Laser Cut Board Game Inserts

Intro: Laser Cut Board Game Inserts

Board games often come with lots of components and precious little in the way of organization. People will sometimes use bowls, plano boxes, custom 3D printed inserts, foam card dividers, and other imaginative solutions. My favorite site for fast fabrication of boxes is MakerCase, and it recently added support for boxes with curved corners and dividers. So I made a set of custom boxes for a rather complicated board game called Agricola, in which you build a small farm while trying to ensure your family stays fed. You win by having the most developed farm and a healthy family. It is fun but an organizational headache because all the parts come in 15 ziplock baggies, which all need to be used every game.

9 May 2023: just found that Boxes.py has a free Agricola insert for the latest edition!

STEP 1: Design

I based my design on this 3D printed setup, which I found via image search. I measured the box and parts I had and did a few calculations to make 4 different MakerCase boxes, which I edited in Fusion360 to just keep the bits of the boxes I needed and to add internal dividers. The resulting .eps file is attached, if you want to make your own (though note that this version of Agricola is no longer available).

In hindsight, I would have skipped the editing of the boxes and just used MakerCase's divider tool. It's perfect for board game inserts. Just make sure the height of your box(es) exactly fills the game box: that way even if the game gets inverted the pieces will all stay in their correct places.

STEP 2: Laser Cut

A pretty quick process - laser cutting is fast and reliable compared to 3D printing for making boxes. I have a pretty cheap 3D printer and it is really not great at printing large flat objects like boxes - the prints tend to warp and fail far more often than what I get when printing small complicated objects.

Glue the boxes together as shown. If you need clamping, masking tape and/or rubber bands are fine. I left them to dry overnight, then gave the outsides a quick sand to remove any squeezed-out glue and laser soot.

STEP 3: Add to Box and Fill

Fill the boxes with the components, and enjoy getting rid of the plastic bags! This design means you simply lift the trays from the box and use them directly during the game. Big improvement from the tedium of emptying and reloading the bags. While this design is specific to this specific edition of one board game, the idea is generally useful to any board game or similar organizational problem you might have.

Comments

[wiml33na3rts]

How did you create the curved bottom boxes? They look awesome.
You say you got your inspiration from an already designed insert but what I'm looking for is tips for designing them myself. What's the best way of deciding how big the boxes should be for example? How do insert designers go about finding out the best measurements?
And you say you edited them in Fusion 360 and added dividers, that's also something I'd really like an instructable for. ;-)

[makendo]

Good questions! The curved bottom boxes came from MakerCase, I just used half of a regular curved box. I didn't document all my faffing around with Fusion360 because next time around I will definitely just use the https://en.makercase.com/#/divider divider tool. Knowing how big each box needs to be and how many you need is very much a function of the particular game. Some games are pretty well organized, others are a mess of plastic bags.

[wiml33na3rts]

Thanks for the answer! I have yet to cut and design my first insert. Could you perhaps upload the curved box file to thingiverse or something? I'm not quite sure how I would go about cutting a regular curved box in half...
I realise every game is different of course but I'm thinking what the best way would be to figure out how wide, high etc the insert boxes should be. I was thinking of perhaps cutting a 'one size fits all' box with multiple dividers to play around with. Or fold some paper or cardboard cups to figure out the best size. I don't know. That's why I was hoping for some tips from experienced designers.

[makendo]

The curved box file (and all the boxes) are in the attached .eps file. In terms of design, I basically adopted someone else's layout, and I think this is the way to go as you are learning. Once you've done a few you'll get a better sense of what you like and what works well.

[wiml33na3rts]

Thanks for the quick replies! Starting with premade designs to learn the trade sounds sensible, good tip. :-)
You uploaded the design as an .eps-file but neither Fusion 360 nor RD Worx seem to be able to read the file. Is there a specific reason why you uploaded it as an .eps and not as a dxf or svg or something? What software do you recommend to open it with?
I hope you don't mind my questions, I'm very interested in making laser cut inserts but still really a noob as you can tell...

[makendo]

dxf uploaded!

[mikeasaurus]

Love me some Acricola. We have a few games at home that need piece management. That link for the maker boxes is great, and a place I often start at when making any kind of box enclosure.
For fun, here's an organizer I made for Castles of the Mad king Ludwig (which somehow shipped with no containers for any of the pieces).

[makendo]

whoa, beautiful! Great work Mike. And it's not impossible that you alerted me to the existence of MakerCase...