Re: [piecepack] Re: Anatomy information: suit and number distinguishable from reverse side

[Steve Jones <bluepantherllc@...>]

You asked for "non-expensive" materials, but the only material I know of for the "subtractive" way of making piecepacks is a material called "engraver's plastic".  It's not cheap ($10 per foot and you'd need 4 different colors - that's $40 for the single sided variety.) It's basically a piece of acrylic with a different color thin veneer of plastic on one or both sides. And the double-sided stuff is even more expensive.   You don't need a laser, you could use a regular engraver or a dremel tool or a rotozip or a router to engrave on it too. We used to make plastic piecepacks out of it. but the material cost increases made it impractical.
 
If you want to make your own one-off set, though, it would be durable and probably look very good.

--- On Thu, 5/21/09, Ben Finney <ben+yahoogroups@benfinney.id.au> wrote:


From: Ben Finney <ben+yahoogroups@...>
Subject: [piecepack] Re: Anatomy information: suit and number distinguishable from reverse side
To: piecepack@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, May 21, 2009, 11:16 PM








steve@bluepantherll c.com writes:

> You can paint the edges uniform for all colors after you make the tiles.
> This is probably the easiest.

Painting isn't an option for this manufacturing process (and would give
the resulting components a much more limited useful life), which is why
I've chosen coloured materials instead of applying colour.

> You could strip all edges of color on the colored side so that when lying
> face-down, the color is not visible.
>
> You could mask the edges of the tiles (painters tape) then apply the color
> to the front face. After removing the tape, your tile would have a uniform
> "gutter" that would not reveal the color when it's face down.

The material is coloured uniformly through, there's no “application of
colour”.

> You can use material that you "subtract" from rather than "add" to.
> That's the way we do it with the laser engraver.

I'd be interested to know what (non-wood, inexpensive) materials you
recommend for this property.

> You could also use a color "insert" for the face side of the tile -
> make two concentric squares - the outside always the same color and
> the inside the color of the suit you want. It would be more labor
> intensive but it would guarantee that the color of the face down is
> truly hidden.

I'm investigating that for the tiles, but I think 20mm coins are rather
too small for this to be practical; my impression is that either the
outer sleeve would be too delicate or the face of the inset would be too
narrow for presenting an image at a decent size.

Thanks to all for this ongoing discussion, it's giving me options at
least. I'd love to know more if anyone has other thoughts.

--
&#92; “Roll dice!” “Why?” “Shut up! I don't need your fucking |
`&#92; *input*, I need you to roll dice!” —Luke Crane, demonstrating |
_o__) his refined approach to play testing, 2009 |
Ben Finney



















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]