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What 300 key fobs looks like and other assorted info

category: offtopic [glöplog]
Why an envelope? Just attach a label with the address&stamps to it?
That doesn't work if I need to send more than one at once to the same person. :)
If you can pay for postage online and get printable labels, you could just engrave the postage label directly onto them ;)
added on the 2017-04-21 18:04:30 by psonice psonice
Just tooling around. Local event happening this weekend where I'm a vendor. I made a bunch of things including coins suitable for use in board games as replacements or upgrades from the usual punchboard tokens. They're double sided and use Reuleaux polygons. MrsBeanbag deserves props for fixing the polygon generating algorithm as she determined the source I used to construct the algorithm had a mistake.

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I also experimented with lasering some blank dice, then painting them:
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I don't imagine the paint will last forever considering my first attempt on a die resulted in too much paint that came off when I took the tape mask off. It was also suggested that I clear coat them, but given the current weather and my day job I don't have time before the weekend event so plain paint will have to do. I've also peeled a good chunk of them so it's now out of the question since a clear coat would cover everything instead of just the indent.

Pictured is a doubling cube, but I did make some with symbols instead of numbers and others that had a logo in place of the 6. To try to avoid small lines these are 25mm dice and the are numbers/shapes around 50% of the width or height of their side or larger. All same-font numbers/symbols were sized together rather than separately so they have variations in size as dictated by the font itself. (Didn't think about that until I started typing it here. I dunno if that's good, worth fixing, or if it doesn't matter.)

I do have some blank D4s, D8s, D10s, D12s, and D20s but I don't have enough time before the weekend to laser and paint any of them so they may show up at a later date. D12s and 20s have bottoms that are different from their tops (in rotation or offset) so I need time to experiment with setup anyway.
I seem to post more to Twitter and occasionally to my "Sceners" Facebook list that this has become an afterthought... I also sort of feel these days the thread, being basically entirely posts of me, is "Go me! Whoo my stuff!" Promotion is good, seeing as it is a side-business of mine these days, but this just feels out of sorts with the rest of Pouet. That said, this'll very likely to be the last post here. (I'll still be around, in the scene, and on Pouet.) If you want to keep up with things, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@asmcbain) or wait for me to push updates to my business' gallery, which won't cover every little experiment. Thanks for reading the thread and commenting. I appreciated it. :)

Some sceners saw the D6s I posted to Twitter asked about the possibility of a "Curio" die or a D6 for all the major 64k groups. As I'm out of D6s for the moment (need to order a lot to get a good deal), and I've got a load of D12s I wanted to get alignment set up for, this is the result of the tests I did. I engraved the dice with painters tape on to get a perfect mask for painting. I then used acrylic "modelling" paint from Vallejo and after all sides dried sprayed the entire die with an acrylic clear coat. (That stuff smelled.) When that dried enough, I peeled off all the tape. Some time after taking these photos I removed any remaining face artifacts easily enough with a bit of rubbing/wiping. The paint should stay and not create little dust bits due to the clear coat unlike my first batch.

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All but Approximate lent their explicit approval and vector files. This was just me tooling around. If I were to make some for distribution I would get permission from all involved and hopefully get Approximate to help me make a better vector version of their logo than I managed to cobble together.
Nice dice! Happy lasering and design :) .
added on the 2017-06-14 04:21:25 by cxw cxw
As a boardgame lover, you can color me impressed. Especially the dice are beautiful. But to be fair: D20 or riot! :)
added on the 2017-06-14 07:15:15 by bod bod
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by cxw:
Nice dice! Happy lasering and design :) .
Thank you. :)

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by bod:
As a boardgame lover, you can color me impressed. Especially the dice are beautiful. But to be fair: D20 or riot! :)
I have quite a few blank ones! I just haven't spent the time determining alignment. They also have less usable surface area per side.

My original goal was to make custom dice to improve the set that came with a boardgame I got. I just ended up starting here first.
starchaser: oooh, is it possible to laser a kewlers logo on a few guitar picks or is that too thin/plasticy?
added on the 2017-06-14 16:12:03 by maali maali
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DSS doesn't make 64ks afaik. Or was it meant to be the Poo-Brain logo? :D
added on the 2017-06-14 16:36:17 by okkie okkie
Obviously love the dice tho!
added on the 2017-06-14 16:36:47 by okkie okkie
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Maali:
starchaser: oooh, is it possible to laser a kewlers logo on a few guitar picks or is that too thin/plasticy?
I suppose it's possible, but I'd have to look up what they're made of before I decide if I'm willing to laser such things. Their thinness might also cause them to warp when lasered, but until I know the previous...

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okkie:
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DSS doesn't make 64ks afaik. Or was it meant to be the Poo-Brain logo? :D
This was just a test of logos. If I was asked to make a run of 64k dice it would be a D6 and include Poo-Brain, not DSS. A Curio die might have DSS, though. Unfortunately if the Poo-Brain logo is still the "brain shape comprised of people in assorted poses", I really doubt it would laser well at all at the size required here. It might be somewhat recognizable in the outline, but it wouldn't look very good (likely just an engraved blob). If you were able to come up with a simplified version (as a vector, hopefully) that worked for smaller sizes, I could see about it. Maybe a brain outline made from fewer people? Not sure.

(I can't really draw / sketch to be able to construct something like that, and I don't want to presume and invent a new logo.)
Don't know much about the laser process, but I could try my pyrography equipment on some guitar picks, if it helps. Only to see how much it bends, if at all.
added on the 2017-06-14 23:07:30 by bod bod
That might result in even different effects and wouldn't me much. For me the material content is mostly about safety. For example I don't laser anything made with PVC. So plastic guitar picks could be anything unless I buy it from a seller that explicitly states what they make it from and stands by it.

However the internet suggests picks can be made out of nylon (safe, I think, but not sure what kind of mark I'd be able to make) and delrin, which I can do. Apparently there's also "exotic" picks made from metal, stone, wood, or leather which are also on the table. (Though metal would be done like the bottle openers I've previous shown.)
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This was just a test of logos. If I was asked to make a run of 64k dice it would be a D6 and include Poo-Brain, not DSS. A Curio die might have DSS, though. Unfortunately if the Poo-Brain logo is still the "brain shape comprised of people in assorted poses", I really doubt it would laser well at all at the size required here. It might be somewhat recognizable in the outline, but it wouldn't look very good (likely just an engraved blob). If you were able to come up with a simplified version (as a vector, hopefully) that worked for smaller sizes, I could see about it. Maybe a brain outline made from fewer people? Not sure.


Ah! Clear :) yeah, the poobrain logo is a bit shit for these things. Maybe we should indeed have a smaller version.
added on the 2017-06-15 10:50:54 by okkie okkie
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DSS doesn't make 64ks afaik. Or was it meant to be the Poo-Brain logo? :D


We haven't... yet (:

But the reason it's on there was because I was the first to ask if a die with the DSS logo was possible, later on the idea of a scene die, and then a specific 64k die, came to life.
added on the 2017-06-15 13:04:58 by ___ ___
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added on the 2017-06-15 18:58:43 by maali maali
You know, the Kewlers logo might go great on either the '1' or the '20' side of a D20, depending on who you figure is giving the beat down: the universe, or you. ;)
we're dead. so 1 would be best!
added on the 2017-06-16 00:25:02 by maali maali
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by bod:
As a boardgame lover, you can color me impressed. Especially the dice are beautiful. But to be fair: D20 or riot! :)

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by Maali:
we're dead. so 1 would be best!

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I started four, but I only finished and painted one. I sacrificed one to initial alignment tests, a two or so to number centering attempts, and one I got 75% done with then accidentally engraved the number 11 twice.

I gave up trying to center the numbers and went with an offset from the triangle bottom alignment even if it means numbers in adjacent triangles aren't lined up. This makes it easier to accommodate double digits better and seems to be what everyone else does. I ended up using what I think is probably a bit too much paint, and the tape didn't hold as well as on the D12s. These also seemed to be made out of acrylic instead of the urea plastic I was told / supposed the D12s and D6s I lasered were made of. They melted a bit at the edges and bottom of engraved areas so they weren't as sharp in places. Quite a bummer, really, but livable.

I borrowed the numbering scheme from The Dice Lab. (Future D20s I sell will be based on the standard distribution pattern so I don't get in trouble. I like The Dice Lab!)

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Of course. :)

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