Pringles Tube Dice Tower

Hello Instructables!

In this instructable I am going to share how to make a really cool looking and also incredibly cheap dice tower.

I will be showing you one with windows and a portcullis but It's easy to customise should you want to leave bits out or add your own spin to it.

Dice-claimer: Unfortunately making one of these does not guarantee nat 20s on every roll.

Lets begin

Materials

A Pringles tube (flavour entirely up to you, just make sure its clean ;) ).

A few pieces of stiff card (roughly A5 worth).

Roughly 2 A4 sheets of craft foam in one colour (I'm using green because it reminds me of Castle Greyskull).
A small bit of brown (if you are wanting to make a portcullis).

a bit of plastic bottle if you want to make windows.
Glue.

Double sided tape.

masking tape.

Tools
Craft knife

scissors

At the bottom of your tube draw out your Door/dice exit. You will notice that I had left a little bit sticking out at the bottom of the door when I drew it but in the end I dint bother keeping it so please ignore that.

On the opposite side of the tube mark out a arc with its end points lower than the top of the door and reaching roughly half way through the tube.

Repeat this arc on the front of the tube above the door and again near the top of the tube on the back.

You want to make it so the dice cant drop straight through the tube with out hitting the slats you are putting in.

Once you are happy with your placement of the door/slats cut out the door and cut a line for the slats.

...or dice bumpers

cut out 3 pieces of stiff card longer than the diameter of the tube and wide enough to comfortably reach the outside of the tube when sitting diagonally.

Insert them into the diagonal cuts.

Leaving roughly on cm trim away the excess in a curve roughly matching the curve of the tube.

Cut the excess toward the tubes to make tabs then fold these tabs alternating between upward and downwards to hold the slats in place.

Using the masking tape tape the tabs down.

Measure out a piece of foam that will wrap around the tube and set it aside.

Using your double sided tape stick some tape along the back of the tube from top to bottom, as well as along the top, bottom and a few bits round the door.

Don't remove the plastic backing just yet.

Cover the rest of the outside of the tube in glue (this is mainly if you want to put windows in, other wise its not really necessary)

Remove the plastic backing of all the tape and attach the piece of foam that you set aside half way over the tape that runs from top to bottom leaving the over half uncovered.

Carefully wrap the foam around the tube and attach the other end to the uncovered bit of tape that runs top to bottom.

Trim off any excess

Feel through the foam to locate the door and cut it out.

Making sure to stau cleat of the slats/dice bumpers draw out some windows and cut them out with your craft knife.

DONT THROW THESE BITS AWAY! You're going to use them in the next step.

Using the bits you didn't throw away last step cut out some windows from the plastic bottle making sure that they have an extra 5mm or so around the edges.

Put a few small bits of double sided tape around the windows and attach the plastic.

Attach a bit double sided tape to some foam and cut it into little bricks (it's easier than trying to attach double sided tape to small bits of foam) and attach them around the window covering up the plastic over lap (This part is a bit footery)

Cut a length of foam about an inch thick and long enough to go around the top of your tube.

Attach double sided tape to the lower half of the foam and making sure that the tape lines up with the top of the tube stick it in place.

Cut out smaller pieces that are taller than the band you attached. Attach double sided tape to the lower half and attach them to the strip leaving a space between each one.

Don't worry if you cut too many, we can use these pieces later on.

Up until googling the spelling of "Portcullis" I always thought it was spelled "Port Cutlace", everyday is a school day.

Any way....cut a some thin strips of brown, roughly 5mm in width.

Measure one that arcs across the top of the door way (Crossbeam).
Cut out 3 or 4 more smaller lengths and cut the ends into points (like a picket fence)

IMPORTANT! Don't make the portcullis come down too low as it will interfere with the dice coming out.

Attach your pointy bits to the cross beam and then stick your portcullis in place at the top of your doorway.

As before like you did with the bricks for the windows, make bigger ones and attach them around the doorway.

You can also cut out more bricks and attach them randomly to the castle walls to give the impression of brickwork. You don't need to cover the whole thing, just bits here and there work well :)

Now at this point you have a perfectly functional and impressive looking dice tower but you can also add some extra bits to make it REALLY impressive.

In this case I measured out a piece of foam that would arc out slightly above the door. cut it into a cull shape and like the bricks for the windows and door i added bits to make it look like eyebrows and brickwork. Then suck it in place above the door so it looks like the portcullis are teeth.

I also added another rampart/tower by making a tube of foam and repeating the rampart steps on a smaller scale and attached it to the existing ramparts.

How you customise it is entirely up to you. You could add a tray like a drawbridge to catch your dice or paint it up a bit :)

And we are finished!

There you have it, your very own Pringles Tube Dice Tower.

I Hope you enjoyed this instructable and as always thoughts, comments, criticism and photos of your own Pringles Tube Dice Tower are welcome in the comments below.

Happy rolling (may it always be a nat 20)