Ribcage Roller Dice Tower

Howdy, wonderful people!

Do you sometimes feel like your dice rolling is just lacking a certain skeletal, ribcage-y aspect to it? Me too! But now the Ribcage Roller can solve our problems and provide randomness in a dynamic, skeletonish kind of way! Just pop some dice into the top of the skull, then pinch the levers at the back and let those dice clatter their way to victory!

Now, gravity often plays an important part in dice towers, but here it's serving double duty. Not only is gravity in charge of making the dice fall in a downward direction, but it also keeps the ribcage closed. The real trick to this design is the way the hinges work, so that the ribcage halves move not just outwards but slightly upwards, too, so that they naturally fall back together.

This is also what stops the ribcage just falling open the moment dice are added. However, there's a limit to how effective that can be, so holes are provided for optional magnets, too.

I've had pretty good luck with the dice staying in the pelvis-themed basket at the bottom - they only bounce out for me when I have a large number of dice falling at once. There was ultimately a compromise there, though - I was determined to keep that skeletal look, and so there was only so far I was prepared to bring up that front wall! After all, style is the whole point of a dice tower, right? Right!

Optional Magnets

Yes, there are some little holes tucked into the inside of the ribcage halves that will accept our old friends, 6x3mm magnets! Just one magnet in each side. While you might possibly be able to get two magnets in each side, you probably don't want to do that! When the magnets are stronger, it really gets counterproductive and gets in the way of rolling the dice comfortably!

Print Description

This is an articulated print, so make sure your bottom layer is nice and neat and that there aren't any print issues like overextrusion or stringing that might bind moving parts together!

Print Dimensions

The Ribcage Roller occupies 202mm x 113mm on the print bed and is 111mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

Ooh, you might be able to scale this, both up and down! You know, I'm going to print a small one now! Of course, the magnets will no longer fit once you do that!

Print Orientation

The Ribcage Roller prints lying on its back, looking upwards.

File Location

You'll find this one at at 512 Ribcage Roller Dice Tower

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

My 50% version is busily printing! I have no idea if it'll actually fit any dice, but I do like the idea of a little Ribcage Roller that just holds one single die :D

Happy rolling!

xoxo

Sven.