Tensegrity Dice Tower

After creating my first tensegrity structure a few weeks ago I got to thinking about what practical uses these sorts of structures could be used for. I saw someone on Reddit suggest a dice tower created like this could be cool so I decided to give it a go.

The dice tower itself prints in four parts and then requires two pieces of string to hold it upright. The position of the knots on the string is important, so I have created and included a tool for tying the knots correctly and repeatably. I have also attached an image showing the positions of the knots. These lengths create the correct tension for my print, but if you are using more brittle or flexible PLA you might need to adjust accordingly. I recommend starting in the middle and working out from there but there is no right or wrong way of doing it.

The tower itself is made up of three parts that fit snugly into a base piece. I printed mine with the 0.5mm gap and had to sand one of the sides down to fit, with this in mind I have also included the base with a 1mm gap around the edges for anyone needing a little more tolerance for their printer. There is also cut-outs for attaching string on the left and right side of the tower to better stablise it. I ended up not needing this but I imagine with the creep of the PLA it may sag over time, so this should add a bit of extra stability and stop the tower slouching over too much.

I hope you all enjoy this and I can't wait to see some makes posted!

Fair warning to anyone printing this, it was designed more-so with form than function in mind. As such the dice sometimes get stuck in the tower, maybe about 10% of the time with a standard 20 sided dice.