Storke Dice Tower

For my final project, I designed and fabricated a dice tower inspired by UCSB’s Storke Tower. This project builds on my earlier “fat tower” prototype but is taller, slimmer, and fully functional as a tabletop dice roller. The goal was to capture some architectural inspiration while ensuring dice can fall freely and roll randomly.

1/8" plywood sheet (12 × 24 in)

Fusion 360 (for parametric design)

Laser cutter (engrave + cut)

Sandpaper for edges

Standard 1.5 × 1.5 cm dice (d6)

I sketched a slimmer version of Storke Tower with a flat top entry, a series of ramps inside, and an arched exit tray at the front. My main inspiration was the tower’s proportions and clean surfaces, though I simplified the exterior by not engraving vertical stripes (burn marks from engraving would have distracted from the clean look).

Tower body: four rectangular walls + top entry panel

Internal structure: three ramps (two on the right, one on the left), and a final large bottom ramp guiding dice out through the arched exit.

Dice clearance: I kept 2 cm of space between ramps and inner walls so that 1.5 cm dice fall without obstruction.

Exit opening: 3 cm wide × 3 cm high, large enough for dice to exit cleanly.

Dimensions: slimmer than my Week 3 prototype but still well within the 1 cubic foot requirement.

Actually, my first cut had issues: some pieces were not fully cut through and stuck to the board. When I reloaded the plywood, it seems the alignment was slightly off, and the laser trimmed away part of my original pieces. To fix this, I slowed the cut speed from 25% to 20%, and on the second attempt, all pieces cut fully and cleanly.

1. Press-fit finger joints connected the walls.
2. Internal ramps slotted tightly into the side panels.
3. The front panel with the arch opening was added last, and then the base tray.
4. No glue was required since the fit was snug, though I sanded some edges for smoothness.

The final dice tower is slim and stable. Dice roll smoothly through the three internal ramps, bouncing side to side, and are guided forward by the large bottom ramp into the tray. In testing, my 1.5 cm d6 dice consistently fell and rolled randomly without jamming.

This project showed me how to balance architectural inspiration with functional design. While I had originally wanted to engrave the Storke Tower’s vertical stripes, I decided against it because I thought the burn marks would distract from the clean look. Instead, I kept the surfaces plain but emphasized the tower’s proportions. The main challenge I encountered was during laser cutting: my first attempt did not fully cut through, and when I reloaded the sheet, misalignment ruined some pieces. From that mistake, I learned the importance of consistent laser settings and not reusing partially cut boards. By lowering the speed from 25% to 20%, I successfully cut all parts on the second attempt. In the end, I was very satisfied—the tower not only resembles Storke Tower in form, but also works perfectly as a dice roller.