Merge pull request #51 from alifeee/new/dice-casting

add dice casting blog post

Author: alifeee

2025/03/dice-casting/build.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# generate HTML from markdown,
+#  then replace all lines between START_CONTENT and END_CONTENT with this HTML
+#  in the file INDEX_FILE
+# requires marked https://github.com/markedjs/marked
+#  npm install -g marked
+# usage:
+#  ./build.sh content.md
+
+# check marked is installed
+if ! type "marked" 2> /dev/null > /dev/null; then
+  echo "marked not installed. https://www.npmjs.com/package/marked. please run"
+  echo "npm install -g marked"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z $1 ]; then
+  CONTENT_FILE="${PWD##*/}.md"
+  echo "transforming $CONTENT_FILE"
+else
+  CONTENT_FILE="$1"
+fi
+
+if [ ! -f "${CONTENT_FILE}" ]; then
+  echo "${CONTENT_FILE} does not exist"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+INDEX_FILE="index.html"
+TEMP_FILE="index.html.temp"
+START_CONTENT="<!-- !!start content!! -->"
+END_CONTENT="<!-- !!end content!! -->"
+
+original_html=$(cat $INDEX_FILE)
+
+html=$(marked -i "$CONTENT_FILE")
+
+# word count
+num_words=$(cat "${CONTENT_FILE}" | wc -w)
+read_speed=200
+read_time=$(($num_words / $read_speed))
+
+has_template=$(echo "${original_html}" | grep '{{.*}}')
+if [ ! -z "${has_template}" ]; then
+  echo "{{template}}s found in file. They should be removed soon..."
+fi
+
+# get line numbers of START_CONTENT and END_CONTENT
+start=$(echo "${original_html}" | grep -n "${START_CONTENT}" | cut -d : -f1)
+end=$(echo "${original_html}" | grep -n "${END_CONTENT}" | cut -d : -f1)
+
+if [ -z $start ] || [ -z $end ]; then
+  echo "could not find start/end content tags"
+  echo "start: <$start>, end: <$end>"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+rm -f $TEMP_FILE
+echo "${original_html}" | awk 'NR <= '"${start}"'' >> $TEMP_FILE
+echo "<span class="words">${num_words} words, ${read_time} mins @ ${read_speed} <abbr title='words per minute'>wpm</abbr></span>" >> $TEMP_FILE
+echo "${html}" >> $TEMP_FILE
+echo "${original_html}" | awk 'NR >= '"${end}"'' >> $TEMP_FILE
+
+cat $TEMP_FILE > $INDEX_FILE
+rm -f $TEMP_FILE
+
+echo "done! 🚀"

2025/03/dice-casting/dice-casting.md

@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+# Casting a Dice at Sheffield Hackspace
+
+This is a cross-post. See the original on <https://www.sheffieldhackspace.org.uk/dice-casting/>.
+
+This month Alex taught three of us how to make silicone moulds, mix resin, and make our own dice!
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/final-dice.jpg" alt="picture of green dice under a lamp" />
+<figcaption>One of the dice I casted from the workshop. I'm very impressed.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Alex has been trying out casting techniques for dice for a while on his own, and shared his knowledge with us by organising a hands-on workshop where we could try it out.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/final-potions.jpg" alt="picture of several dice on a desk" />
+<figcaption>Kieron cast a D20 and some "potion dice", the latter of which were filled with tiny D6.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+The process went like:
+
+1. [Day 1 - making moulds](#day-1---making-moulds)
+2. [Day 2 - mixing resin](#day-2---mixing-resin)
+3. [Day 3 - finishing](#day-3---finishing)
+
+<hr>
+
+## Day 1 - making moulds
+
+The moulding process started with making a silicone mould of an existing dice. We chose to use dice from our personal collections, but just as easily could have used a 3D printed blank. This mould needs somewhere to pour the resin eventually, so we attached "sprues" to our dice which – when taken out – would form the negative space of a funnel.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/sprues.webp" alt="picture of several dice inside small yoghurt pots" />
+<figcaption>The original potion dice, glued to a sprue, and placed in a petit-filous yoghurt pot.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Then, we mixed together silicone by mixing equal-mass "Part A" and "Part B". Once mixed, we each had 8 minutes to make all of our moulds.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/mixing-silicone.webp" alt="picture of person pouring out silicon mixture" />
+<figcaption>MJ carefully measuring about 64 grams of silicone "component A".</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+At the end of our busy 8 minutes, we all placed our moulds in the pressure pot, which ensured that the silicone was as free of bubbles as possible while it cured.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/pressure-pot.webp" alt="picture of person putting lid on pressure pot" />
+<figcaption>Alex putting the lid on the pressure pot before raising it to several bar.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Silicone should take a couple of hours to set, but the space wasn't quite room temperature, extending the wait time. We decided to leave and come back in two days.
+
+<hr>
+
+## Day 2 - mixing resin
+
+With our time waiting for silicone to cure, we played around with mixing resin, using alcohol inks and mica powder to create translucent mixes. We put these in the pressure chamber with the moulds to test the colours.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/dyes-and-mica.webp" alt="picture of resin, alcohol inks, and mica powder" />
+<figcaption>Left: orange mica powder. Right: turquoise alcohol ink. Centre: resin mixed from both. I put too much ink in :S</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+We took the silicone moulds out of the pressure pot, and used a scalpel to cut three jagged lines from the top down. This allowed us to pry out the blanks (dice) and be left with empty silicone moulds.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/moulds.webp" alt="picture of several moulds on the table" />
+<figcaption>MJ's silicone moulds for a full set of dice.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+We each mixed our own resins, which thankfully gave us more time to work than the silicone (about 40 minutes).
+
+For my dice I went for a blend of half "orange dye and blue mica powder" and half "blue dye and orange mica powder" (attempting a split-look). For the D1 that I cast I went for "pure purple".
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/mixing-resin.webp" alt="picture of several people mixing or pouring resin" />
+<figcaption>Alex, MJ, alifeee, and Kieron mixing and pouring resin.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Then, we all together put our filled moulds into the pressure pot, this time for at least 2 days to allow the resin to cure. Again, the pressure pot to reduce bubbles.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/pouring-resin.webp" alt="picture of person pouring resin" />
+<figcaption>Pouring resin into a mould. Some squeezing was required as it was quite viscous.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr>
+
+## Day 3 - finishing
+
+We came back to our dice after about a week, giving the resin plenty of time to set.
+
+We took the filled moulds out of the pressure pot, pryed apart the silicone, and got the resin objects out.
+
+The silicone moulds (and thus the resin) picks up extraordinary levels of detail from the original item. It also picks up the sprue (pouring funnel), so we had to snap those off, then cut and sand down where it was attached.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/many-dice.webp" alt="picture of several dice on the table without painted numbers" />
+<figcaption>Sanding "nubbins" off of all of these was a fair amount of effort.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Finally, we painted the numbers on. Since the numbers were recessed, the easiest way to do this was to paint the entire face sloppily, then wipe off the paint from the surface, which leaves paint in the recessed number.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/painting-dice.webp" alt="picture of half-painted dice and paint brush" />
+<figcaption>A half-painted dice. It turned out a bit... "snot"-coloured, but I think the white looks nice.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+I was very happy with the final dice.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="./images/final-dice.jpg" alt="picture of green dice under a lamp" />
+<figcaption>snot dice. snot dice.</figcaption>
+</figure>