Conversation Oktahedron

This instructable shows how to make your own conversation Oktahedron. A large 8 sided dice with removable/replacable sides containing small thought provoking and conversation starting quotes on each side.

the Dice is a physical artefact of the Doreen project and is based on the paper :

DOREEN: A Game of Provocations Creating New Ambitions for Equity in Computing through Intertextual Design.

Supplies

What you will need:

a 3d printer, a normal consumer fdm printer should be adequate.

24 5X5mm cylindrical neodymium magnets.

a sheet of iron or steel app 0.5mm thickness

and angle grinder with a metal cutting disc or a pair of metal shears.

a metalfile for removing burrs (if you dont have one you can use sandpaper instead)

superglue.

possibly a printer for printing the text unto paper and glue to stick it to the metal plates. alternatively if you have access to a laser cutter that can be used to engrave the letter in paint.

Step 1: Print the Dice

The first step is to go to thingiverse and download the 3d files for the octahedron. they are located here. The files should print supportless and fits well on most consumer fdm printers.

print 2 and glue them together using superglue. Make sure that you register the two sides as precisely as possible and make sure that the small tap is located on the same side on both halves as shown in the image. this is for getting your finger in, when removing the metal plates. it is only on one side since any subsequent sides can be removed by pushing from the inside.

Step 2: Make the Metal Plates.

the metal plates can be made from any thin sheet of iron or steel you can get your hands on. We used shims, but that is not the cheapest solution. Draw triangles directly on the metal or print the reference given here unto paper and glue it on the metal. you will need at least 8, but if you want your users to be able to choose from different quotes you will need as many triangles as you have quotes (yes you can draw on both sides but then your users can only choose one of the quotes)

after cutting the sides make sure to be really careful to remove burrs and sharp sides. Thin metal sheet is potentially very sharp!

Step 3: Attach the Magnets:

attaching the magnets is as easy as popping them in the holes and giving them a dap of super glue on top. The glue will flow around the magnets and keep it in place. Just make sure to let the magnets find their own orientation. they are located close enough to one another that their magnetic field overlap, and thus if you force them in the wrong way they will want to escape, and even if you succeed, the magnets will be weakened by the conflicitin fields and the metal plate wont stick as tight.

Step 4: Fit the Plates:

Before you add text to the plates it is a good idea to make sure they fit in the dice. Take every single one of them and test fit them on one or more sides of the dice. the magnets will hold them pretty securely so it is better to have a slightly loose fit than a very tight one. use the metal file (or sandpaper) to removeany excess metal. if it is alot, you might want to use your shears or angle grinder, but small adjustments are best made with the file.

Step 5: Add Text to Your Sides.

now you are ready to add text to the sides of the dice. we have provided a file with our quotes , but there is nothing to stop you from adding your own (or even make entirely new ones with quotes relating to your favourite subject).

there are several ways to go about this. the easiest and most accessible is to use a normal printer. print out the quotes and glue them unto the metal plates.

if you have access to a laser cutter, you might want to make it a bit more interesting by e.g. paint the metal plates and then engrave away the paint with the laser. That way you can get a cool effect of metal letters on a painted background.

either way this file can be use either as is or as a reference.

Step 6: Want to Know More?

the Dice is a physical artefact of the Doreen project which is described in the paper :

DOREEN: A Game of Provocations Creating New Ambitions for Equity in Computing through Intertextual Design.

you can use the following citation if you want to cite this work :

Jenny-Margrethe Vej, Valeria Borsotti, Valkyrie Savage, Morten Engell-Nørregård, and Pernille Bjørn.

2022.

DOREEN: A Game of Provocations Creating New Ambitions for Equity in Computing through Intertextual Design.

In Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (NordiCHI '22).

Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA,

Article 86, 1–8.

https://doi.org/10.1145/3546155.3547289