I am autistic and I love doing small crafts like this, and as a magic the gathering player and a warhammer 40k player then I’m always after dice that are like this just to show off! I will defiantly be following this video for inking them all! This is amazing, Rybonator please keep doing tutorials like this and don’t stop! Thankyou for this video and I hope to see another one soon!
Hey so I would suggest not starting with 120 grit sand paper. On your close-ups I can see some small scratches in the surfaces of the dice that I believe detract from the over all glow of the finish. I would suggest starting from no lower than 220p. That will give you enough abrasiveness to remove spalling without giving you extra work as you move up the grit scale. That way you can get a nearly mirror flat surface that shines like glass.
Probably a good idea! Honestly you can't see the scratched or anything in person, the only reason they are so apparent, is because I am SUPER zoomed in 4k video haha. But yes that is a great tip :) Will do in the future! Thanks
@@Rybonator You inspired me to try my hand at making dice so I wanted to pass on a tip in kind. I do polishing for a living so I figured I could be helpful in this. Love the videos and can't wait to see more. :)
Same Thought here - maybe even start off 360 or something like that. No need to introduce that many scratches to the surface if its almost impeccable anyway!
I agree with you :D when i help my stepfather restoring old motorcycles, then we always use 360 grit sandpaper as the lowest, since more or less any other sandpaper will leave tiny scratch marks, that takes forever to remove, and over bigger surfaces, those tiny marks become very visible as soon, as the sun is around 45 degrees or lover angle.
I do headlight refinishes this way aswell, I start no lower than 400 for the same reason. the lower the grit the more work you have to do to get it out. also when moving up grits you want to only sand in 1 direction. up down or left right, not both on every grit as you introduce more pits and valleys that way. one grit is up and down the next is left and right to properly flatten and remove the hatching from the last grit
From someone who has been working with sand paper most of their professional life; its about patience, maintaining a personal high standard for your work, and practice/experience. I've seen way too many polishing related projects to up to less than what they could have been because of lacking one or more of these factors. Time crunch from the boss or just wanting to be done can really hinder quality. This is just my opinion, but since you're polishing resin dice, you could forego the rougher sand paper from the very beginning, you don't need to make the already relatively smooth surface of the dice rough, possibly losing a lot of material if too much elbow grease is applied, and simply begin wet sanding using 800/P2400. Faster hand motion across a slightly larger surface of the sand paper from what you've demonstrated will help too, going slow with the same grit can leave a project with a lot of deep scuffs. It will just require more close eye scrutiny before deciding the polishing is done.
Thanks for the tips, I appreciate them. I was just worried about too high of a grit not being able to rmove some of the mold lines in the dice, but that could worrying for no reason. I'll start there and see if I can get a noticably better product. ANYTHING to make there be less sanding time haha. :)
I was doing some rings this last week and I purely used 150-grit sandpaper just to knock the flashing off. With most casting resins, you can go straight from that to your coarsest MicroMesh, especially since it's really only equivalent to 400-grit sandpaper. By going up to 1500 and then switching to MicroMesh, you actually undid a lot of the work you had already done, you could have jumped straight to the 3000 MicroMesh.
@@sib_here_ I apologize for the confusion. There are two standards that use different measures when talking about sandpaper grit; CAMI which is used in the states, and FPEA which is European and usually has a 'P' in front the grit. 800 grit is the same as P2400. Some manufacturers print both numbers on their sandpaper in the same manner I statedabove. At my work, it sometimes causes confusion.
Not only are these videos incredibly detailed and informative, but the combination of your voice and the background music is so soothing. I could sit and watch these dice tutorials for hours.
The only problem is that the resin will fill all the cracks from the shattered glass, and it will just look completely transparent :/ Great idea though!
@@Rybonator Maybe if you tried it with a glass that had a higher iron content or even glass from a green beer bottle it would remain visible? It would be a different effect, but it could still be neat.
Maybe with a glass that has a very different incidence angle ? The same way you can see glass in water because they have very different incidence angles, maybe you could see some glasses in resin ?
As an elementary school teacher in the middle of a pandemic, dice making has become my new stress relief. Your videos are the reason I started making them and started getting the confidence to do it. Started with the cheaper molds and now I'm making my own sprue molds to start upgrading! Thank you for some much needed focused stress relief. :)
Even worse being a student in Europe, I'm in Ireland and it would run me over 100€ in material cost, 60+ euro for the sample batch of only 900g silicone xD
@@Rybonator Now I'm a little confused, I've been looking to start dice making, and just the epoxy and silicone for the molds is near 80$ USD. I'm currently shopping between Amazon.com and Amazon.ca since a lot of the items are not sold in Canada or are at an inflated price. Im sitting at a bill of 200$ USD for getting the base supplies: Sandpaper, micromesh, the Plastx polish, pipettes, gloves, cups and mixing cups. The only fancy items I got was some nail sequins (3$) and thermochromic pigment (17$) to try making color changing dice. I haven't even put a fume mask on the shopping list yet and I'm debating just opening some windows when mixing the epoxy. Are there any items you would say can be ignored to make it a bit more affordable to start? Thus far it seems impossible to start below 250 to 300$ USD As @Sydney mentioned, if you have an opportunity to explain what to get to start around 50$ in cost it would be awesome. Hopefully I didn't sound aggressive in my wording, I really am just confused on how it is possible. Have a great day and thanks for the effort you put into these videos!
Well, for now I'm toying with the idea of making dice myself :) My brother is hooked on D&D, so I could maybe make a custom set for him (and one for myself when I eventually get into playing) No problem! The sets you make are so creative and pretty; some of my favourites are the Emerald, Moon Circle Druid and M&M's ones!
I'm pretty sure you can find other fun ways to use these dice if you don't want to try TTRPG's. If you ever want to try though, I know quite a few of us that play online and with a variety of systems (not just D&D).
If you want to play, know what you're getting into. Hours imagining D&D scenarios, obsessively reading through spells and handbook, making character's on apps nonstop, then pouring in hours of prep before a game filled with idiots. And that's as a player, not a DM. DMs are another problem
Jovani P I DM three games and this pandemic has moved two of them from every two weeks to weekly. I still work full-time (thankful I can), but boy is this tiresome. Yet I continue and I enjoy every moment of it. I’m running pre-mades so it’s easier but I prep maps on Roll20 and mark it up for dynamic lighting, etc. Running Tomb of Annihilation every two weeks, Descent into Avernus every week, and Tyranny of Dragons every week. All with different people. I play in Waterdeep Dragon Heist DM’d by player from Tomb of Annihilation every other week.
One detail I have notice in commercial dice is that they leave the sprue in the edge and not in the vertex, that way you only have to worry about sanding 2 faces (or tumbling in their case). I'm waiting for my silicon to arrive to make some dice, thank you for the tutorials and inspiration!
They can also get much finer holes in their sprues due to injection molding being far superior to anything we can do at home. We have to worry about air and all that bad junk. You totally can use an edge instead, I just do it this way to make sure I don't have failed dice. BUT, it can totally still happen. :O No problem! Thank YOU for watching :)
I've just gotten into dice making at home, and I'm using sealed molds with the sprue on a single surface. I could be doing everything completely wrong, but I'm finding I have to actually work more surfaces than if the sprue was on a corner. The mold lines end up protruding past the other edges and have to be trimmed and polished anyway.
It is WILD going from your very first "how to make your own dice" video with the shiny gold ones to these experience "I use a pressure pot and polish and ink" videos! This is awesome!!
I just found this on my recommended and wow. For once the RUclips algorithm is working out. You have really awesome tutorials and work, I just wanted to say that.
Awesome! I spent MONTHS looking for methods for casting dice, and nothing like your channel came up. I stopped looking over a year ago. Now just today, your video leading up to this one popped up in my recommendations. So, thank you, and you got a new subscriber. Now -- casting in bronze.
Hey I'm a bit late to the party, but better late than never for you I guess :) Glad you like my content. Oh gosh... I am looking into cold casting but need to get some good brass shavings
A trick that might translate over from the automotive world is to wet sand in a figure-eight motion, which gives you a good mix directions in a single movement. Auto tinkerers would clamp sandpaper to a sheet of flat glass and move automotive parts (like motorcycle cylinder heads) in a figure-eight to get a flat surface when they didn't have access to a proper milling machine.
That's actually essentially what I do now! Besides the figure 8 motion. I just go in normal concentric circles, but should probably do the figure 8 motion. Thanks for the tip my friend!
Thank you for the sanding and polishing tips! Here's my contribution: I'm in the odd situation where i don't have alot of fancy coloured acrylic paints.. buuuut I do have a f-ton of nail polish colours. I mean. Nothing wins in terms of colour variety over nail polish. You can use this too... Just instead of thumb, get a lil squeegee from the dollar store, wipe that squeegee off on cardboard after (i use cereal boxes) and then you clean off any remaining excess still on the dice with a rag and some nail polish remover, also from the dollar store. Bam!
Your videos are helping me a lot, trying to bond with my father after a divorce and I know a lot about resin and Mica powder, we ordered special molds and resin and I have the UV lamp and I'm just so excited so thank you very much
Didnt know about most of this things, that micro mesh for example. Again, that dice set is magical, and silver is so natural! Very, very good work Master!
I would really love (and appreciate) a video about common problems people run into when making dice and how to fix them. Bubbles, scratches, tackiness, all that stuff combined into one video. I'm actually having a problem making my own dice during the resin process in that the bottom of the dice is fine, the top of the dice is completely missing, but the "anchor" (in your case I think you use those mini-d6) is perfectly fine (just not attached to the dice obviously)
I can make that happen in a future vid! So I had your problem, and my general fix was to shove my pipette to the very bottom of the mold when filling, allowing the resin to rise from the bottom up. (obviously a pressure pot helps too, but is optional.) This way the air escapes when filling up the mold. Also try pushing your pipette to the side when filling up, so that there is a tiny air hole for air to escape as the resin rises. Hope that helps! :)
@@Rybonator Thank you SO much, the pipette technique helped a lot. I definitely might get a pressure pot in the future though, seems like those things are super useful when working with resin.
I just found your channel today and I've really been enjoying your videos! You explain things without abstruse jargon and I LOVE that you leave mishaps or happy accidents in your video! Making creative stuff is never a perfectly linear process and it's so nice to see someone with enough self confidence to admit (and have fun with!) accidents, and it makes the video that much more informative. This comment got long but I just wanted to say keep up the good stuff!
When I was a metal polisher we used tumblers with an abrasive medium (Stone) to take off rough edges from aluminum, steel, and plastics. You add water to the medium put your parts into the medium then turn on the tumbler for a hour or two. Check your partsi, f they need another go just drop them back in. You can get table top tumblers. The only bad thing is they are loud as hell. JUST drop your dice in the tumbler to skip the course sand paper then polish with the smooth sanding methods.
just use your thumb! beautiful beautiful, this is exactly the answer I needed, I was googling how to ink dice and everything was like 'use crayons', thank you for this method!
I've just started making dice (first set is literally curing right now) and this video is really helpful! Can't wait to go hunt down what I need for these next steps!
Wow. Your dice making game has improved so much. I remember when I found that first video you made of the dice a year ago xD Keep it up man. You've really inspired all of us. :)
Amazing dice. Maybe I’ll give it a try. As for that gold dice, you could make it translucent red, with the gold in the middle and call it “Dragon Treasure” or “Dragon Hoard”.
Great information, thank you!! I've only been making dice for a little over a month and cleaning up the edge was an issue! Now everything is pretty equally shiny! :)
Your videos are fantastic, thank you so much for taking the time to make them! I was wondering if you've ever tried using a buffer block for fingernails to polish up your dice. I'm not sure how they compare to 12,000 grit, but they are imperceptibly rough when you touch them, and they make fingernails shine.
Awesome stuff! I've been inspired to try making dice using these tutorials, and have been moderately successful. I noticed that the grooves for the numbers were much thinner and shallower after sanding those faces down, how could I go about preventing that? I have very little experience polishing and sanding
Dragon Heart Set, I wonder how hard it would be to make a dice set that has a orange glow in a dark core, and a shell around it made of being like really translucent gray. It might look sick, or it might look half way decent.
Really coming through with great videos man! Would be cool to see you try to copy a chessex dice set, and then see how you could improve upon the original design!
Have you tried polishing with buffing wheels on a Dremel or other rotary tool with polishing compound? Do you find the manual sanding to be more effective?
Yeah I have a dremmel with a buffing wheel, and it scratches up the faces of my dice on it's lowest setting. I could just have a crap buffing wheel, but that's why I don't use it :/
Hey there! Someone else brought up adding stuff to make it look like a shattered gem - from limited experience adding some sort of iridescent foil works very well to create an opal look. I use iridescent snow (you can find this in craft stores more easily beginning in Thanksgiving now, it's usually a couple bucks for a hand sized bag) to make fake opals. Just commenting it outside of the thread b.c I'm really hoping you see this. If you want bigger, uncrinkled pieces, the easiest thing is to look for "iridescent nail foil". I've seen videos where people use car tints to create an iridescent block inside another object, but applying nail foil to the surface while the resin is still tacky is likely a cheaper and easier alternative.
Also I know I've already said a lot, but would it be possible to polish with a Dremel? I think I've seen vids on that before (never tried, lazy since grinding down is all that's been necessary before adding a final resin gloss) and a baby sized hand held Dremel can be gotten for >$15. Or idk, if you wanna do the lazy af method which is grind down what you need to, fill what you need to (numbers, pips, letters, etc), then seal with more resin after leveling the surface
Thank you for both comments! I'll try and answer both here: I love the iridescent snow tip, I am absolutely going to look for some of that! I have some of the foil/strips so I'll be using those, but if I see the snow it's MINE haha. I have tried using a dremel, but it's honestly too much and scratches my dice/goes far too quickly. Maybe my dremel is just a monster, but that's what I have experienced so far. Great question though!
Haha maybe one day in the future :) We are so far into a campaign now. Maybe I can record our sessions when we start our second campaign in the future.
Ik this video is a year old but I just wanna say that I love to listen to this in the background, and this has sparked an interest in resin crafts, which I might try someday. Anyway, love the video 👌
Good timing, my resin just went in the molds......Though, i feel like i need 3 or4 sets of molds to have them each day. Looking forward to polishing them.
You mentioned you didnt use any final top coat over the dice, if you would can you recommend wich kind? Again, this is amazing, thanks for such awesome and detailed content!
I have heard of people having good luck with sprays like this - www.amazon.com/Aleenes-Spray-Finish-Acrylic-Sealer/dp/B003W0A19U/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=plastic+varnish+spray+gloss&qid=1566864259&s=gateway&sr=8-4 I just can't seem to get the technique down! Also thank you :) Glad you like it!
I hate to break this to you, but the Etsy vendor you plugged is not a custom dice maker. They are listing their dice at a 251% mark-up. You can find their dice listings on Amazon for way cheaper, usually with free shipping too. Your dice on the other hand are very beautiful. Thank you for posting.
Oh no :( That's a huge shame. Thank you for informing me though. MAYBE they make the ones that go on Amazon? Idk, I'll look more into this. Thank you :)
I found your sharp-edged dice video the other day (ironically while looking for wooden dice tutorials) and did wonder if you were just gonna leave that sprue mark. Looks fantastic, mate. How much do you usually spend on resin for one set? Setup costs for silicone moulds are very dear already, are running costs just as high?
Thanks man, really appreciate that :) So I buy my resin in 32oz sets. It takes 40ml to make a set of these dice, You can expect to get 20+ dice out of each set of 32oz of resin. That can run from $30-50$, so it's like a 2-3$ a set of dice for the resin :)
@@Rybonator Thank you so much for answering. A mate and I have been wanting to get into resin casting and we wonder what the overall costs might be, you know, for budgeting. I'm pretty sure your stuff will come up often there! Do you know of an alternative to silicone for moulds? Perhaps not as long-lasting, just something quick to dip our toes in.
As someone whose done a lot of metallography in college this should have been a no brainer. At least you can feasibly polish resin by hand. Metal takes hours with a grinding wheel. But thanks for all the tips!
My general thought is that since we are taking such a suuuper thin layer off the dice, it's not that bad. Most big dice manufacturers just stuff TONS of dice into giant tumblers with sanding grit and let them go for days. Their sanding is super random, and some sides become smaller than others all the time. If they are alright with it for play, then I am too haha. Though if I were going to sell mine I'd sand all sides :)
As a suggestion for a top coat (if you haven't tried this one already!) mr super clear (MSC) is really good! I know it is used a lot for doll customisation, but I'm sure it can also be used for dice. It's a good coat and I use it myself for my plastic and clay dolls! c:
Strangeish question, but what kind of brush were you using for the inking? It almost reminded me of a fountain pen. Also, how long do the sandpaper sheets and micromesh squares last you?
Does the sanding make the number grooves a lot more shallow? Not sure if it was just the light in the video but on the D4 it looks like the ink had trouble staying inside the grooves..
I think it was mostly the light. The idea is to take off a SUPER thin layer of material. Try starting at a higher grit than I did. I normally start at around 4-600 now rather than 120 and have great results. You do have to be careful for what you are talking about though :)
I am not a dice maker but have recently started watching and love you chanel but have a question: When you say D (insert number here) does that mean dice (same number)?
No problem at all, thank YOU for watching :) So it takes about 2 hours. BUT, it only adds on about 20 minutes for each set that you want to do. A good chunk of time is lost in setting up and taking down what you need to move on to the next step. I did 5 sets in like 4 hours while watching TV a few weeks ago. :)
Okay, so I sand only the sides/edges that have the sprue or any deformities, and then use the mesh or higher grits on every side to polish it and make it look glassy? I'm new to dice making, I've also had issues of a giant bubble where the sprue is supposed to be. (I've been practicing with those squish molds from amazon, or the ones you used in your wish video) I want to practice before I get my own set of masters made!
Just a suggestion maybe-- have you heard of zona polishing paper? it goes from 30 microns to 1 micron in coarseness, and I saw a different channel use it to get a glass-like finish on a set of master dice, and it looks like they just started with the polishing papers and didn't use sandpaper at all. I'm wondering if you maybe wanna try it out and see if you like it more or less than the snadpaper and the headlight polish you use!
Have you ever tried making gradient dice? Like two transparent colors (red-yellow, green-blue, etc) that slowly transition into the other from top to bottom. I don't know how difficult it would be to keep the two from mixing completely at the start but if it's possible it would look awesome.
Like Biance Brooks said below, I have done 2 tone, and one of them is kinda gradient-ey, the clear and glow set. But I get what you are asking for. I'll give it a shot and try and find the best way in the future :)
Really appreciate being walked through the entire process. Quick question -- you say the sanding only applies to the sides/corner that was cut away from the sprue. Does this apply to the micromesh as well?
Thank you, I am glad that it was appreciated. :) Yes it does! You don't NEED to micromesh the whole thing. BUT if you notice that it isn't looking the same on your sanded sides, you always CAN go over the whole thing to get a uniform look.
Good question! We are talking about sanding off a SUPER thing layer, so no I don't really worry about it. I haven't really noticed any balance issues, and my testing doesn't appear to cause any huge corrections needed. When dice manufacturers make their dice they put them in HUGE tumblers that randomly shape the corners. With that some of the faces get shaved too, leaving imperfect sides, so I don't think that this is too different than a normal dice :)
Damn, that silver is looking pretty good! Any chance you'll be painting the rest of the Infinity Stone Dice as well (whether it be off-screen or in another video)?
I tried making dice with only one pouring tiny hole, but my resin is sorta thick and it doesn't flow as well. I've seen what I think are two part molds. I guess those are the ones use when you want to insert something on the heart of the dice?
So I still use the same molds for when I want something to float in the middle. I'll go over that in my upcoming video. But essentially, you fill up a bit of resin, enough to be the bottom level of where you want the thing to float, and let is sit for about 30 minutes, enough to become almost like jelly and start to cure. Then you open the mold up a bit, put the thing in, and cover with the rest of the resin. I've had great results with this method :)
The gold glitter dice you show and link towards the end of the video look similar or identical to dice from "Haxtec" on amazon - this is also the case for their lines of metal dice. Are Haxtec and RainbowShopCN the same creator/company?
@@Rybonator quite a lot of companies replicate designs from small creators and mass produce them without credit, or use an image ripped from somewhere else to falsely represent their product, so I was worried in that regard!
How much pressure are you applying when sanding the dice. Are you pressing down of just gently rubbing it on the paper letting the sand paper do the work?
Thank you! Glad you like them. It's about $50 to get started in the hobby at a baseline, for reference. So if you save up, you know the dollar amount you really need :)
It's entirely up to you. A lot of people like to remove the paint from their numbers prior to molding them, as it gives you a LITTLE more room to make mistakes when sanding. But that's all personal preference :)
Is there a point where you stop sanding only the sprue sides and use the micro mesh on each side for uniformity, or do you just leave the other sides alone?
I've been making d20s for a while now and this has just shown me how to get rid of that pesky edge from the mold! Thank you!! What brush set are you using? I like that the heads are at an angle.
Question. I'm currently buying all of the tools and ingredients you showcase throughout your videos to successfully make some awesome custom dice. But unfortunately the pressure pot is a little bit out of my budget. But I got the vacuum chamber cause I really want clear dice. Can I achieve practically clear dice only using the vacuum chamber? or do I need the pressure pot to really achieve that glass finish look?
I've been getting into dice casting, and I found out that epoxy resin doesn't actually fully cure in 24 hours, and it actually takes about 2-3 more days after that initial 24 hours to finish hardening. So would it be better to sand and polish them before or after that period?
Very nice work. I agree with some people who recommend starting with a higher grit, as it might reduce the amount of material you have to remove in the long run, but these are really lovely and you get some great, crisp lines, so what do I know. ; ) Also: It looks like you have subtitles disabled for your video here. It really helps some of us if you have auto-subtitles enabled (or allow community subtitles.)
Glad you like them :) I will give the starting at a higher grit a shot, I was just afriad of not getting the mold lines removed at a higher grit, but I could be totally off base. I didn't hit anything to remove them, and can't find a way to add them back, or even remove them in the first place :O It seems to be working on mine. My apologies! I would never intentionally take them off. I'll keep looking into it.
Hey Rybonator, just wanted to say I find your videos both inspiring and entertaining, and since I started watching your stuff, I've started doing a bit of my own. I've already made dice trays for all my players, and a dice chest w/ tray for myself. But a quick question. I also made a small dice chest for a single set of dice, and I wanted to know if you wanted it as a token of my appreciation and admiration. If you're interested send me a message. Thanks and keep up the awesome work!
Hi there Red Glare! I'm glad that you have given some of my stuff a shot. That makes me super happy! :) I am not sure how to message you on here, but you can always feel free to message me on Twitter/Instagram/Reddit. That being said, I wouldn't want to take something that you put so much time and work into! You should give it to one of your friends to appreciate :) Not that I wouldn't appreciate it, I am sure that it is lovely, and I'd love to at least see some pics of it! Keep being awesome, and know that I am thankful of the gesture, I would just feel bad! :)
No worries, glad to answer! So short answer yes, but not by much. Long answer - Most dice manufacturers just throw thousands of dice in a huge tumbler with fine grit tumbling material and let nature take it's course. Most dice have one face slightly larger/off compared to others. SO is this dice set THAT much more off than others? I don't think so. We are talking about taking a SUPER thing layer off of a face, and mostly removing EXCESS material anyway. So with all that, I don't worry about it too much. :)
It wouldn't affect it terribly unless you're removing too much material. He used 120 grit sand paper in this, but honestly that is too unless you are getting rid of a huge amount of sprue material and even then, getting rid of the scratches from 120 is going to be tough so I'd personally not recommend it. I'd start with 220 and then move up from there.
@Rybonator Would you say Plast-x or Zonapapers area better way to go? Making dice myself, but need a good polishing method (no potter's wheel, yet...). Thanks!
@@ninetails6218 Well, 120 grit takes off a LOT of material in relation to such small objects and such soft material. Probably almost unnoticeable, but definitely took off more than i'd consider necessary
Learning how to make dice is the weirdest thing my ADHD has ever made me hyperfocus on, but I'm glad your videos were there for it. Thanks dawg
fuck same. I'm gonna be buying myself the stuff I need after the christmas season is over. XD I want to make cute dice.
Always glad to ruin someone's focus haha :)
@@BrennaDraws Do it! It's not too bad :)
I am autistic and I love doing small crafts like this, and as a magic the gathering player and a warhammer 40k player then I’m always after dice that are like this just to show off! I will defiantly be following this video for inking them all! This is amazing, Rybonator please keep doing tutorials like this and don’t stop! Thankyou for this video and I hope to see another one soon!
@@alexbevan2183
Ppl w/ autism Ppl w/ ADHD
🤝
The impulsion to collect dice
Hey so I would suggest not starting with 120 grit sand paper. On your close-ups I can see some small scratches in the surfaces of the dice that I believe detract from the over all glow of the finish. I would suggest starting from no lower than 220p. That will give you enough abrasiveness to remove spalling without giving you extra work as you move up the grit scale. That way you can get a nearly mirror flat surface that shines like glass.
Probably a good idea! Honestly you can't see the scratched or anything in person, the only reason they are so apparent, is because I am SUPER zoomed in 4k video haha. But yes that is a great tip :) Will do in the future! Thanks
@@Rybonator You inspired me to try my hand at making dice so I wanted to pass on a tip in kind. I do polishing for a living so I figured I could be helpful in this. Love the videos and can't wait to see more. :)
Same Thought here - maybe even start off 360 or something like that. No need to introduce that many scratches to the surface if its almost impeccable anyway!
I agree with you :D when i help my stepfather restoring old motorcycles, then we always use 360 grit sandpaper as the lowest, since more or less any other sandpaper will leave tiny scratch marks, that takes forever to remove, and over bigger surfaces, those tiny marks become very visible as soon, as the sun is around 45 degrees or lover angle.
I do headlight refinishes this way aswell, I start no lower than 400 for the same reason. the lower the grit the more work you have to do to get it out. also when moving up grits you want to only sand in 1 direction. up down or left right, not both on every grit as you introduce more pits and valleys that way. one grit is up and down the next is left and right to properly flatten and remove the hatching from the last grit
From someone who has been working with sand paper most of their professional life; its about patience, maintaining a personal high standard for your work, and practice/experience. I've seen way too many polishing related projects to up to less than what they could have been because of lacking one or more of these factors. Time crunch from the boss or just wanting to be done can really hinder quality.
This is just my opinion, but since you're polishing resin dice, you could forego the rougher sand paper from the very beginning, you don't need to make the already relatively smooth surface of the dice rough, possibly losing a lot of material if too much elbow grease is applied, and simply begin wet sanding using 800/P2400. Faster hand motion across a slightly larger surface of the sand paper from what you've demonstrated will help too, going slow with the same grit can leave a project with a lot of deep scuffs. It will just require more close eye scrutiny before deciding the polishing is done.
Thanks for the tips, I appreciate them. I was just worried about too high of a grit not being able to rmove some of the mold lines in the dice, but that could worrying for no reason. I'll start there and see if I can get a noticably better product. ANYTHING to make there be less sanding time haha. :)
I was doing some rings this last week and I purely used 150-grit sandpaper just to knock the flashing off. With most casting resins, you can go straight from that to your coarsest MicroMesh, especially since it's really only equivalent to 400-grit sandpaper. By going up to 1500 and then switching to MicroMesh, you actually undid a lot of the work you had already done, you could have jumped straight to the 3000 MicroMesh.
What do you mean P2400? Do you mean sanding with 800 grit and then polishing to 2400? Or go from 800 grit to 2400?
@@sib_here_ I apologize for the confusion. There are two standards that use different measures when talking about sandpaper grit; CAMI which is used in the states, and FPEA which is European and usually has a 'P' in front the grit. 800 grit is the same as P2400. Some manufacturers print both numbers on their sandpaper in the same manner I statedabove. At my work, it sometimes causes confusion.
@@chainer8686 Thanks so much! I just started getting interested in this stuff so I dont really know much, so thanks for clearing it up!
Not only are these videos incredibly detailed and informative, but the combination of your voice and the background music is so soothing. I could sit and watch these dice tutorials for hours.
Thanks Annie :) I really appreciate hearing that. Glad you like my content!
Agreed! Definitely a "broadcasting" voice. :D
have you considered making crystal clear dice with shattered glass inside? im certain it will increase the gem-esc look intensely.
The only problem is that the resin will fill all the cracks from the shattered glass, and it will just look completely transparent :/ Great idea though!
@@Rybonator Maybe if you tried it with a glass that had a higher iron content or even glass from a green beer bottle it would remain visible? It would be a different effect, but it could still be neat.
@@n.m.dimmick194 True! It would have to not be the same color as the resin you are casting
Maybe with a glass that has a very different incidence angle ? The same way you can see glass in water because they have very different incidence angles, maybe you could see some glasses in resin ?
@@levi2725 That would probably work as well.
As an elementary school teacher in the middle of a pandemic, dice making has become my new stress relief. Your videos are the reason I started making them and started getting the confidence to do it. Started with the cheaper molds and now I'm making my own sprue molds to start upgrading! Thank you for some much needed focused stress relief. :)
When you want to try this but you are a college student and so have no monies.
It's a rough life. I feel you!
You can get started into dice making for about $50 and build from there as an FYI :)
@@Rybonator "It's a rough life."
Do I smell a pun?
Even worse being a student in Europe, I'm in Ireland and it would run me over 100€ in material cost, 60+ euro for the sample batch of only 900g silicone xD
that's the college life... no money, no free time. but the urge to make dice is still very strong.
@@Rybonator Now I'm a little confused, I've been looking to start dice making, and just the epoxy and silicone for the molds is near 80$ USD. I'm currently shopping between Amazon.com and Amazon.ca since a lot of the items are not sold in Canada or are at an inflated price. Im sitting at a bill of 200$ USD for getting the base supplies: Sandpaper, micromesh, the Plastx polish, pipettes, gloves, cups and mixing cups. The only fancy items I got was some nail sequins (3$) and thermochromic pigment (17$) to try making color changing dice. I haven't even put a fume mask on the shopping list yet and I'm debating just opening some windows when mixing the epoxy.
Are there any items you would say can be ignored to make it a bit more affordable to start? Thus far it seems impossible to start below 250 to 300$ USD
As @Sydney mentioned, if you have an opportunity to explain what to get to start around 50$ in cost it would be awesome.
Hopefully I didn't sound aggressive in my wording, I really am just confused on how it is possible.
Have a great day and thanks for the effort you put into these videos!
I don't even play D&D but I'm absolutely mesmerised by your videos. This is really relaxing!
Well maybe this is a good way to get you into it :) Thank you by the way
Well, for now I'm toying with the idea of making dice myself :) My brother is hooked on D&D, so I could maybe make a custom set for him (and one for myself when I eventually get into playing)
No problem! The sets you make are so creative and pretty; some of my favourites are the Emerald, Moon Circle Druid and M&M's ones!
I'm pretty sure you can find other fun ways to use these dice if you don't want to try TTRPG's. If you ever want to try though, I know quite a few of us that play online and with a variety of systems (not just D&D).
If you want to play, know what you're getting into. Hours imagining D&D scenarios, obsessively reading through spells and handbook, making character's on apps nonstop, then pouring in hours of prep before a game filled with idiots. And that's as a player, not a DM. DMs are another problem
Jovani P I DM three games and this pandemic has moved two of them from every two weeks to weekly. I still work full-time (thankful I can), but boy is this tiresome. Yet I continue and I enjoy every moment of it. I’m running pre-mades so it’s easier but I prep maps on Roll20 and mark it up for dynamic lighting, etc. Running Tomb of Annihilation every two weeks, Descent into Avernus every week, and Tyranny of Dragons every week. All with different people. I play in Waterdeep Dragon Heist DM’d by player from Tomb of Annihilation every other week.
One detail I have notice in commercial dice is that they leave the sprue in the edge and not in the vertex, that way you only have to worry about sanding 2 faces (or tumbling in their case).
I'm waiting for my silicon to arrive to make some dice, thank you for the tutorials and inspiration!
They can also get much finer holes in their sprues due to injection molding being far superior to anything we can do at home. We have to worry about air and all that bad junk. You totally can use an edge instead, I just do it this way to make sure I don't have failed dice. BUT, it can totally still happen. :O
No problem! Thank YOU for watching :)
I've just gotten into dice making at home, and I'm using sealed molds with the sprue on a single surface. I could be doing everything completely wrong, but I'm finding I have to actually work more surfaces than if the sprue was on a corner. The mold lines end up protruding past the other edges and have to be trimmed and polished anyway.
Now THIS
This is fantastic. Exactly what I need to get even more obsessed with DIY dice.
Glad you like it :)
I just started collecting dice, and I wondered how people made their own. I had no idea how much work was put into it! Thanks for the great video :)
Oh yeah it takes a ton to get a real nice set going. Gad you like my content :)
You can never have enough dice!
It is WILD going from your very first "how to make your own dice" video with the shiny gold ones to these experience "I use a pressure pot and polish and ink" videos! This is awesome!!
I just found this on my recommended and wow. For once the RUclips algorithm is working out. You have really awesome tutorials and work, I just wanted to say that.
Hey thank you :) I really do appreciate hearing that
Awesome! I spent MONTHS looking for methods for casting dice, and nothing like your channel came up. I stopped looking over a year ago. Now just today, your video leading up to this one popped up in my recommendations. So, thank you, and you got a new subscriber. Now -- casting in bronze.
Hey I'm a bit late to the party, but better late than never for you I guess :) Glad you like my content.
Oh gosh... I am looking into cold casting but need to get some good brass shavings
A trick that might translate over from the automotive world is to wet sand in a figure-eight motion, which gives you a good mix directions in a single movement. Auto tinkerers would clamp sandpaper to a sheet of flat glass and move automotive parts (like motorcycle cylinder heads) in a figure-eight to get a flat surface when they didn't have access to a proper milling machine.
That's actually essentially what I do now! Besides the figure 8 motion. I just go in normal concentric circles, but should probably do the figure 8 motion. Thanks for the tip my friend!
Thank you for the sanding and polishing tips!
Here's my contribution: I'm in the odd situation where i don't have alot of fancy coloured acrylic paints.. buuuut I do have a f-ton of nail polish colours. I mean. Nothing wins in terms of colour variety over nail polish. You can use this too... Just instead of thumb, get a lil squeegee from the dollar store, wipe that squeegee off on cardboard after (i use cereal boxes) and then you clean off any remaining excess still on the dice with a rag and some nail polish remover, also from the dollar store. Bam!
Your videos are helping me a lot, trying to bond with my father after a divorce and I know a lot about resin and Mica powder, we ordered special molds and resin and I have the UV lamp and I'm just so excited so thank you very much
Didnt know about most of this things, that micro mesh for example. Again, that dice set is magical, and silver is so natural! Very, very good work Master!
Thanks man! Glad you like them. Peter Brown introduced me to micromesh, and I LOVE the results it can give!
I would really love (and appreciate) a video about common problems people run into when making dice and how to fix them. Bubbles, scratches, tackiness, all that stuff combined into one video.
I'm actually having a problem making my own dice during the resin process in that the bottom of the dice is fine, the top of the dice is completely missing, but the "anchor" (in your case I think you use those mini-d6) is perfectly fine (just not attached to the dice obviously)
I can make that happen in a future vid!
So I had your problem, and my general fix was to shove my pipette to the very bottom of the mold when filling, allowing the resin to rise from the bottom up. (obviously a pressure pot helps too, but is optional.) This way the air escapes when filling up the mold. Also try pushing your pipette to the side when filling up, so that there is a tiny air hole for air to escape as the resin rises.
Hope that helps! :)
@@Rybonator Thank you SO much, the pipette technique helped a lot. I definitely might get a pressure pot in the future though, seems like those things are super useful when working with resin.
I just found your channel today and I've really been enjoying your videos! You explain things without abstruse jargon and I LOVE that you leave mishaps or happy accidents in your video! Making creative stuff is never a perfectly linear process and it's so nice to see someone with enough self confidence to admit (and have fun with!) accidents, and it makes the video that much more informative. This comment got long but I just wanted to say keep up the good stuff!
I'm really glad you like what I make and how I make it :) Thank you for saying that!
That D4 looked really cool. It had a stretching out to infinity to it. Really looked cool.
Right? I really like looking into the flat side of it :) Thank you!
When I was a metal polisher we used tumblers with an abrasive medium (Stone) to take off rough edges from aluminum, steel, and plastics. You add water to the medium put your parts into the medium then turn on the tumbler for a hour or two. Check your partsi, f they need another go just drop them back in. You can get table top tumblers. The only bad thing is they are loud as hell.
JUST drop your dice in the tumbler to skip the course sand paper then polish with the smooth sanding methods.
I would LOVE to get a tumblr like that, but the loudness is an issue where I live currently :/
just use your thumb! beautiful beautiful, this is exactly the answer I needed, I was googling how to ink dice and everything was like 'use crayons', thank you for this method!
Thumb and done :)
I just ordered a cheap set of dice to make moulds thanks to your vids, I cant wait to try making my own dice
That's awesome! Send pics when you complete your first set :) Best of luck to you!
Awesome dice set. Really good tips!! Thank you for sharing your process ❤
I decided to make my best friend a set of handmade dice for Christmas, thank god I found these videos!
That's awesome! You are a great friend :)
SIR YOU HAVE GIVEN ME THE POWER OF MAKING CUSTOM D&D DICES THANK YO
Thank you for this, been waiting for a thorough explanation on finishing dice and you really came through.
Sorry I totally missed your comment a while back! Glad to help :)
I just finished my first set using a pressure pot. They look so good! Thanks for the videos you've made. They were a HUGE help!
I've just started making dice (first set is literally curing right now) and this video is really helpful! Can't wait to go hunt down what I need for these next steps!
Fellow Texan here, make some Lone Star dice! Red, white, blue with a star as the 20!
Howdy! And yeah that would be great :) I'll look into it
Wow. Your dice making game has improved so much. I remember when I found that first video you made of the dice a year ago xD
Keep it up man. You've really inspired all of us. :)
Thank you :) I truly appreciate hearing that.
Amazing dice. Maybe I’ll give it a try. As for that gold dice, you could make it translucent red, with the gold in the middle and call it “Dragon Treasure” or “Dragon Hoard”.
Thank you! I am really glad that you like them :)
And oohh that's a good idea!
Great information, thank you!! I've only been making dice for a little over a month and cleaning up the edge was an issue! Now everything is pretty equally shiny! :)
Glad it worked out for you :) Send pics!
Your video series is perfect for me as I'm trying to get into making my own dice so thanks for that ^^
Glad you like them :) If you make some sets, send pics!
Your videos are fantastic, thank you so much for taking the time to make them!
I was wondering if you've ever tried using a buffer block for fingernails to polish up your dice. I'm not sure how they compare to 12,000 grit, but they are imperceptibly rough when you touch them, and they make fingernails shine.
I would LOVE to buy those!
I hope dice stores will make these kinds of dice
I think others have copied the design out there on etsy if you'd like to buy some :) I'll be selling some eventually, but just not quite yet!
Awesome stuff! I've been inspired to try making dice using these tutorials, and have been moderately successful.
I noticed that the grooves for the numbers were much thinner and shallower after sanding those faces down, how could I go about preventing that? I have very little experience polishing and sanding
Try starting at a higher grit! I usually start sanding at around 600 now isntead of 120, it takes off far less material :)
Beautiful work! and that silver really does pop out at you.
I'm a gold guy, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that silver was the right choice for this set! Thank you :)
They turned out really nice. Well done.
Thank you, I appreciate that :)
As a beginner dice maker, this video is incredibly useful. Thank you for making this!
Of course! Glad you found it helpful :)
Great video man, very informative! I had never seen the Micromesh before, that stuff is awesome! Can't wait to see more! : )
Thanks brother! Appreciate it :) And yeah micromesh is magic... haha
at the end of this vid: "if RUclips became full time"
latest vid: "I quit my job to do RUclips full time"
Awesome! I was waiting for this. Gonna start on my own set now. Thanks!
Go for it! Send pics when you finish up :) Glad you like them
Dragon Heart Set, I wonder how hard it would be to make a dice set that has a orange glow in a dark core, and a shell around it made of being like really translucent gray. It might look sick, or it might look half way decent.
I like the idea, it would just be hard to differentiate all the colors... I'll play around with it and see what I can come up with.
@@Rybonator maybe put in a round tiger's eye stone with a smokey clear resin? or at least a false tiger's eye
Really coming through with great videos man! Would be cool to see you try to copy a chessex dice set, and then see how you could improve upon the original design!
Ohh I like that concept... I'll add it to my to-do list :) Also thanks man!
You are terrific. Thank you so much for all of your videos.
Aww thank you Eileen :) This made my morning!
I like to use acrylic varnish on my sets after inking, it seals it all in and if it wasn't shiny already then it makes it mega skinny 🤩
I just watched the video on making these ones! So funny that you just uploaded this vid!
Hey perfect timing then :)
Have you tried polishing with buffing wheels on a Dremel or other rotary tool with polishing compound? Do you find the manual sanding to be more effective?
Yeah I have a dremmel with a buffing wheel, and it scratches up the faces of my dice on it's lowest setting. I could just have a crap buffing wheel, but that's why I don't use it :/
how durable are those micromesh pads? how many uses do you get with them before having to replace?
It looks like the dice curve as you sand them, is it just in video or is it an actual product of sanding?
Partly both honestly. MOSTLY video, though some of mine did get oversanded at the tips on this set. Got caught up watching TV as I sanded. Whoops!
Hey there! Someone else brought up adding stuff to make it look like a shattered gem - from limited experience adding some sort of iridescent foil works very well to create an opal look. I use iridescent snow (you can find this in craft stores more easily beginning in Thanksgiving now, it's usually a couple bucks for a hand sized bag) to make fake opals. Just commenting it outside of the thread b.c I'm really hoping you see this. If you want bigger, uncrinkled pieces, the easiest thing is to look for "iridescent nail foil". I've seen videos where people use car tints to create an iridescent block inside another object, but applying nail foil to the surface while the resin is still tacky is likely a cheaper and easier alternative.
Also I know I've already said a lot, but would it be possible to polish with a Dremel? I think I've seen vids on that before (never tried, lazy since grinding down is all that's been necessary before adding a final resin gloss) and a baby sized hand held Dremel can be gotten for >$15. Or idk, if you wanna do the lazy af method which is grind down what you need to, fill what you need to (numbers, pips, letters, etc), then seal with more resin after leveling the surface
Thank you for both comments! I'll try and answer both here:
I love the iridescent snow tip, I am absolutely going to look for some of that! I have some of the foil/strips so I'll be using those, but if I see the snow it's MINE haha.
I have tried using a dremel, but it's honestly too much and scratches my dice/goes far too quickly. Maybe my dremel is just a monster, but that's what I have experienced so far. Great question though!
When are you going to actually show us a D&D game of yours
Haha maybe one day in the future :) We are so far into a campaign now. Maybe I can record our sessions when we start our second campaign in the future.
Nice
Ik this video is a year old but I just wanna say that I love to listen to this in the background, and this has sparked an interest in resin crafts, which I might try someday. Anyway, love the video 👌
Aww thanks Nebulablob :) I'm glad you still enjoy it!
they are so pretty, i kinda want to make a set now, even though i wouldn't play anything with them.
I guess you woun't have to make dice but could really make a resin version of most anything :)
@@Rybonator the dice shapes themselves are part of what i find so pretty.
Hey, go nuts then :)
Good timing, my resin just went in the molds......Though, i feel like i need 3 or4 sets of molds to have them each day. Looking forward to polishing them.
Right? I need me some more molds! :)
Omg I’m so bad at sanding. You make it look so easy! But I’ll keep trying. Love your videos ❤️
You mentioned you didnt use any final top coat over the dice, if you would can you recommend wich kind? Again, this is amazing, thanks for such awesome and detailed content!
I have heard of people having good luck with sprays like this - www.amazon.com/Aleenes-Spray-Finish-Acrylic-Sealer/dp/B003W0A19U/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=plastic+varnish+spray+gloss&qid=1566864259&s=gateway&sr=8-4
I just can't seem to get the technique down!
Also thank you :) Glad you like it!
I hate to break this to you, but the Etsy vendor you plugged is not a custom dice maker. They are listing their dice at a 251% mark-up.
You can find their dice listings on Amazon for way cheaper, usually with free shipping too.
Your dice on the other hand are very beautiful. Thank you for posting.
Oh no :( That's a huge shame. Thank you for informing me though. MAYBE they make the ones that go on Amazon? Idk, I'll look more into this.
Thank you :)
I found your sharp-edged dice video the other day (ironically while looking for wooden dice tutorials) and did wonder if you were just gonna leave that sprue mark. Looks fantastic, mate. How much do you usually spend on resin for one set? Setup costs for silicone moulds are very dear already, are running costs just as high?
Thanks man, really appreciate that :)
So I buy my resin in 32oz sets. It takes 40ml to make a set of these dice, You can expect to get 20+ dice out of each set of 32oz of resin. That can run from $30-50$, so it's like a 2-3$ a set of dice for the resin :)
@@Rybonator Thank you so much for answering. A mate and I have been wanting to get into resin casting and we wonder what the overall costs might be, you know, for budgeting. I'm pretty sure your stuff will come up often there!
Do you know of an alternative to silicone for moulds? Perhaps not as long-lasting, just something quick to dip our toes in.
As someone whose done a lot of metallography in college this should have been a no brainer. At least you can feasibly polish resin by hand. Metal takes hours with a grinding wheel. But thanks for all the tips!
I'm interested to see how balanced these are, since you didn't sand every side
My general thought is that since we are taking such a suuuper thin layer off the dice, it's not that bad. Most big dice manufacturers just stuff TONS of dice into giant tumblers with sanding grit and let them go for days. Their sanding is super random, and some sides become smaller than others all the time. If they are alright with it for play, then I am too haha. Though if I were going to sell mine I'd sand all sides :)
As a suggestion for a top coat (if you haven't tried this one already!) mr super clear (MSC) is really good!
I know it is used a lot for doll customisation, but I'm sure it can also be used for dice. It's a good coat and I use it myself for my plastic and clay dolls! c:
Oh I haven't heard of that! Thanks for the tip :) I'll look into it!
@@Rybonator No problem! I hope it is useful for you c:
Strangeish question, but what kind of brush were you using for the inking? It almost reminded me of a fountain pen.
Also, how long do the sandpaper sheets and micromesh squares last you?
Does the sanding make the number grooves a lot more shallow? Not sure if it was just the light in the video but on the D4 it looks like the ink had trouble staying inside the grooves..
I think it was mostly the light. The idea is to take off a SUPER thin layer of material. Try starting at a higher grit than I did. I normally start at around 4-600 now rather than 120 and have great results. You do have to be careful for what you are talking about though :)
I am not a dice maker but have recently started watching and love you chanel but have a question:
When you say D (insert number here) does that mean dice (same number)?
I'm glad you like what I do! Thanks for sticking around :)
Yes when I say d6 it means a six sided die, and a d20 is a 20 sided die :)
Of all the things I've searched up on Etsy, I cant BELIEVE dice was never one of them. 🤦🏻♂️ Love this set by the way.
Oh yeah, you can get TONS of custom ones on there :) They are awesome!
Thanks for doing these tutorials! I was wondering, do you have an estimate on how long the entire process takes?
No problem at all, thank YOU for watching :)
So it takes about 2 hours. BUT, it only adds on about 20 minutes for each set that you want to do. A good chunk of time is lost in setting up and taking down what you need to move on to the next step. I did 5 sets in like 4 hours while watching TV a few weeks ago. :)
Maybe a dumb question, could you like melt it a bit to smooth it and make it shiny? or would it just burn?
Because it's plastic/resin, it would probably burn or warp and not get it to do what you really want it to do. Good question though!
Okay, so I sand only the sides/edges that have the sprue or any deformities, and then use the mesh or higher grits on every side to polish it and make it look glassy? I'm new to dice making, I've also had issues of a giant bubble where the sprue is supposed to be. (I've been practicing with those squish molds from amazon, or the ones you used in your wish video) I want to practice before I get my own set of masters made!
Awesome video as always. One question, how much pressure are you applying when you’re sanding?
Just a suggestion maybe-- have you heard of zona polishing paper? it goes from 30 microns to 1 micron in coarseness, and I saw a different channel use it to get a glass-like finish on a set of master dice, and it looks like they just started with the polishing papers and didn't use sandpaper at all. I'm wondering if you maybe wanna try it out and see if you like it more or less than the snadpaper and the headlight polish you use!
I actually just got some in the mail :) So I'll be giving it a shot for sure!
@@Rybonator oh fantastic!! I hope you share your results, I'd love to see how they work out for you!
Have you ever tried making gradient dice?
Like two transparent colors (red-yellow, green-blue, etc) that slowly transition into the other from top to bottom.
I don't know how difficult it would be to keep the two from mixing completely at the start but if it's possible it would look awesome.
lowkey loki he has done two toned dice before.
Two colors mixed, yea but I don't see any gradient ones.
Like Biance Brooks said below, I have done 2 tone, and one of them is kinda gradient-ey, the clear and glow set. But I get what you are asking for. I'll give it a shot and try and find the best way in the future :)
Really appreciate being walked through the entire process. Quick question -- you say the sanding only applies to the sides/corner that was cut away from the sprue. Does this apply to the micromesh as well?
Thank you, I am glad that it was appreciated. :)
Yes it does! You don't NEED to micromesh the whole thing. BUT if you notice that it isn't looking the same on your sanded sides, you always CAN go over the whole thing to get a uniform look.
@@Rybonator thanks very much!
Of course!
Do you have any concerns about altering the balance of the dice for rolling by sanding off the material?
Good question! We are talking about sanding off a SUPER thing layer, so no I don't really worry about it. I haven't really noticed any balance issues, and my testing doesn't appear to cause any huge corrections needed. When dice manufacturers make their dice they put them in HUGE tumblers that randomly shape the corners. With that some of the faces get shaved too, leaving imperfect sides, so I don't think that this is too different than a normal dice :)
@@Rybonator Good to know, thank you for answering!
@@fionmcb6322 Glad to try and help :)
Damn, that silver is looking pretty good! Any chance you'll be painting the rest of the Infinity Stone Dice as well (whether it be off-screen or in another video)?
Thanks, glad you like it! I'll be inking them off camera sometime in the future :) I'll post pics when they are all done.
@@Rybonator Looking forward to seeing them. :D
I tried making dice with only one pouring tiny hole, but my resin is sorta thick and it doesn't flow as well. I've seen what I think are two part molds.
I guess those are the ones use when you want to insert something on the heart of the dice?
So I still use the same molds for when I want something to float in the middle. I'll go over that in my upcoming video. But essentially, you fill up a bit of resin, enough to be the bottom level of where you want the thing to float, and let is sit for about 30 minutes, enough to become almost like jelly and start to cure. Then you open the mold up a bit, put the thing in, and cover with the rest of the resin. I've had great results with this method :)
The gold glitter dice you show and link towards the end of the video look similar or identical to dice from "Haxtec" on amazon - this is also the case for their lines of metal dice. Are Haxtec and RainbowShopCN the same creator/company?
Not that I know of, as I have worked with both folks before and communicated with entirely different people. BUT You are right, they look real similar
@@Rybonator quite a lot of companies replicate designs from small creators and mass produce them without credit, or use an image ripped from somewhere else to falsely represent their product, so I was worried in that regard!
How much pressure are you applying when sanding the dice. Are you pressing down of just gently rubbing it on the paper letting the sand paper do the work?
Thanks for the video, really helpful! When I did the sanding I lost the numbers (d4), any advice on how to avoid this in the future? :)
These are gorgeous! I wish I had the means to make my own dice
Thank you! Glad you like them.
It's about $50 to get started in the hobby at a baseline, for reference. So if you save up, you know the dollar amount you really need :)
Would you recommend getting rid of or carving the paint and numbers of your die before making your mold?
It's entirely up to you. A lot of people like to remove the paint from their numbers prior to molding them, as it gives you a LITTLE more room to make mistakes when sanding. But that's all personal preference :)
@@Rybonator thank you very much!
I have a video request. How would you go about re-inking a store bought dice set??
I dont make dice but my guess would be to use acetone to get the paint off and then paint them the same way he did in the video
Sure, I can do that in a quick little tutorial video sometime :) Super easy stuff! Especially if the dice are not clear.
Illyicai I’ve actually tried that before, and the dice got all cloudy and rough, and it wasn’t as clear as it was before the acetone.
Those are beautiful!
No u :)
Also thank you haha
Absolutely beautiful!
No u :P Also thank you :)
Is there a point where you stop sanding only the sprue sides and use the micro mesh on each side for uniformity, or do you just leave the other sides alone?
Sorry for bothering you again but I'm assuming you wait for these to cure before polishing them, is that correct?
Oh yeah absolutely! I wait the full curing time of the resin
I've been making d20s for a while now and this has just shown me how to get rid of that pesky edge from the mold! Thank you!! What brush set are you using? I like that the heads are at an angle.
Question. I'm currently buying all of the tools and ingredients you showcase throughout your videos to successfully make some awesome custom dice. But unfortunately the pressure pot is a little bit out of my budget. But I got the vacuum chamber cause I really want clear dice. Can I achieve practically clear dice only using the vacuum chamber? or do I need the pressure pot to really achieve that glass finish look?
I've been getting into dice casting, and I found out that epoxy resin doesn't actually fully cure in 24 hours, and it actually takes about 2-3 more days after that initial 24 hours to finish hardening. So would it be better to sand and polish them before or after that period?
Very nice work. I agree with some people who recommend starting with a higher grit, as it might reduce the amount of material you have to remove in the long run, but these are really lovely and you get some great, crisp lines, so what do I know. ; )
Also: It looks like you have subtitles disabled for your video here. It really helps some of us if you have auto-subtitles enabled (or allow community subtitles.)
Glad you like them :) I will give the starting at a higher grit a shot, I was just afriad of not getting the mold lines removed at a higher grit, but I could be totally off base.
I didn't hit anything to remove them, and can't find a way to add them back, or even remove them in the first place :O It seems to be working on mine. My apologies! I would never intentionally take them off. I'll keep looking into it.
Hey Rybonator, just wanted to say I find your videos both inspiring and entertaining, and since I started watching your stuff, I've started doing a bit of my own. I've already made dice trays for all my players, and a dice chest w/ tray for myself. But a quick question. I also made a small dice chest for a single set of dice, and I wanted to know if you wanted it as a token of my appreciation and admiration. If you're interested send me a message. Thanks and keep up the awesome work!
Hi there Red Glare! I'm glad that you have given some of my stuff a shot. That makes me super happy! :)
I am not sure how to message you on here, but you can always feel free to message me on Twitter/Instagram/Reddit. That being said, I wouldn't want to take something that you put so much time and work into! You should give it to one of your friends to appreciate :) Not that I wouldn't appreciate it, I am sure that it is lovely, and I'd love to at least see some pics of it!
Keep being awesome, and know that I am thankful of the gesture, I would just feel bad! :)
We went from glass to jelly and I love it
Everybody needs more jelly!
Does the sandpaper need to be cleaned after? I’m concerned about resin dust so please excuse me if that’s an obvious question
No problem! Using a wet sanding helps reduce the dust by a LOT. You can then run it under water to get rid of most of it :)
Rybonator Great, thanks!
Of course!
These are beautiful!!
Thank you :) Glad you like them!
Probably a repeat question: how does the sanding affect the fairness of the dice?
No worries, glad to answer! So short answer yes, but not by much.
Long answer - Most dice manufacturers just throw thousands of dice in a huge tumbler with fine grit tumbling material and let nature take it's course. Most dice have one face slightly larger/off compared to others. SO is this dice set THAT much more off than others? I don't think so. We are talking about taking a SUPER thing layer off of a face, and mostly removing EXCESS material anyway. So with all that, I don't worry about it too much. :)
It wouldn't affect it terribly unless you're removing too much material. He used 120 grit sand paper in this, but honestly that is too unless you are getting rid of a huge amount of sprue material and even then, getting rid of the scratches from 120 is going to be tough so I'd personally not recommend it. I'd start with 220 and then move up from there.
^
I tied your method and my dice look a lot better but they aren’t as shiny or clear is there something I could be doing wrong ?
So I'll hopefully be showing another improved method soon. If they aren't getting as clear as you would like, check out Zona papers :)
@Rybonator Would you say Plast-x or Zonapapers area better way to go? Making dice myself, but need a good polishing method (no potter's wheel, yet...). Thanks!
I love the silver, looks perfect! It did appear that one of them got over sanded a bit, do they still seem balanced?
They would be, he’s barely taking any material off. The paint is more likely to offset them honestly.
@@ninetails6218 Well, 120 grit takes off a LOT of material in relation to such small objects and such soft material. Probably almost unnoticeable, but definitely took off more than i'd consider necessary