Dice are useful for all sorts of games and math activities; make your very own and customize them with colourful dots and faces!
It is useful to have a pre-made die in hand while making your own, especially to make sure you get the number orientations correct.
Once you’ve made a pair of dice, check out our Dice Game project and make yourself a game to play your new dice with!
Wood working projects are an affordable and accessible way of introducing tools that are used across multiple trades. This project introduces techniques such as precision measuring and securing pieces for cutting. These are skills that show up across multiple trades from millwright to metal fabricator to cabinet maker and more!
Explore Related Trades Careers: Millwright , Metal Fabricator, Cabinetmaker
It is useful to have a pre-made die in hand while making your own, especially to make sure you get the number orientations correct.
Once you’ve made a pair of dice, check out our Dice Game project and make yourself a game to play your new dice with!
Wood working projects are an affordable and accessible way of introducing tools that are used across multiple trades. This project introduces techniques such as precision measuring and securing pieces for cutting. These are skills that show up across multiple trades from millwright to metal fabricator to cabinet maker and more!
Explore Related Trades Careers: Millwright , Metal Fabricator, Cabinetmaker
Tools & Materials
Material List
- 1”x1” hardwood, one inch per die
- Example dice
- Non-toxic wood finish (oil, cutting board wax, etc.)
- Paint
Optional
Tool list
- safety glasses
- dust mask
- measuring tape
- mitre box
- scrap 2"x4" (with 90° ends)
- backsaw
- clamp
- straight edge (ruler or square)
- pencil
- hammer
- large nail
- rag or brush to apply finish
- set square
- awl
- centre punch
- vise
- rose countersink bit
- hand drill
- felt pen
Optional
Procedure
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Put on your safety glasses. Create a butt block on your mitre box: Place your saw in the 90° slot. Use your measuring tape and clamp a 2"x4" exactly 1” away from the saw blade. -
Press your 1”x1” wood into the butt block, then cut through to make a small cube.
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Look at a game die and take note of which sides the numbers are printed on in relation to each other. Write the numbers lightly in pencil on the faces of your die.
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Use a pencil and straight edge to draft out lines to draw your dots on. For 1, 2, 3, and 5, draw diagonal lines from corner to corner to help you align your dots. -
For 4 and 6, use a ruler or set square to draw straight lines, parallel to the sides, approx ¼" in from the edge, to help you keep your dots in line. -
Make dots with your pencil wherever you want your holes to be.
-
Use a hammer and nail, hammer and punch, or an awl, to make an indent at each dot.
-
Optional: secure your die in a vise (or in a clamp to give you something bigger to hold onto) and use a drill and countersink bit to drill a shallow cone at each indent. -
Put your dust mask on. Sand your die by placing sandpaper on a flat surface and pushing the sides of your die over the paper. Work from 80 grit up to 220 grit.
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Decide how you want to highlight the dots. Some options include: colour the inside of the indents with a felt pen, colour everything other than the indents with a felt pen, drop a tiny bit of paint into the dot, then let dry, and sand away any paint remaining on the surface of the die, or come up with your own idea. -
Apply your chosen finish, then play a game with your new die!
Extension Challenges
- Build a whole set of dice for a Yahtzee set.
- Make a class set of dice to give to a local elementary school classroom or teacher to help them learn math.
- “Dice Game” project to use the dice with.
- Take the skills you learned making this project and make yourself a Dice Game project to use the dice with.