I've already written about how much better custom dice make Axis & Allies. But what makes it even better is a dice tower and spacious tray to keep everything contained and orderly.

Danger built one out of Lego, and it was pretty cool, but it's tough having a lot of Lego blocks locked up permanently. So I built a new one.

The Problem

My dice keep going all over the place, and man, do I have a lot of dice.

The Solution

I built this out of alder hobby boards. I kept the joints simple because this is a light duty item. The finish is just mineral oil and I put some non-skid pads on the bottom.

There are some baffles on the inside to knock the dice around as they fall. There is nothing to dampen the sound, so this really makes a racket when a cascade of dice is tumbling through it. I made the top fit inside the base so when it's not standing up, it saves a little space. I did that just by making the front & back surfaces overlap their butt joints on the tower, and making the (longer) sides overlap on the base.

Now our dice can't escape, no matter how epic the battle gets.

If I were going to make it again, I'd keep the tower smaller. There's no reason to have more than an inch of depth. It just takes up more space and makes a lower-pitched noise as the dice fall.