running out of new ideas.
NOTE: As part of the Etsy/Instructable contest, I have made a few extra pair and put them up for sale on Etsy. While making your own is part of the fun, perhaps you don't have the time or tools needed. Not to worry! Now you too can have your own Pair of Big Brass Ones.
Check out the listing on Etsy and see if any of these bad boys are still available. Order early and often!
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Signing UpStep 1Tools and Materials
You will want a work area where some spilled not-that-toxic chemicals and water can be cleaned up. Keeping paper towels and some rags around is always a good idea.
TOOLS:
There are a lot of ways to cut brass into smaller bits. A hacksaw, miter box, files and sandpaper to smooth out the edges would work. I happen to have a non-ferrous metal cutting table saw blade from my old battlebot days. (Battlebot Flickr photosets available here and here) Brass is a non-ferrous metal so that would give a nice smooth cut on the ends - no sanding or smoothing needed. A new blade like mine at Amazon.com goes for $75.
Also,
The etching process is basically putting two pieces of brass in a bath of copper sulfate dissolved in water and running 12V DC between the two. We need both pieces of brass and the copper sulfate.
Brass Hexagon Bar Stock. At least five inches. Why five inches? So we can make a pair of dice at two inches a piece. I used 3/4" diameter hex bar, 5/8" diameter would work as well. I got mine off Ebay but you can get it online at places like onlinemetals.com or speedymetals.com. Check to see if you have a Metal Supermarket nearby. In the past I found having one within reasonable commute distance to be handy. Unfortunately I no longer live near one. Online with shipping, getting it new costs around $18 per foot.
A Brass strip to act as the cathode in the etching process - I had some spare brass bits laying around and a nice piece of 4" x 10" brass plate, 0.032" thick. Didn't need it that wide or thick, 2" x 10" and 0.025" thick is plenty. Most good hobby stores carry some metals from K&S Engineering. One that would work is K&S Part #239. Plenty of length at 12" and you get 3 pieces! Cost around $11.
Root Kill - this is the household chemical used in the etching process. What we are really looking for is Copper Sulfate - which this is 99% of. I originally wandered around the gardening area of the local home improvement store looking for this stuff and finding nothing in frustration. Later I discovered it's in the plumbing department, not gardening. They had plenty a few isles over from where I had searched endlessly. There are other "kill roots" type projects out there. Look at the ingredients and make sure the stuff you get is blue crystals and Copper Sulfate, not something else. Costs $9.89.
Vinyl Letters - the 1/4" sized ones. Cost $3.79 at Staples. I used these because my attempts at the classic toner thermal transfer method where a complete disaster.
Now that we have enough stuff to be dangerous, it's time to start cutting metal.
TOOLS:
There are a lot of ways to cut brass into smaller bits. A hacksaw, miter box, files and sandpaper to smooth out the edges would work. I happen to have a non-ferrous metal cutting table saw blade from my old battlebot days. (Battlebot Flickr photosets available here and here) Brass is a non-ferrous metal so that would give a nice smooth cut on the ends - no sanding or smoothing needed. A new blade like mine at Amazon.com goes for $75.
Also,
- Plastic tubs and buckets to mix the chemicals in and do the actual etching. Glass is OK, do NOT use anything metal. I mixed up the chemicals in a cut down 1 liter seltzer bottle, and did the actual etching in a 2lb Imperial Margarine tub.
- Utility/Xacto knife & good tweezers
- Any color Spray Primer - I used black so any brass showing through was in high contrast and visable. I used the cheap stuff from the autoparts store - $2.44 a can
- touch up paint - could use almost anything, I used black acrylic modeling paint
- 12V DC Power Source with at least 1 Amp output. Could be a car or SLA battery. An old PC power supply converted into a bench supply. I used a variable power supply.
- 12V automobile lightbulbs - I used type 561 and those worked well. These are used for current limiting in the circuit. Cost $1.96 at the autopart store.
- 16 AWG (or thicker) wire to run from the power source to the brass bits. Alligator clamps are your friend.
- SOS pads for scrubbing the paint off the brass.
- small, 2" wide post-it notes
- Brasso & toothbrush to clean the brass
- Acetone
The etching process is basically putting two pieces of brass in a bath of copper sulfate dissolved in water and running 12V DC between the two. We need both pieces of brass and the copper sulfate.
Brass Hexagon Bar Stock. At least five inches. Why five inches? So we can make a pair of dice at two inches a piece. I used 3/4" diameter hex bar, 5/8" diameter would work as well. I got mine off Ebay but you can get it online at places like onlinemetals.com or speedymetals.com. Check to see if you have a Metal Supermarket nearby. In the past I found having one within reasonable commute distance to be handy. Unfortunately I no longer live near one. Online with shipping, getting it new costs around $18 per foot.
A Brass strip to act as the cathode in the etching process - I had some spare brass bits laying around and a nice piece of 4" x 10" brass plate, 0.032" thick. Didn't need it that wide or thick, 2" x 10" and 0.025" thick is plenty. Most good hobby stores carry some metals from K&S Engineering. One that would work is K&S Part #239. Plenty of length at 12" and you get 3 pieces! Cost around $11.
Root Kill - this is the household chemical used in the etching process. What we are really looking for is Copper Sulfate - which this is 99% of. I originally wandered around the gardening area of the local home improvement store looking for this stuff and finding nothing in frustration. Later I discovered it's in the plumbing department, not gardening. They had plenty a few isles over from where I had searched endlessly. There are other "kill roots" type projects out there. Look at the ingredients and make sure the stuff you get is blue crystals and Copper Sulfate, not something else. Costs $9.89.
Vinyl Letters - the 1/4" sized ones. Cost $3.79 at Staples. I used these because my attempts at the classic toner thermal transfer method where a complete disaster.
Now that we have enough stuff to be dangerous, it's time to start cutting metal.
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I made a pair of dice from 50mm (2in) cube mild steel. I drilled the dots then hammered in brass rod. I then sanded it flat and smooth. I then rounded the edges and corners. I made a second pair from 32mm cube (1 1/4 i think). Not i must say, to be played with on a glass top table.
Nice instructable, i look forward to trying it.