3d Printed Board Game Bling

I bought a 3d printer earlier in the year and have greatly enjoyed learning to use it and its associated CAD tools. When I first got it, I looked up models on Thingiverse to replace the boring round chits that came with my Civilization board game. Check out the improvement from cardboard to 3d printed and painted.


It looks great on the table, too.


Recently, I attempted something more ambitious: custom coins with metal slug inserts. It took a little experimentation to find the perfect sizes, but the design itself is pretty simple. This is what I do.

1. 3d print rings, pause the printer, and place a metal slug into each ring
2. Resume printing the top over the slugs
3. Separately, print the bottom side of the coins
4. Glue them together, prime, and paint

You'll note my metal slugs costs about one cent apiece. Very economical!


The metal inserts provide a satisfying heft when you play with the coins. They feel great and, once painted, they look great, too!

Temperature/Weather Station

I've always been fond of the popular Nixie clocks made from old surplus Soviet nixie tubes. Nixie tubes are no longer made, so they're hard to acquire. Instead, I took inspiration from "Lixie" displays and made my own Nixie-inspired, LED-powered display. And in an unusual twist (for me, anyway), I didn't make a clock this time! It's a weather/temperature display.

I made the parts myself, starting with the electronics. These circuit boards were created on the CNC machine. The "brains" are an ESP8266 chip, which grabs the current weather from the Internet.


I made the housing using laser-cut plywood. It turned out well, but I should have used some wood putty to fill in tiny voids in the sides. Still, it looked good.


The numbers are made from clear, 1/16" acrylic. The laser cuts on these are sharp and beautiful. They're crystal clear when the protective film is removed (with gloves, to prevent fingerprints).


It turned out great! Little LEDs shine light at the bottom of the panels, highlighting the individual numbers. The color indicates the current weather condition: yellow for sunny/clear, blue for rainy, etc.

Kitchen Lighting

Following last year's kitchen remodel, we figured it was time to replace the kitchen's dated florescent lighting. The before picture is from the middle of our kitchen remodel last year. The after photo is what it looks like now.
 

 We started by yanking out the existing can lights and trim. It's easier than you might think.
 

Installing the new can lights is actually easy, too! They look great. The pendant lighting isn't too bad, either.


Patching up the drywall is where things get more difficult. Here it is before we painted.


And the final result! It has a much more modern and sleek look. It's also a very cost-effective remodel, running us around $350. That's far less than the full remodel, but it generates a very visible change to the kitchen. Probably a smart move if you're planning to sell and don't want to invest too much in changes.

Odds and Ends of 2018

Here are a few of the projects that were too small or similar to merit their own entries.

Early in the year, I decided to refinish the coffee table. The process is largely similar to the kitchen table I refinished. The coffee table had been badly beat up over time and looked like this.

It took a lot of sanding (my son helped with this briefly) to get through all the gouges. Staining and finishing went well. The individual boards are more visible, but they look good.


In May, we added another garden box, doubling our garden capacity. We actually did very well with tomatoes this year, too, bringing them in before the first hard freeze and letting them ripen in the basement. We were eating homegrown tomatoes as late as Christmas.


I made another custom t-shirt. I've been meaning to do several more of these, so maybe they'll be in next year's odds and ends.


We repainted all the white ceilings and walls in the house. No pictures of that, since it's about at interesting as you'd imagine. Instead, I'll show off some board gaming miniatures I painted. This was a learning process that turned out well.

I ended up not keeping the game that took the longest to paint, but the pieces sure look good for whomever will end up playing with them.


Project-wise, the kitchen remodel took a lot of my attention in 2018. We plan to redo the lighting this year, replacing the florescent lights with something nicer.