KnuckleBones Travel Sets. Two versions.

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I already have a set of 5  home boards for the game knucklebones shared on printables. But I wanted a set for travel that didn't need me to put elastic bands around the box as I was doing when carrying one of those sets about. 

To avoid any confusion I have kept the home sets  separate from these travel sets. 

KnuckleBones Home Dice Board and Dice storage by Diablo | Download free STL model | Printables.com

Both these travel sets are for 16mm D6 dice.

The 2 sets here were designed primarily for travel purposes but keep the same spacing for the actual play area on the boards. Unlike the home sets, these utilise (optional) magnets in the design. 6 magnets in total. I designed the boards to use 5mmx3mm magnets, but at a push you could get away with 5mmx2mm magnets (see notes on that in next paragraph). The holes for the magnets are sized at 5.5mm x 3.2mm to allow for any anomalies during printing,  

It's worth noting that 5x3mm magnets hold things together nice and tight, but 5x2 are pushing the magnets limits with the boards coming free of the enclosure a little too easily for my liking. I tried using 5x2mm in my second set (made for a family member) had to add an extra pair of magnets to the locking board to improve the boards grip in the case. Because I had a few 1mm thick magnets spare, I also added a couple of those to the case for the ‘originally non locking’ board to let it also get a magnetic connection to in the case. Simply put? Using 5x2 brought problems and complications that the 5x3 magnet version didn't suffer with.  If you are buying magnets specifically for this board set? buy Six 5x3mm. 

The cases/sleeves were kept thin with a set of ridges added to give some additional strength against flexing. I figured it would keep printing time down, save filament, while still being more than strong enough. 

The boards themselves are marked as Player one and Player two but are otherwise identical. I originally added the solid bit for player one/two text to the travel sets to add a bit of extra strength to the area you use to push the boards free of the enclosure. After printing though, it was obvious that I didn't need that extra strength, but as it was now there I left it alone. 

Board heights are around 9mm. The sides around the play areas dice locating squares are sloped to allow more finger room. The apertures for the dice are just high enough to hold the dice in place, this gives maximum finger purchase when dice removal is needed.

The large set stores ALL its game dice sandwiched between the 2 boards which are then slipped in the cover/sleeve/box and held in place by the magnets. For storage, you place all the dice on one board, the other board then acts as a lid when placed on top with both parts then being slid into the enclosure. The additional dice storage rails on the boards bring an extra function as you can put dice in them during play rather than having them in a random pile. 

Having four 5x3mm magnets to hold the boards in the enclosure would have been overkill and definitely was not needed as two are already more than sufficient.  After testing, I settled on having the two magnets of a single board align with the enclosures 2 magnets for holding things in place when the boards are in the enclosure. The other board is then held in place by the dice that are in between the boards.  It works well and the boards still need a fair push to spring the them free of the magnetic forces holding them. It would likely take a fair drop to make them come out of there by accident.

The smaller version (with the hump) was my first travel version. It worked exactly as intended. However my lady said it was inelegant. Which to be fair, it is. I was going for functional over all else, but she pulled me up on it being ugly.  After she suggested I try and find a way to flatten the design and store the dice in a way that didn't need a hump. The second design is, named ‘large’ but it really isn't that big in reality, more a fat kindle size, but it's footprint when packed away is larger and I had to name them something.

Both designs here use the same spacing for game dice when in play, though the boards overall sizes are obviously different. 

You don't ‘Need’ to use the magnets, but without them there is always the risk of spilling everything over the floor. So personally, I would suggest that the magnets are an intrinsic part of these designs and well worth adding. If I was going to not fit magnets and rely on an elastic band instead? then these are still a way better option than the home boards for transporting a set around. The small version has tight tolerances and fits snug, while for the newer large version I added a little bit extra wiggle room to account for potential printer inaccuracies. 

I included a pair of simple printable dividers that straddle the centre score lines of each board and will fit either of these 2 versions. These was solely to be able to add a little extra colour and add nothing but a visual style to the boards. Personally,  I printed one board in black and the other white with contrasting dividers just for aesthetic purposes. 

For printing, the boards need no supports, print them flat. and the same for the dividers. The cases themselves I printed upright. But be careful what supports you use, especially with the smaller version as the hump to store the other half of the dice is pretty enclosed. I tried giving as much access as possible for support removal by adding an internal slope to the opening inside the case, and also a slightly larger opening in the base to allow easier access without ruining the look of the enclosure. For the larger enclosure, I only used supports in the bottom half of the print and these were easily removed later. I am fairly sure that supports were not really needed at all for the larger version, but as I used them to print my size test model I felt I should mention it.  

I added the knucklebones text to the stl of the smaller case after I had printed mine blank so the photos do not show it. This was not because I wanted mine blank, I just wanted to print mine asap to test fit everything before adding text to them and releasing the stl files. 

I have printed both versions of the travel boxes and am happy with both.

Note: this will be obvious. But make sure you get your magnets the right way around. The last thing you need is to finish gluing the magnets and find you made a mistake. Because my locking board is black and I know its position in the enclosure, I did a north and a south in that board. I then put tape over each magnet, added a magnet to both, put superglue on those then slid the board into the enclosure so they seated.      The magnets in the non locking board are obviously reversed, so I held a bit of tape over a magnet  with the sticky side facing out from the board then dropped a magnet so it oriented itself correctly and held the tape. I did the same for the second magnet.  I the put glue in the non locking board, put the two boards together then folded the tape onto the locking board and split the boards apart. Finally making sure the newly taped magnets were pushed fully home before letting the glue dry.