🖼️
The project:
We turned small offcuts of pine, oak, jarrah and red gum found at timber yards and tip shops into handmade wooden dice for board games, family games nights and gifts for friends.
This was a satisfying small upcycling project because the timber pieces were too small for most larger projects, but perfect for making something tactile, useful and long-lasting. Each dice was cut into cubes from scrap timber, sanded smooth, drilled with pip markings, then carefully burned with a wood-burner so the pip numbers were clear against the natural timber grain.
The different timber species give each dice its own character. The pine dice are light and simple, while the oak, jarrah and red gum pieces show richer colours and grain patterns. We liked the creative idea that even very small pieces of leftover timber could be turned into something beautiful and practical rather than being wasted.
This was also a great skill-building project for my son Quade, who enjoys woodworking and making useful things by hand. I am entering the project as his parent, with the dice made as a supervised family D.I.Y. project.
- Materials:
- Small offcuts of pine, oak, jarrah and red gum
- Tools:
- Step 1:
Step 1 was to source suitable dry timber offcuts from scraps we had around the house, old furniture and wood offcuts from the Bunnings waste bin and the local tip shop.
- Step 2:
Step 2 was to saw the wood into small cubes. We used a handsaw for smaller pieces and the Ryobi 250W 228mm Band Saw for larger pieces. We spent a lot of time with the Rafter square and ruler to get the cubes as square as we could. Dice don't roll well when they're not square!😥
- Step 3:
Step 3 was to sand each cube so the faces were smooth and the edges and corners were slightly rounded so they roll well.
- Step 4:
Step 4 was to drill the pip pattern into each side of the dice with the Ryobi 18v ONE+ Rotary Tool Station using the 6.4mm pointed triangle shaped burr attachment. At the beginning we marked the pattern with pencil but after a few dice we found it was just as easy to use a small plastic dice for reference. 😄 We used pliers to hold the dice for safety. ⚠️ Be careful not to drill too deep or close to the edge of the dice, or it will split which is kinda annoying after all the sanding effort.😦 We liked the dots not being too uniform, as it gives the dice a unique character and creative appearance.
- Step 5:
Step 5 was to use the Tradeflame 27 Piece Wood Burner to burn and darken the pip holes. This was a fun step as the pip darkened immediately, which was very satisfying. 😎 Be careful, the burner is hot and as you'll see int he background of the photo below, the dots can easily merge into each other. Recommend practicing this step on spare wood offcuts to test how many seconds to hold the burner against the pip. We also used pliers on this step to hold the dice steady for safety.
