Board game case in hotel in LA

Board game case in use in Tucson with family

Even the dogs love the board games

I had originally designed the case to have enough space between the closed drawers and the sliding front to fit large boards. But in the process of making the case I forgot about this detail. I decided I would go back and shorten the large middle drawers, which I had already decided to redesign in the middle of the process. (see my original design to see the difference) These drawers were very large to begin with so shortening them by 2 inches was not a big deal. I made more then enough room for several different boards to fit standing up in the space where these three middle drawers used to come out too. I like this design much better. The case seemed too straight and now has more character.

Luckily for me it was not too much work. I only have to disassemble one drawer and shorten it. Thankfully I had only made one of the middle drawers.

I also went back and redid my first drawer. I was originally going to do box joints on only the front but now have decided that it’s worth it to do it right the first time.

I have even put the dice tower to test, I have decided the walls for the catcher are too tall to see into. I am thinking about lining the walls of the tray with mirrors for easy view of the dice. Now I have to think about color.

I went back to the drawing board, i.e. Sketchup, and designed a case to hold my new dice tower.

The best part is the lid could be used as a backboard for throwing the dice down the shoot.

I decided I would glue all the pieces together instead of nailing them. I started off by gluing the randomizer and then measuring for the walls.

It did not take too long. I made sure to wait and hour for the glue to dry before I started on the walls but other then that it probably only took one hour.

After I had it all glued together I sanded it down and then got to testing it. The dice tower works great.

I decided to make a simple dice tower. A dice tower helps you roll dice to ensure no cheating as well as keep the dice from falling off the table and away from knocking all the pieces off the board.

I found several ideas online and went from there. I decided for the randomizer inside the tower I would use 2×2 blocks cut into a spiral slide. I put everything together on in Sketchup, as I always do before building.

I then made sure I had all the dimensions and cuts all pre-planed out in the computer before I purchased the materials.

I am still working with 2×4 and really cant wait to get back to making furniture. I want to build a dresser and try my hand at some of those dovetail joints. But this will do for now.