Making Metal Dominoes

Nearly as versatile as a deck of playing cards, dominoes are a great addition to any rainy-day repertoire of game sets. [Apollo] from the Youtube channel [carbide3d] has manufactured for themselves a custom set of domino tiles replete with brass pips.

Cutting the bar stock to the appropriate size, [Apollo] ran a few test engravings and hole sizes for the brass pips. That done, all they had to do was repeat the engraving and milling process another couple dozen times, as well as all the requisite wet and dry sanding, and buffing. [Apollo] opted to use paint marker to add a little extra style to the tiles, and advises any other makers who want to do the same to set their engraving depth to .01″ so  the paint marker won’t be rubbed off when buffing the pieces.

When it came to installing the brass balls, [Apollo] undersized the holes by .001″-.002″ for a snug press fit — adding that the hole depth is a little greater than half the ball’s diameter. They used 1/8″ balls for the pips, and 3/16 balls for the center of the tiles which also allows the tiles to be spun for a bit of fidgeting fun during play. Check out the build video after the break.

Traditional dominoes aren’t your thing? Check out this LED version. But, if you’re more into setting them up to knock them down, this little LEGO ‘bot should help with the process.

[via /r/Metalworking]

14 thoughts on “Making Metal Dominoes

  1. Utterly boring video wrapped in an totally non-informative and equally boring article. It´s not yet the day [Hobson] will write an article we´ll learn something from…

    1. What do you expect? Give the guy a break there is only so much time for writing articles in between pushing crappy sponsors, making excuses on why he cant fly like the red bull guy, and entertaining 6 year olds with comic book gimmicks. He just needs more patreon money, maybe you should donate so he can finish his projects and get back to writing or just quit this journalism thing altogether. https://www.patreon.com/thehacksmith

    2. I suppose you do have a right to voice your incorrect opinion… And the rest of us have the right to mock you for it.

      Mr. James Hobson – Thanks for bringing this to our attention, I, for one, enjoy seeing someone take the time to make artisanal metalwork.

  2. These are *really* pretty. Stuff like this makes me envious because all the stuff I make looks like crap!

    At least I’m happy with the function. Never could crack form.

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