Success - Dixit Game insert

Here is the dixit insert. Originally printed in mostly white, it ended up milimeters too tall, so i reworked everything and came up with the black version - it has space for the original game + all 7 expansions, and can probably squeeze the promo cards in there as well

Dunno what to do when the next expansion comes out...

Cosmic Encounters Updates

I have been busily printing, adjusting, scratching my head.

Like I've said, I don't have the expansions, So I'm not sure how great this solution will be. I have been printing out the pieces, just a little time consuming as my printer is too small to print more than one piece at a time, including the lids!

I also might need to find a different solution for the Alien cards. I can fit the holder on my bed, but once it starts closing the spaces on the top layer, everything starts falling apart and the print actually looks distorted., the plastic widens, and become loosely melted together. I did three attempts - the first attempt died when my power died. The second had the horrible issue with the layers, and the third I stopped when it started having the same issues, even though I slowed the speed.

I probably need to print it without the holes, or make the holes smaller. I have noticed that the Printrbot doesn't like fine detail when it's high up.

Back to the drawing Board on Cosmic Encounter

I somehow managed to mismeasure my box  I can't fit the player boxes on their sides like I thought, because I have about 4 less millimeters than I thought I did. I think I can make, basically 2x2x2 and it should still allow much room for tokens.. though I will probably need to remeasure everything to make sure it will fit in my slightly smaller box.

Here are the pictures of my successful print that utterly failed.

I commit seppuku now.

Sketchup: Cosmic Encounters

I have had some time to start review, revising and transcribing my designs from my clipboard of graph paper to Google Sketchup I am a little worried because I only have the base game, no expansions. I looked up the card pieces so that I could plan out how much empty space to leave for each card type (squeezing them in with sleeves, because you kooky boardgamers love sleeving your cards!) I actually had to use a mixture of boardgamegeek and the PDF copies of the rules that come with every expansion, as they give a perfect breakdown of all of the content included in each set.

In order to fit all the cards with sleeves from the base game + six expansions on my printer, I had to cut the biggest card section (for flare cards) into their own print. I can still fit them onto the printer side by side, just not length wise. I have one of the smaller printers, so hopefully it works for the folks on thingiverse.

I also design a large holder for the alien cards, based on ZekTheMad's large card holder on the Eldritch Horror project I printed earlier in the month.. I did all the measurements myself, just based on his.. I liked the look of the rounded slots.

With the expansions, two should be just perfect. they will fit in the box with some space to place the randomly sized cardboard pieces on top

I decided that the best way to store all 8 sets of player pieces would be to make a lipped box and store them on their side.  I need to print one of them and test it with the player pieces, since the inside is just enough to fit the round planets. The rest of the box should be good though, more than enough space to fit all the ships as well as those planets, if the planets fit.

In the remaining space, in the corner at the end of the cards, I designed a generic token tray with a lid. It should fit 2 trays on top of each other.

Now, this said - I have no flipping idea if this will be enough storage space for all of the tokens and extra cardboard cutouts that came with the expansions. I may test my prints on Nameless Roommate #1's copy, as he has all but one expansion. I feel that this will give me a good enough feeling for what will fit.

My next step is to print out the files (I am still just waiting on the some plastic, my shipment from push plastics is est. delivery date of 12-6 (omg, wtf, amazon has ruined me) So when a CamelCamelCamel alert came up for Dixit Quest, I added some cheap PLA to the order. It should be here today, so I just need to export my sketchup files to the right format(.stl), and prepare my bed for printing. Hopefully I will have some kind of picture of a printed item to show everyone tomorrow.

Cross your fingers!

Designing an Insert: Stage 1

Hey guys! While I am out of PLA, impatiently awaiting my refill, I decided to sit down and start mocking up a design, so I have something to print when it gets here.I sat down with some graph paper, calipers, pencils, rulers and a couple boxes of games I have issues sorting/ storing/ setting up. 

The first game on the list was Dixit, one of my favorite party games. The issue I have with this game box is that it only accomodates the base plus 3 expansions as it is.  The cards are too large to sit on their side, so I will have to put them at an angle. The hardest part was holding the cards in place while I calculated angles. I had to take into account that the board still needs to fit in the box and there are player pieces. The original design for storing pieces is good. instead of having it 2x3, I thought it out and figured that it could go 1x6 and fit perfectly in the negative space. This drawing, of course, shows none of that - just some degree and measurement notes - I did get around to drawing it all out to work out my thoughts and keep them fresh.

The second game I started designs for was Cosmic Encounter. I don't have the expansions, but I looked into how many pieces each one added - Hopefully the design leaves enough space to add all of those in perfectly. most of it was adding extra players, which are easy to count, and extra cards, hopefully the card area is big enough for that. The alien cards, with all 6(?) expansion will triple the big card height. I am hoping a lot of the extra stuff they add will fit into the two MISC areas I had left over. Most of this was super easy, just squares, no angles, making sure the pieces will fit into smaller boxes an

For now all I have are a couple hand sketches, but my next step will be translating them into sketchup designs. (and uploading my first all-original designs to thingiverse!) Hopefully my next post will have some peeks at what I have mocked up.

COMC: Jam-packedest!

I am busy with a design project, prompted by a conversation on reddit. Here's a gratuitous shot of my Ikea expedit and some new games I picked up. Can you pick out the new editions? Hint: one of them was crammed into the jam-packedest square. Too bad there are still 2 TTR games, so I may need 2 squares afterall, Though I havent gotten very many plays out of any of them except TTR:US. 

When we have our own place and I can pull my other shelves out from storage, those 9 non-game shelves on the bottom can go. A book shelf for my comics, a 2x2 kallax for my records and my art supplies and tools can go into their own areas.

At our old place I had two small folding bookshelves for all my magic the gathering boxes. We also had room to display all the dominion boxes, even though all the content is in the wooden box at the top right of that picture.

Also - there is a sheet hanging on the other side of the shelf, for privacy, as my bedroom is on the other side of it.

ANyway - This is just a post for posts sake, while I work on designing some box inserts. Send me pics of your game collections! How do you store everything?

She's got a ticket to ride, but she don't care.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today I have some random garbage I have been working on, no finished project, just a little insight into my work process, which is kind of wasteful.

I have been looking into a storage solution for ticket to ride that fits for me. I have taken out and done who-knows-what with the original insert, so I need to make this work in a barely structured box space.  I also need to find(but haven't yet) a good solution for my cards (and I have 1910, so they are all full sized.)

For some reason all of the storage solutions I found pre-designed are weird. None of the lids snap or slide into place. This feels like it's a great way to end up needing to sort all your trains every time you want to play.

I can't find the source for the first box I had - it has been in my "to print" folder for a while, and of course I didnt save anything to attribute - but I didn't design it, if you did, give me a holler and i'll throw the link up.

the breakdown of what you are seeing:

Green & blue are in a simple design from thingiverse.. had to rubber band the lid to the body. I had an issue printing the lid and ended up needing to carve/cut up the lid to make it fit. I also adjusted the lip a bit so the lid would sink down into the box. But it has to be rubber-banded closed, which I hate. And you have to set the trains in just right (at least for the american map.) While I don't mind this, I know a lot of my friends and playgroups would hate this.

Yellow is in a second original design from thingiverse, designed by Nicofr57. I didn't like the relationship between the lid and body so i started changing stuff. The original design was made to allow you to keep the original insert for TTR:Europe. You should set the body in the cup, place the oversized lid on top, and then use a spacer to hold it in place and stack another body on top.

 Since I also have TTR:USA, and have lost the insert for it, i needed a slightly enhanced storage solution.


Black is modification no.1 from Nicofr57's design, All I did was raise the outer edge 3mm and in Cura set the width/height to fit inside the outer rim (66mm x 95mm) This is good and looks great when the bin is full and the lid is on. However, this didn't really solve my "trains all over the place when transported" issue, without rubberbands.

Red is in modification no.2 This is my favorite so far. I lifted the outer rim another 1mm and then pulled that 1mm out so that it would form a lip on 3 sides. I then lowered the front side to match the original height, that was preserved by the inner divider. The only issue I am having here is that it is a little tight. I think I can just make the change in Cura on the lid (make it half a millimeter thinner and take a millimeter off the width. I also added 3 mm to the length to create an overhang to give the player something to hold onto to yank that lid out.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with modification no.2, and once I get a Filament refil, I will be printing two sets  - one for TTR:Europe and one for TTR: USA

Success! - Eldritch Horror

Earlier in the week I posted some reviews of my favorite boardgame accessories - The Broken Token inserts.

While I love Broken Token, and would love to spend all my extra money on them, they don't have solutions for every boardgame I own. That said, every single new 3d printing site with free files is bombarded by searches for my favorite topic - board games, box organizers, specific board game titles, because some people don't know how to properly tag or title or describe their stuff to be easily found.

I have a folder of all the STLs I have found, waiting to be printed. Amongst them is a folder for a custom Eldritch Horror insert that ZektheMad created over on thingiverse. He did a great job! Except that two of the 9 pieces are too large for my tiny printer to accommodate. I printed the 7/9 small pieces that would fit, and then spent 4 or 5 days pouting about the remaining pieces, contemplating seppeku.. or even just contacting Zek or one of the commenters on that "thing" requesting the file. He did provide a .dwg file, but I don't have the software or knowledge of how to handle that/make google sketchup handle it. In reality, I was just hectic and busy the last week or so, trying to keep up with my blogging goals, and having a hard time of it.

I was able to get the original .stl files into Google Sketchup and cut them in half. Or really more like 2/3 + 1/3 & 3/4+ 1/4, making them just small enough to fit on my printer and then to be glued back together on before being placed in the box.

I actually got the chance to finally post something on thingiverse! It's just a remix, but it already has likes, shares and collection adds..

Down to the nitty gritty! It took me a while to print all the pieces, I only batched a couple of the smaller pieces, but the rest were individual.  There are supposed to be 9 pieces, but I have 11, since I had to cut two up. There is still enough room in the box for another board. Since I don't have any of the expansions yet, I may just print a couple spacers to hold everything in place.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the print. I feel that this might have been underwhelming and built up.

Broken Token advertisement.

Good morning!

As you know, I love boardgaming. Modern boardgames come with tons of cards, dice, & carcboard, plastic, and wooden pieces. When I started collecting the "cool" thing to do, or really most popular thing, was to store all the components in baggies. This is well and good when you have one or two types of tokens. But the more games I get, the more complicated everything is, and there are often 15+ separate components. This means the time it takes to set up and put away is longer, and often kind of messy. Does my old organized soul some harm to see all those pieces scattered everywhere and getting dropped off the table!

There are people that post these amazing foamcore custom inserts, with separate compartments for everything. They are amazing, but foamcore is the devil, and I have no skill or patience for it at all.

Then a few years ago a company popped up called The Broken Token. I love them! They laser cut sheets of 1/8" baltic birch wood and acrylic. You  pop them out of the thin sheets and assemble the neatly designed insert that fits the box perfectly. Of course they have a limited amount of games they have designs for, but their library is expanding all the time - The first time I shopped there, they only had a handful of game box designed, and now they have boxes for over 70 unique games.

The first Broken Token insert I bought was for my Dominion collection. I got a hell of a deal on the base set and the first 8 expansions, plus all the promo cards that were available at the time. Using 9 separate boxes is crazy, and there werent a lot of one-box solutions, so I bought a wooden artist case from Hobby Lobby and the Broken Token dominion insert, then, for dramatic flair, I woodburned the logo for the game and designed my name in matching font. The bummer of this is that I had to print and cut out all those dang dividers, it took forever. At the time, and to this day, the Hobby Lobby/Broken Token combo is the best storage solution. And there still isnt a reasonable/affordable solution for the inserts. I also made one for Nameless Roommate #1., who actually still has his, but hasn't put his collection in the box yet.

There's a lot of room to rearrange things and set it up how you want, which has pros and cons. it leaves room for expansions (or did when I bought mine, but there have been two full expansions since then.) On the other hand, a couple things are kind of awkwardly placed in the box, like coins and place holders. 9/10.. I would still buy it again, I feel like there is a bit of room for improvement.

The second broken token I purchased was for Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games. It fits snuggly in the box and perfectly accommodates all the pieces with compartments large enough to get your fingers in and pick up pieces unlike some of the alternatives, like Plano storage units. It also is perfect for game play, because set up is just taking some trays out of the box and choosing which scenario to play, instead of opening 50 baggies and dumping pieces all over the table. Perfect, 10/10, would buy again.

I inherited my third insert when I bought an old friend's Android Netrunner collection. it suits its purpose.. Adequate. Also I wish there was a better solution for all the tokens that came with it.. I have a 3d printer solution in the queue for my printer, but I don't play very often, so it's low priority. Honestly, I would give it a 5/10 for personal preference. There is enough give in the box that it allows the cards to slip under the dividers when the box is in motion/on its side. I would buy this, but only if I had bought all the inserts for my other games first, this might be on my list for "completionist" reasons.

Then Plaid Hat Games announced a sequel to Dead of Winter: Dead of Winter: The Long Night and it had even more pieces than the original! I contemplated buying the original DoW insert, but put it off for a bit. That's when they announced the Long Night specific design - which was great because it had a bunch of different things that needed to be sorted 4 different types of character/monster standees and 5 or 6 extra item types. 8/10 - there are a couple issues with how the stand up figures fit into their designated areas. I had to keep the cardboard separate from the plastic stands to make the trays fit flat. Also, there are some modules and I feel that there a couple extra card slots would have been nice for storage.

The only downside is that they *are* made out of wood, so it adds some weight to the box. The flip of that is that is adds sturdiness to the box. The newest insert used some acrylic for card dividers, I am not sure if that changes the weight or not. I do, however, wonder if there is a future in 100% acrylic inserts. I know I am working on printing a passable substitute for Eldritch Horror (which they don't support yet.)

So I have 100+ games and 4 broken token inserts, and an ever growing wish list as they release new ones. They are pretty fairly priced, the pinserts are in the $20-$30 range. I just have a lot of games to Token, and sometimes that is something I would rather spend on a discounted game. I have a pretty good wishlist going, and maybe when I'm rich I will review the rest of them :)

Success! - Machi Koro

I printed a box organizer for Machi Koro designed by Kabong  on Thingiverse... It was Successful!


The raft settings were a little rough again, but it looks  decent! I may prime and paint it. 

It fits Machi Koro with Harbor and Millionaire's Row expansion. If you want to keep the neat inset (and I do) this box actually fits in one of the smaller boxes made for the expansions.

I'm going to keep it short. I have some other projects going that I can talk about this weekend, also it's board game day!

I will hopefully have more time to post tomorrow, but thought you guys would enjoy the Machi Koro insert! Isn't it such a perfect solution for the game?

Does that make me crazy? Maybe I'm crazy?. . . Probably.

At 8pm  last night I started a print that would prove that batching my pieces is smart. Of course the print would be just under 10 hours, which put the end time around 6am. This doesn't always make for the most restful sleep, but the process would be amazing if it worked.

The project is an insert for a new game Lanterns: the Harvest Festival designed by Tejawood. The current insert was cardboard and just had two slots to put everything, and required a couple plastic baggies....I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I have come to hate plastic baggies when it comes to sorting board game pieces - it adds so much time to set up and clean up times. The files i downloaded were set up so that all the pieces would print on my 6" bed. I decide - why not? might as well try to get them all printed at once.

The PROs of doing it this way are to save a bit of time and bed prep(time + materials) and to set up 4 pieces to print all at once. I would lose the most time between prints. I would have to peel the piece from the bed, make sure the bed is good to print again, and set up the new file in my printer. While it isnt a ton of time missed, i would have to be hovering around my printer, waiting to finish one print and start the next, that time would be lost while I slept. this way, i can set them all up and print all four pieces together

The major CON is that if it fails 4 hours in, I am out 4 half pieces, when I probably would have been able to print 1 or 2 fully completed pieces. I have tried batched before, and they usually fail, mostly due to print material or issues with the filament feed, or bed temperature. One by one I am trying to correct all the small issues I have, so a 9 hours batch print isn't that bad.. especially when I have completed long prints before.. its usually the batches that mess up though

This project actually worked! I woke up in the night and heard the printer finishing (the engines sound different because it lifts the extruder several millimeters and moves it to the home position for the x & y axis. I almost couldn't fall back asleep - i was like a kid at Christmas, wanting to check on how it turned out.

I noticed while it was laying the raft, that the filament was a little strange, and before I went to bed, I thought I noticed some peeling from the bed, but I am excited to announce that it actually printed and worked out! I had some issues with the raft removal, it was kind of loose for some reason and took some effort to remove. Good thing I have sandpaper!

I posted a couple pictures of the rough raft bottoms, but look at how great it looks in the lanterns box!

Now I just need to start designing my own inserts!

Let it go. . Let it gooooo

Last night I printed a piece from the eldritch horror and it came out beautifully. I print using "rafts." Basically a raft will print out a couple layers of pla and the print the piece on top of that. The raft is supposed to peel away from the piece easily.

However, this is not usually how it happens. I end up pulling out the bladed tools and using too much force, slipping and cutting myself.  (No joke, I have many scars on my thumbs and pointer fingers from stabbing it with the blade items.) I have been playing around with the settings for my raft. In the program I use, I have it set to set down a wide base, do a quick layer to fill in some space, and then do one full, normal row of filament It is flexible, but strong, and doing it this way helps the bottom of the print look smooth... when it doesn't stick, that is.

Last night, however,  this piece peeled off almost perfectly. there was one snafu in the corner, but dispatched easily. The post got some attention on instagram, so there are other people out there who feel my pain.

In the picture to the right, all that gray junk in the upper right corner is from my chiseling hack job. I guess it is better to have less. the top is mostly missing layer or two.