Saturday, February 19, 2011

Alyouminium Catan board

I kept thinking about my idea for an aluminum Catan board held together by magnets. It would be expensive and time consuming to make, but the end result would be a kickass, over-engineered, rock solid catanian continent.

I would use 1/4" aluminum plate with two 1/8" dia by 1/16" thk neodymium disc magnets per edge. If there are 12 magnets per hex and 30 hexes in the 5-6 player board, then I would need 360 magnets. You can buy 500 of these here (extras for seafarers hexes) for $40. Two pairs of magnets holding two hexes together would generate up to 0.9 Lb of force.

Each hex would be 3 inches across the flats, not 79 mm like the actual game. They would need 12 9/64" dia by 7/64" deep holes. If you set up a vice in a drill press so you could just drop in a hex without having to worry about positioning I think you get drill all the holes in a couple of hours. The magnets would be epoxied in the holes.

I haven't decided what to do for the decals. Acid etching would bee cool, but difficult. Stickers would look cheap and take away from the work already put into the materials.

4 comments:

  1. Maybe after hours. All I'll need is a band saw and drill press.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lol you better be super handy at the band saw to manage this.... but if you do... I MAY be able to help with the etching - I have an engraver in the office which I've converted into a light load desktop mill. I'm not saying it'll work or that I can definitely use it, I'm just saying its there so I can try. Judging by the amount of detail required, it would probably take something like 45 min per hex.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You could machine small aluminum pieces for the settlements / roads, and anodize them for different colors. What exactly is your plan for etching?

    ReplyDelete