Every time I play with my kids in some dice-based game, a dice fly around thrown by my kids. I have a feeling that sometimes, throwing (literaly) a dice is much more fun than actual playing a game. Solution to this "problem" is to use a dice tower.

I was inspired by dice tower projects on Instructable, especially by 3 of them:

Pop Tart Box Dice Tower

How to Make a Cardboard Tumbling Dice Tower

Dice Tower From a Box Plus Dice(s)

So I used whatever materials I had and what usually everybody have in Theirs/Yours homes.

A natural choice was...milk carton boxes. They just fit to work as a dice tower just by their original design.

So here is how I made it.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials I used:

2 milk carton boxes
Duct tape
Some carton piece(s)
Rubber band

Tools needed:

Scissors or sharp knife (e.g. utility knife for cutting carpet)
Glue gun

Step 2: Dice Tower Preparations

I took first carton box and I cut it on a side to access the inside of the box.

Then I removed the plastic part to screw the cap. I thaught I could leave it but standard die doesn't fit into. But after removing it, remainng hole is big enough for a die.

On front side I cut the rectangle output hole, checking if a die will pass through it when last "step" is attached.

Step 3: Dice Tower - Steps

I prepared some carton pieces for steps. They fit in width to the width of the box (in my case it was 7cm). The other dimension was more like try-and-fail. I needed to check if a die passes through steps, but it end up in something around ~5cm.

I used glue gun to attach sides of the steps to the walls. This is afctually crucial for the the project but it is relatively easy. Just try to make it durable enough so continous dice falling will not break it. Otherwise You will need to open the tower after.

Before closing the opened side of the box, I put also hot glue on the edges and I closed the box (waiting till the glue dries up). For security I sticked duct tape thrhough the seal so the final effect looks durable enough.

From now on my dice tower started working.

Step 4: Landing Area

I took second carton box and I cut it vertically so the width of the band fits the size of the standard die.

The landing area should be attached so that it should fold somehow. It will then occupy less space when the tower is not used. After check the length of the landing area I marked the cutting line. Then I connected them using duct tape on both sides. Because it is flexible, the landing area can be folded on the front side.

After folding I use rubber band to keep both parts together so it doesn't open randomly.

Step 5: Final Result

Dice tower works perfectly. We use it now every time when we play some dice related games. We were also using 16 sided die and there were no problems with them as well. My kids think that putting dice into the tower is part of the game - so it's good.

Possible improvements:

- Of course colouring it so it doesn't look like a milk carton anymore. One of the option would be to stick a white paper pieces onto it and ask kids to do the rest.

- I thought also about opening the top part of the box where You can just throw dice inside and not to aim them into the hole. But for my case, I am using it when playing with my kids. I think aiming dice into the hole is a kind of educational thing which improves their dexterity.

- Instead of closing the side wall, You can exchange it with some transparent piece of plastic/foil so it can be seen how dice are rolling inside the tower.