Dice Making

How To Save Money Making Dice

January 14, 2021 by Aelestrid Crafts Leave a Comment

Let’s face it. Making dice is expensive. I spent a lot of money my first year of making dice and that was taking into account that I’d been making resin crafts for years and had a bunch of stuff on hand already. Dice-making takes a lot of material and requires expensive tools, there’s no way around that. But we all want to budget, right? Read on for some tips on how to save money while making dice.

(Please note that many of these items contain affiliate links, which means any purchases you make will give a small percentage back to the site at no additional cost to you. All items were purchased by me with no compensation; these are just the products I use that work for me. For more information please see my Privacy Policy.)

Pressure pot:

While I own a vacuum chamber for silicone and a pressure pot for resin, here are some tricks to save yourself a vacuum chamber. When making your silicone molds, you can put the cups into the fridge to slow down the curing and give it time to work the bubbles out. You can also put your silicone molds into the pressure pot to pressurize the bubbles like you would resin. (If you are not using a vacuum chamber and are going to use a pressure pot for dice, you have to pressure cast your silicone molds too or else micro-bubbles will show on your casts.)

When searching for a pressure pot, most people just go for the Harbor Freight one because it’s the cheapest. If you’re going to do this, make sure you search “Harbor Freight 20% coupon” and get the code to apply to your order. Why spend more than you have to? (Also, while we’re at it, these pots are famous for having leak issues. Invest in vaseline for the gasket ring on the lid and go ahead and buy a new safety valve because the one it comes with isn’t great.)

Want to save even more money on the air compressor? Use a bike pump! I use this connector which fits bike pumps and allows you to pump the pressure yourself. Plus, it’s way quieter.

Masters

I don’t want to discourage you from the big name master dice printers out there. If you go with one of these businesses, you’ll get a guaranteed product made by people who specialize in dice, know what to watch out for in your .stl designs, and will help you every step of the process. You won’t get that with other printers, and you definitely won’t get that with Shapeways. The price absolutely comes with value.

That being said, if you really need to save money and are willing to take a chance, I had excellent luck with Treatstock.com. It is a marketplace listing 3D printing businesses in the US and lets you choose the material, the price you are willing to pay, and the business you’d like to print your masters with. Click “Order 3D print” and then upload your .stls. I chose resin from the material options. Next, take a look at the businesses and prices being offered. I like to read the business reviews and see what printer they are using. Ideally it’ll be someone who uses the same type of printer people are using to print master dice (such as Formlabs Form 2 or 3), because you want a printer that can print resin material at the highest resolution available. I ended up spending 16 USD for two sets (the second was complimentary) and the quality was fantastic. It was hands down the best money I’ve saved.

Because of the fact that the marketplace of listed businesses and prices change, you can’t be certain you’ll get exactly what you need in the first print. But because the prices are so reasonable, you’ll be able to order a reprint with another business if your first set doesn’t turn out. If you do not live in the US, you may have to check the available shipping options for each business.

Inclusions and colors:

I wouldn’t shy away from splurging on the fancy stuff, like Solar Color Dust pigments and glow in the dark powders, but for the basics? Ali Express or Wish. It can take awhile to get your order in, but I’ve saved so much money on colorants, foil leaf, and other little inclusions that I wanted to try out without spending a bunch. They also have a ton of nail art glitter and pigment which are great for making dice.

(Some people have ethics concerns with these sites, as they may have exploitative labor or products and at times resell things of dubious heritage like the infamous Wish molds, so purchase at your own discretion. I’ve found certain products are easier and cheaper to acquire this way while others are best bought from other sources.)

The Wish Molds:

You probably know about these by now. They are cheap and probably the point of entry for new dice-makers. (They are called Wish/Ali Express molds because they were first sold there, and still are for way cheaper, though you can get them on Amazon and such too.)

The pros are that they are easily attainable for anyone who wants to try out the hobby without making a huge investment, as making your own molds or buying premade sprue or cap molds can be expensive. They are also fairly easy to use, up to a point. Because they are cap molds, they are great for practicing inclusion dice styles or techniques like the petri method.

The cons are that you will often have pain in the ass voids which, while there are tips and tricks to reduce them, you will probably be patching even with a pressure pot. That, and the ethical dilemma that some of these molds appear to be copies of Dispel Dice’s style.

I encourage you to read Dispel Dice’s statement on the matter before you decide. The general consensus seems to be that it’s alright to use these molds for practice (and they are great for that) but selling what you make from them is frowned upon. You’ll want to get better molds immediately if you are serious about dice-making anyway, so this won’t be a problem.

Overall, I have to include them on this list because they are probably the only option most people have for even trying out the hobby until we get better cheap molds on the market.

Dollar Store

If you need items like toothpicks, cups, and other disposable supplies, look no further than the cheapest store available. Why spend five dollars on some item when you can spend one? Buy everything you can here, and you’ll save a lot. Keep an eye out at thrift stores, garage sales, and craft sales for glitter and other inclusions, too.

Supportive communities

If you want to get into dice making but don’t know where to start and also want to avoid costly mistakes, check out Dice Making Discoveries on Facebook! This is a lovely and supportive group that helps people create and learn how to make dice. It’s geared towards hobbyists and beginners learning the craft and has helped me avoid so many mistakes, as well as troubleshoot the ones I did make. Also, check out tutorials on Youtube like Rybonator and Dice Witchery for visual step by step explanations on how to make dice, molds, and more. There’s a ton of help out there, so take advantage of it!

I hope that helps you feel like you can get started, daunting as the final price tag may seem. Dice-making is a rewarding and fun hobby, and should be reachable regardless of your budget. Yes, there will be some financial costs up front (resin and silicone are expensive, no way around that), but with these tips you’ll be able to keep your budget manageable. Good luck out there!

Dice-Making Tools I Can’t Live Without

November 9, 2020 by Aelestrid Crafts Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’re well aware by now what basic tools are required to make dice, and are on your way to acquiring those items (hello team pressure pot) or have been using them for awhile. But you know what items I’ve really found to be essential, or at the very least incredibly helpful, for making the most professional dice possible? Read on to find out!

UV resin

Have pits, voids, chips, and sprue holes in your freshly poured dice? Whatever will you do? You need a bottle of UV resin on hand! This is perfect for quick patch jobs. It cures quickly and allows you to get back to sanding, so if a void ruins an otherwise perfect set, you don’t need to worry. You can even make full dice with UV resin. It makes encasing inclusions in resin prior to adding them to the molds super quick and easy too.

I’ve had good results with this one, but as always there are a ton of options out there and they probably all work great.

UV lamp

You don’t need a UV lamp to cure UV resin. Technically all you need to do is set the piece out in the sun for about fifteen minutes or so and it’ll cure, but you know what? This lamp has been a huge time saver for me. I wasn’t sure I wanted one at first because how hard is it to stick my dice in the sun for a few minutes and save a few dollars? Well, after having the wind blow my dice all over the backyard more than a few times and realizing I was getting a slow, sometimes uneven cure, I finally broke down and bought the curing lamp. It takes mere minutes to cure now, and I’m back to sanding without even leaving my seat. Amazon and other major retailers have plenty of these to choose from around the same price range, but I like that this one has no bottom so if I needed to cure anything larger than dice I could place it higher up and stick the larger item underneath it to cure. It works great and is very intuitive to use.

Ultrasonic cleaner

I wasn’t entirely sure whether I wanted to splurge on this. I didn’t really want to spend another 25-30 dollars on some vanity item that does what I could just use a little effort and some manual tool to do, but this…this was totally worth it. I wasn’t able to get the dust out of my numbers or pits with just a toothbrush alone (maybe because my numbers are tiny and deep on some dice) so when I got this, I was amazed at the difference it made. It also cut down on the time I was spending cleaning out the dust from my dice significantly. I use this for every single thing I make now, and it’s been easily the best 30 dollars I’ve ever spent.

This is the one that I use and I love it.

Dentek picks

Don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner, but can’t seem to get dust out of the numbers with just a toothbrush? You need these picks. They are fine bristled and way smaller than toothbrush bristles meaning they can get into the tiniest numbers and scrape the dust out. Having these around has been a lifesaver, and they might be the cheapest way to get around not having an ultrasonic cleaner on hand. Even with my ultrasonic cleaner for the big jobs, I am always using these for quick cleans in tight spaces.

Silicone mixing cups

I love these. I used to use disposable Dixie cups when doing resin projects which created a lot of unnecessary waste. Now I just use these, and they come with a convenient measuring gauge so you know how much resin you’re pouring. I also love the little 10ml cups these sets sometimes come with, which helps with small inclusions or weighing out colors before adding them in.

A trick that I use with two part resin to help with cleanup later is this: Put Part A in one cup and Part B in another cup, measured by volume or weight according to the instructions for your resin. (I use Art N Glow and measure 20ml of each part.) Pour Part A into the cup with Part B, stir vigorously (scraping the sides and bottom), and then pour the mixture into the other cup. Repeat the process until both cups have been thoroughly exposed to both parts, and by the time your pieces have cured, the excess resin will pop right out of the bottom of both cups with no sticky mess after. (If you do have some tackiness in the cups, wipe with rubbing alcohol.)

Pipettes aren’t on my list because while I have them, I honestly don’t use them much. I find them harder to use than just pouring in the resin and they don’t work well for me. Other people swear by them and they do make precision work easier, so I hear, but I’ve never had an issue using the pouring spout from the silicone cups to direct the resin into my molds.

Silicone mat

My work space gets messy pretty quickly with resin drips, and you know what helps with clean-up a ton? A giant silicone mat. It’s so easy to clean when I spill paint or resin on it. When the resin cures, you just peel it off. It helps keep the surface of the workspace itself free from mess. This is another item that kept me from having to waste sheets of parchment paper every time I wanted to make something.

These come in a ton of styles too. There are some that are smaller and come in two packs if that works better for your space, but I liked having a giant one to cover the most area.

Rubber-tipped tweezers

You probably have tweezers on hand, right? But are you tired of nicking the sides of your silicone molds trying to jam inclusions inside? You need these rubber tipped tweezers! They make it so easy to get items inside your molds without worrying about scratching the sides, and they have a good grip. They don’t, however, work well when trying to get thin foil leaf inside because the foil tends to stick to the rubber instead of going into the resin. I use plain metal tipped tweezers for that.

On that note, you may find (as I did) that hobby seed bead tweezers will be good to have on hand too for precision work. I use both and they are a great help.

Toothpicks

Easy to find and incredibly versatile, these are just important to keep on hand. If you need to pick a stray piece of paint out of a number, move something in your mold, carefully place a drop of UV resin on a face or swirl in some alcohol ink, toothpicks are great to have around. It’s one of those tools you might not think about but if you need it, you need it, so be sure to have some!

Hobby clippers

These have a flat side allowing you to get close to your face when clipping a sprue or any flashing, and the sharpness allows you to cut through the resin easily. Another tool that you pretty much have to have on hand, and that can be found cheaply at any craft store.

X-acto blade

It’s good to have an X-acto blade for more precision in removing stray resin from your freshly pulled dice. I also find it helpful to have a sharp blade around for various tasks that require a fine point. If you make your own silicone molds, these are necessary to cut your master dice out of the molds when you’ve created them. Like the hobby clippers these can be found at any craft store, along with a fresh change of blades to keep them sharp.

I liked that this set included hobby clippers, an X-acto blade, and several other very helpful tools for a reasonable price.

Zona papers

Ah yes, the infamous Zona papers. If you don’t yet know why these papers are so heavily recommended by the dice-making community, here’s why! It gives you the best non-chemical polish! Yeah, it’s a bit of elbow grease (less than the micromesh pads/sheets out there) but it gives consistently good results. Using them is easy enough, and they last awhile. I cut mine into 6 squared sections and discard them when the fibers turn white and lose their grit. Also, remember to use these on a flat surface like a piece of glass or a mirror to keep your sharp edged faces consistent!

Pottery wheel

At the time of this writing, I have mixed feelings about the pottery wheel. The benefits are obvious right out of the gate: less wrist work in sanding and polishing. I have found it to not be much of a time saver however, because I end up spending more time trying to get all the sides of the face polished evenly. It’s quite easy to accidentally put inconsistent pressure when holding the die and having to start over. That being said, if you’re going to use a pottery wheel, this is a great one. It takes up almost no space and works perfectly for dice making. I’d also recommend getting an acrylic round to glue down on the wheel to give you more working room. I got this one.

Macro lens

Wondering how people are taking those epic close up shots of their dice? By spending just a few bucks for a clip on macro lens for their phone, that’s how! Easy to use, easy to set up, and cost friendly! Plus the images are fantastic! I got a good deal with this package because it also included a wide angle lens, and both are great.

Look at this:

I’d recommend having a tripod or stabilizer of some kind when using a macro lens because you might get a shaky shot otherwise.

Label printer

Okay, this one may or may not apply to you, but it’s been a game changer for me. Having a resin craft business means lots of little orders going out, and I don’t want to have to spend any more time at the post office than necessary. Being able to buy and print shipping labels right at home has really made things easier for me. After battling with my traditional printer and having so many issues with running out of ink, I just went ahead and bought this thermal printer.

Pros: Prints perfect 4×6 shipping labels, is thermal and never runs out of ink, takes up very little space on the desk. Perfect for craft businesses!

Cons: Is only a label printer, does not print other types of items. Which is fine if that’s what you need.

Keep checking back

These are the tools that have taken my dice-making from good to the best it can be.

(You may be wondering why certain items like pressure pots, coloring additives, and the like are missing from the list. The reason I didn’t include them is because much of that is a matter of personal taste and I don’t feel that my preferences for, say, acrylic paint or mica powder are better or worse than what someone else might prefer.)

As I said, I will most certainly add to this list as time goes on so keep checking back!

Pressure Pot Versus Vacuum Chamber

May 9, 2020 by Aelestrid Crafts Leave a Comment

If you’re new or intermediate to dice making, I’m sure you’ve heard of pressure pots and vacuum chambers quite a lot. What are they and what do they do? Do you need them to make dice? What’s the difference between them? And do you need both?

The short answer is no. You don’t need either of these things to make dice that you will enjoy and can use in your games.

But if you want clear, bubble free, and professional looking dice? You’re gonna have to invest.

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make any purchases through one of the provided links, aelestridcrafts.com may get a small portion of this sale. This does not cost you anything extra and helps to support site costs.)

So what is the difference between a pressure pot and a vacuum chamber?

To start with, a vacuum chamber is a device that sucks the air out of resin, silicone, and other materials that tend to have a lot of air bubbles trapped in them. A pressure pot is a device that pressurizes the air into microscopic (and thus undetectable) amounts such that the result is virtually bubble-free casts. Both, on the face of it, do the same thing: remove visible air bubbles from your casts. And they do, sort of, albeit in different ways.

Out of the box, you’ll need a vacuum chamber (one gallon will be fine but if you choose to have more vertical space you can get a larger one); a pump (the one I ordered from Amazon has the pump included); and vacuum pump oil (again I got mine on Amazon). When you get it, you’ll hook up your pump to the vacuum chamber and make sure you’ve included enough oil according to the guidelines, and you’re ready to go.

The pressure pot takes a little more work. Many choose to go with the Harbor Freight paint tank and modify it themselves as it’s the cheaper option (don’t forget to search for their current 20% off coupon before you do). There are a ton of youtube videos out there that explain how to modify the pot, but the basics are that you need a ball valve that controls access to the air getting into the tank from your pump, a safety release valve that lets air out and prevents your tank from getting over-pressurized, and various caps and fittings. While I bought some of the stuff from Harbor Freight directly (the ball valve) and other parts came with the pot, the safety valve was one thing worth upgrading because the one that came with the pot was a big leaker.

It’s hard for me to recommend buying all the fittings on Amazon because often you’ll order the wrong size or receive the wrong thing by mistake, and it ends up being a week or two of trial and error and running to the hardware store. Check your preferred youtube video for a list of parts they recommend and where to buy them. (I found ManCraftingTM’s video to be the easiest to understand but Rybonator and Zac Higgins have good ones too.) I linked the safety valve above because it took me some hunting to realize that often the one that is included with Harbor Freight’s pot isn’t great.

Beyond getting the parts and setting up the pot, you’ll need the pump. This one varies, because some pumps are super loud or expensive. It depends on what you need for your environment. I bought a connector for a bike pump (yeah, if you have a bike pump on hand you can use that if you don’t mind the work) but found out that we had an electric tire pump on hand so I just used that. Some choose to also buy their pump through Harbor Freight but you can look around at hardware stores. Unfortunately the vacuum pump and the pressure pot pump are different and cannot be used interchangeably.

So which should you get, and do you need both?

Many people see the price tags and hassle of the pressure pot and think getting a vacuum chamber is the better bet. And you know what? That’s exactly what I did. I mean, you can degas silicone and resin in a vacuum chamber, so why not use it for both? It’s cheaper and way less hassle.

Butttt…..

Let me show you why if you’re going to get just one, the pressure pot is the way to go.

Here’s my vacuum chamber in action, degassing Sorta Clear 12 silicone for molds, which is really where it shines. (By the way, because I vacuum degassed my molds before ever using them in a pressure pot I had no problems with ruined molds or casts, but if you have not degassed your silicone and you try putting them in a pressure pot for the first time, you might run into issues, so be sure to pressurize your molds in your pressure pot as they are curing like you would with your resin if you don’t have a vacuum chamber.)

My process for doing this with resin was the following. I used Art N Glow epoxy which has a pot life of 40 minutes or so, and I poured parts A and B into separate cups and put those into the vacuum chamber to pull out the initial bubbles from shipping and handling. Next I mixed the two parts and then degassed the mixed amount again, pulling out every last bubble because I had plenty of time to work in. (Yes, I degassed twice and the whole thing took awhile and was a lot of work.) Then I poured my resin into the molds and let them cure.

And hey, it does suck out the bubbles. Silicone and resin tend to be very bubbly substances when you get them in the mail, and you introduce more bubbles with mixing and stirring. If you’ve ever cast dice without a pressure pot or vacuum chamber, you’ll know the microbubbles inside all too well. And the vacuum chamber eliminates those! Hooray!

But you know what it doesn’t eliminate? Air bubbles that get trapped in pouring between corners, points, faces, and numbers. Rybonator did a video comparing pressure pots and vacuum chambers where he demonstrates degassing the resin while it’s in the mold, which becomes a very messy experience. You have to degas the resin outside of the molds where the bubbles have room to escape (assuming you have a decent pot life because the process takes several minutes) and then when you pour it, welp, you get what you get.

Which is this:

Bubble free on the inside, but you can see the outsides have a few noticeable problems. Because of issues like this, I really can’t recommend using only a vacuum chamber to degas resin and silicone. It does remove bubbles, but it can’t remove them all, and that is where a pressure pot comes in.

I’m sure you can guess at the process. You mix the resin and then, while it’s in the molds but before it’s started to cure, you stick the molds in the pressure pot and pressurize it. I do around 40 PSI but some people prefer anywhere from 20-45. Whatever works for you and gets good results. Again, please check out some of the many great youtube videos out there about how to set up a pot safely and how to use them.

Here are some dice made with a pressure pot and the difference it makes speaks for itself:

Clean faces, clean numbers, and perfect corners. Which means that the pressure pot is the clear winner here.

Understandably, getting a pressure pot or vacuum chamber is going to cost money and time, and that can be prohibitive to many starting out. There are plenty of tricks and techniques to help eliminate bubbles in your casts if you don’t have these, and while they do work they take a bit of effort and aren’t perfect methods.

The fact is, if you want clean and professional (and sell-worthy if that’s where you want to take this) dice, the investment is essential. But if you want playable dice for you and friends and you don’t mind a few bubbles, you can try some tricks such as warming your resin up before pouring or using an ultrasonic cleaner or other vibrating device to vibrate the bubbles out. The issue with dice is that because the molds are enclosed, bubbles don’t have the chance to work themselves out or anywhere to go to escape. In flat pieces of resin you can run a torch over the top or toothpick poke the bubbles on the surface but that won’t work for enclosed dice. That’s why pressure pots are so essential to the process of making bubble free dice.

Questions? Comments? I’m here all day!