More Dice Towers

I missed an update last week!

Two Weekends Ago

After another set of hinges were cut (the top to the back):

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After that I was able to fit a test out the enter mechanism:

This Weekend

I finished up the actual tower of dice towers:

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I also built the “fence” that keep the dice contained after falling through the tower:

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The last major part of the tower is the “holding area” at the top. I saw this being a place to put your dice between rolls. I set up some fences on the router table so I could accurately route a “tray” for the dice:

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Now, when the tower is open, there’s a lot of weight out front that tries to try and pull the tower closed. The holding area cantilevers out the opposite side:

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But it’s not nearly as heavy as the weight of the tower out front. But, I planned for this! I routed some extra depth and added lead weights. These are the weights used at the tire shop to balance your wheels!

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Adding 20 weights (10 oz.) gives the top enough weight to easily hold the tower open!

The last piece of the puzzle was attaching the tower to the back. I decided to attach it via dowels. I drilled holes in the back of the tower and then used dowel centers to mark their locations on the back:

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Once the matching holes were drilled I clamped the tower to the back:

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Here’s the closed mechanism, where you can see the tower nesting inside the fence at the bottom. This is the reason I went with 45° miters on the top of the tower and sides of the fence: so they can nest inside of each other, maximizing the height of the tower itself:

There’s about a 1/16th inch to spare!

After a bunch of sanding, they’re ready for finish!