Draconic Spires

11/22/2021

04/11/2021

Step 5: back to normal. Now that the basic geometry is sound, initial sanding removes minor printing blemishes and brings a view of the final result into focus. From there a little metrology is undertaken, measuring all opposing faces and a few other details. Then carefully judging all vertices (sharp points) for subtle errors, and one by one, crossing those off the list with further delicate sanding. See the black marker on the vertex tips here, to help visually clarify the state of them. This particular 3d resin, being matte white, masks flaws well.

04/07/2021

Step 4: Here we have the replacement for the massive d20's master die. This print was hollow with a web of a support structure. You can make out minimal details of that through the two drain holes. By printing the die in this way, the forces that stretched the previous master die were largely avoided, and thus the geometry of this specimen is much superior. There isn't the need for aggressive sanding to adapt the shape, which results in negative repercussions.

04/07/2021

Step 3: When measuring all face pairs on opposite sides of the die, the maximum variance was only 0.7mm. Such measurements aren't sufficient to find the aforementioned flaw.

04/07/2021

Step 2: An example measurement of contrasting the 1/8 face stretch against the perpendicular, which was over a millimetre shorter. This also shows the 1/8 face edge well; again, that is the edge that was closest to the 3d printer's build plate, and which was elongated from.

04/07/2021

Step 1: checking the original master die for the massive d20, we find there's a stretch towards where the die was mounted for 3d resin printing. See that "A" is shorter than "B". The edge going away from the camera on "B"'s right divides faces 1 and 8, and that was facing the printing plate. Because of the size of the die, as each layer is printed, the forces extended the area around faces 1/8 until more of the surrounding support structure could take over. Said support structure has been removed at the time of this picture, and basic polishing has made most normal artifacts of the printing process disappear.

04/02/2021

Our instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/draconicspires/) gets the marginally prettier video of colourless clear dice.

In classic tumbled and rounded dice, "clear" doesn't have the same effect as it does in the sharp. It's like beautiful little jewels in the hand.

03/30/2021

Fresh dice, here being two of several sets in the last few days.

Tidal Pool is a softly shimmering mix of pale blues, with a glow-in-the-dark surprise.

Hadal Gold tucks beautiful nuggets of treasure behind swirling opaque curtains of dark.

03/26/2021

Oh the hours whittled away with delicately stroking resin on various rough surfaces, slowly resolving to a final clean form from the crude initial. Various problems once again with 3D printing, or put differently: "the 3D printer is working exactly as well as always".

03/24/2021

T'was in the mood to give a little side-by-side with dice from other folks, some old and some new. Today we're working on an updated mold for an "excessive" d20 in our current favoured font.

03/19/2021

A new petri-effect set for sale. Check them out at https://draconicspires.com, where we have a short up-close video for each set.

03/18/2021

Our store at https://draconicspires.com is ready for your attention, sawdust and all. Just a few products listed for now, while we focus on orders from other venues, and other ventures... Buy something, and more shalt appear!