Making a Dodecahedron on a Manual Lathe

In this video, Mike machines a dodecahedron using just a lathe - no milling machine required!
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[@chronovaengineering]

For those who wish to reproduce this, I skipped over a few key details you will need to know. Firstly, you must decide on the size of the dodecahedron. Let's define this as the distance across flats (L). The length of your starting cylinder needs to be L. The diameter needs to be 1.236*L. When shaping, make sure you don't go all the way (leave some to face off later). When bringing the tool in to touch the cylinder edge prior to any facing off, set the dial to zero. Face-off 0.277*L to form the final face size. This maths is accurate to plus/minus 0.01 mm (for a typical die size). Good luck!

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

Is L the same as the edge length of the pentagons or the length from an apex to the opposite edge? Sorry for the questions, I need to work out how much I can hollow out.

[@chronovaengineering]

@@danceswithaardvarks3284 No problem. You're right, my description is ambiguous. L is the distance from a face to the opposite face. Another way of thinking about it is the insphere diameter (i.e. the diameter of the sphere that is tangential to all the faces in the dodecahedron). If you would rather define the size based on edge length, then the ratio of L : edge length = 2.227.

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

Thanks @@chronovaengineering. I had reached that conclusion, but it is nice to get confirmation. It makes sense now.

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

Thanks Mike. I managed to make one on a wood lathe. Not quite symetrical, but I know where I went wrong so the process worked.

[@nickhadfield3192]

Do you think using a QCTP and manually adjusting the height of the tool to increase the size of the channels would be beneficial? I'm definitely having a go of this either way, got a friend who's been giving me hell for not attempting a D12 for a while and I want to show him up!

[@aleksjenner677]

Can't believe we didn't get to see it roll

[@Vandal_Savage]

Probably because it always comes up as a 12...

[@iseriver3982]

Don't watch Inception, it's 3 hours of not seeing spinning top roll.

[@miza6]

Yeah can you just make a quick short of that, I am left unfulfilled

[@tylermcnally8232]

There's 0 chance this is balanced.

[@robloughrey]

@@tylermcnally8232 I'm sort of curious how balanced it is. it makes sense that the heaviest side would be the 1 and thus the 12 would be advantaged (12 is opposite 1) its its a small amount compared to a solid brass polygon and could be ovewhelmed by any imperfections in the distance between the faces. I'd love to have it rolled a few hundred tiems and get the results. :)

[@artisanmakes]

Didn't realize the lathe was a custom build. I'd love a video on the background of it and how it came to be. Great stuff

[@hedronrockworks]

Beautiful. I loved how you solved the problem of making this. I bet it was fun to think through. Numbers looked great and I really like the rustic feel it give. I cannot imagine taking something so perfect and applying my “hand”work to it.

[@chronovaengineering]

We noticed you also just uploaded a video at the same time. Just watched it ourselves - thoroughly enjoyable and thanks for checking out our channel!

[@ilikewaffles3689]

​@@chronovaengineeringbro who is we? 😭

[@SqueakyNeb]

I was going to say that this feels a little cheeky with regards to "on a lathe", but I think all the same workholding problems would apply equally to any other machine process. Very clever.

[@jsmxwll]

that die is great. the precise and sharp dodecahedron contrasts well with the hand engraved numerals for an awesome effect. well done!

[@russellmitchell9438]

The lathe is a simple machine... attatches a cnc rotary indexer.

[@googleuser859]

This is strange, you posted this and ten mins later another channel I watch posted a dice making video also. Beautiful workmanship as always and thanks for sharing.

[@lawrencemanning]

Ah another Hedron Rockworks fan. 😊

[@gaveintothedarkness]

I noticed that Hedron Rockworks also posted as well. Thought it was some kind of collaboration.

[@gaveintothedarkness]

@@lawrencemanning Reporting in!

[@googleuser859]

I am indeed 😊

[@joseguzman9448]

Absolutely beautifull ❤❤❤You my Friend seem to be a master of machining , because of people like You I Fell in Love with the trade ,please keep up the trade an try to teach some Younger people

[@alissoncapelin6528]

Nice work! I miss your videos so much

[@chronovaengineering]

Apologies for taking a while to upload this one. We've been focusing on the espresso machines recently, but hopefully we will get back to more regular uploads shortly! Thanks for watching!

[@brucewilliams6292]

Love the idea. It really shows what can be done with some ingenuity!

[@fsj197811]

That's super cool, I hope whoever winds up with it appreciates it. Thanks for sharing.

[@Vincentt1705]

Nice! Love the calmth of your voice

[@dougidoug]

That is pretty amazing. Very impressive work and a great explanation to how you made it

[@odiesclips7621]

Captivating processes!! I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

[@Steviegtr52]

What a brilliant result. There is something about shiny brass too. Steve.

[@chrisarmstrong8198]

Ingenious construction method.

[@FredStam]

I love to watch Clickspring videos and I love to watch his European opponent Chronova Engeneering. What a nice video. My compliments for this. Great skills

[@flyerphil7708]

Not an opponent surely?

[@0num4]

Beautifully done. The only thing I would have changed is to oxidize the engraved numbers, to provide just a bit of contrast via patina (rather than wax). Not sure it would be much different in the end, but in my mind it keeps the rustic, almost steampunk, theme. That's merely taste though--your method and workmanship is outstanding!

[@heighRick]

Thanks for the video, helps a lot

[@mickwilson127]

Lovely job

[@mauriziograndi1750]

I can only say I have seen a brain at work. Well done.

[@aserta]

I've knew you can make one on a lathe, never actually seen it done. Neat!

[@robbiestevens1158]

Lovely project definitely saving this one.

[@frankbonsignore.RochesterNY]

You are a master! Much respect!

[@halflife82]

Incredible work!! Extremely well done. 🎉💪

[@jsincoherency]

Incredible work, you are a genius.

[@richardwinton1016]

Incredible, I could watch you for hours. You deserve many more subscribers. In fact, if you don't have a few hundred K subs soon I'll be very surprised.

[@georgeoconner735]

Magnificent work! Thank You for Sharing!!!

[@mattw7949]

A bunch of years ago I made a pair of Ti d20's for someone on manual machines. It took me a long time to figure it out.

[@MASI_forging]

Incredible work as always 👍👍

[@danielstewart3507]

Amazing! I love all of your content. So good for us engineers who are also hands on. :)

[@dillonrose3428]

Oh my god as a machinist/programmer, I’ve worked with lathe and mill, manual, fanuc, haas you name it…when the video got to you having that tiny grinder and making your own tool…GahhDamn man….🤙🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼👏🏼

[@tvrv9774]

I absolutely love your lathe. I want one so bad. I wish I had the space and pockets to allow for it. 5 years of manual/cnc machinist going to waste. I'd LOVE to make custom 3D printer parts on one... like better idler pulleys, crowned pulleys, and random bling. Let alone be able to use both of these to actually create the inventions I come up with.

[@morris-gk3cm]

12:42 Damn he even rubs the paste in a consistent manner 😂 A machinist through and through

[@sween187]

You could mount the part in the cross slide then put the milling bit into the chuck, it can be a good work around

[@joseph9915]

That is what I thought, too. But maybe he thinks that is too much like laying your milling machine on its back and calling it a lathe.

[@davidcahan]

DEF agree with the imperfections. Makes it look hand wrought. Which in fact it was

[@fabientuizat1129]

tres beau travail !!!merci du partage !!!

[@MichaelMcClelland1]

Astounding work. I would be curious to see a test of the die's fairness to get an estimate of it's true precision.

[@joestitz539]

A test would simply be a very refined precise tape measure. A laser measure

[@FlakeSE]

Interesting, thank you for sharing. Funny how a lathe can be used as essentially a gem grinders lap in reverse. With the material spinning and the abrasive stationary.

[@ArbieLyvias]

I love dice so much!

[@jtcustomknives]

A cool trick is to mount the work piece to the tool post and chuck up an end mill into the spindle. You can do simple milling operations this way.

[@FuneralProcession]

I love dodecahedrons ❤😂 Good job!!!

[@lordseptomus441]

beauty is in the hands of the machinist.

[@CalicoShadowPlusCat]

Fascinating process and I am impressed with the results! I would love to see you make a icosahedron next. Twenty facets in a small size would be a great challenge for your skill and craftsmanship as well as your intuitive creative process! Regardless, I am definitely subscribing to see what you come up with next!

[@joestitz539]

But why make an icosahedron ??

[@h.p.lovecraft936]

Top tier problem solving.

[@JMS-2111]

I love it. I'd use roman numerals, but that's just my preference. It's superb.

[@ivyking4149]

You, sir, are a magician😊

[@RustyInventions-wz6ir]

Very nice work

[@marcosmacli1061]

Hola gracias por compartir, por mostrar cada detalle y los distintos dispositivos, con que cuentas , saludos

[@aserta]

6:50 well, one method would be to machine a piece of stock such that a long feature would fit inside your tool holder, and use the chuck to hold a mill. Angling the tool holder would provide most of the faces, rotating the stock to precise angles using angled blocks off the face of the ways. I've never done such a thing to obtain a complex shape, but i regularly swap my lathe "order" whenever my mill is occupied.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

If I follow you correctly this is exactly what I would do, put the cutting tool in the lathe spindle and use the tool holder and compound slide to do most of the work. I've actually thought about making a collect block set that registers in my tool holder so that repeated rotational features in that other axis can be quickly set up - same concept as a collet block as used in a mill vice, just with a more * or + shape as the tool holder needs a protrusion to grab. Though I also have a little vertical sliding 'mill table' attachment that goes on my clockwork lathes slide - so for small enough stuff it just becomes a mill with a really really big Z in comparison to the rather small x-y travel.

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Pure genius 👌

[@pro3ification]

never thought about doing stuff with super glue on a lathe.... learned something new again

[@Skaldewolf]

you could mount the blank on your cross-slide and put the endmill in your chuck. It's backwards, but now you can mill with your lathe

[@eshafto]

Just lovely.

[@z0mb13h0rd3]

As a person who started playing D&D back in the 70’s, and had to use paper chits before I had dice, I really appreciate this! Do you play?

[@3dpyromaniac560]

6:35 i say it still counts, youre just now using a manual lathe with live tooling

[@miraidongaming]

Very pretty... are you going to make a full set?

[@user-bf8ud9vt5b]

Using wax to ink the numbers is like using a crayon in the old D&D boxed sets. Old school. I like it.

[@joewboe]

You could do this in three or four lathe operations with polyoganal turning. There's a Russian feller that has a really cool home made setup for polygonal turning using power off his lathes threading gearbox

[@madcapmagician6018]

That's freaking cool... what would you charge to make a full set?

[@buddybleeyes]

Id love to see this actually rolled a fair few times, as otheres said its probably not balanced. Still really cool though

[@mr.picklesworth]

I would love to see a video about the lathe.

[@johnnycomelately6341]

Well done! To answer your question about other methods, somewhere on youtube there is a chap who does a similar thing using a relieving attachment. What was your spindle speed?

[@nineoneten]

"Clickspring" without the aussie accent ! Brilliant. I never seem to have much luck with superglue chucks, maybe my technique is off par.

[@karlhendrikse]

Very extreme oversight that you didn't actually use the creation at the end of the video

[@kniferewiewscool2646]

I would love to see the carving be inlayed with silver instead of being empty. Looks sick, and is more balanced

[@E_Proxy]

I didn't get any of this but it's Fun to watch

[@TheKaBrT]

what about trying to make holes in dodecahedron to make more inside like turners cube. it sounds like great idea :D

[@peterthannhauser2225]

Very cool machining! Did you make your own custom collet for the D-bit grinder with an ER nose & remaining taper/dimension features to match the original (presumably Deckel/U-style) collet? Or has the work head been modified & its a dedicated ER spindle tube? What ER size is it? I noticed in your Quorn drill sharpening video a similar ER holding fixture. What exactly is the purpose of the annular relief grooves turned on the face of CA glue fixture? Initially I thought a place for glue to overflow & make the gap joint thinner but now I'm wondering if its related to allowing air to properly cure? My (non-grooved) CA glue fixtures seem to cure somewhat unreliably even with accelerator, maybe that's why?

[@olieboer]

I thought i had exhausted cool machining/making channels, but a shoutout from Adam Savage brought me here, only to find artisan makes here too. Very cool. Nice die. Sub from me.

[@Enzo6006]

this is great! can you expand upon the statement "01 tool steel is actually harder then HSS" ?

[@wiju]

11:50 a spritz of propyl alcohol helps a lot, mixed with WD-40 it improves surface quality a lot.

[@pwhite2579]

beautiful work! Did you roll it 1,000 times recording which number came up to see if it was fair?

[@raistlindavis8718]

have you checked the dies randomability? how often it might hit a certain number over another due to weight differences between faces.

[@joestitz539]

A laser measure could precisely account for all spaces of each face. The metal is balanced from the very clean melting it went through to rid impurities that could cause imbalance.

[@inyourfacetoday]

What kind of super glue do you use? That stuff is amazing...

[@ryanbeard1119]

That HSS looked like it had large grain growth

[@johndecoteau629]

was that a piece of lignum vitae that you used for separation?

[@RfrSSWolf]

I Want Mine Full Set

[@josepablolopez604]

Loved the minecraft music

[@feynthefallen]

Well, with a CNC indexer, you could ALSO argue it is no longer "just a lathe". Normal lathes don't index their spindles, they spin them...

[@liammurray9274]

a beautiful paper weight but you'll need to balance it before using it as a die.

[@JDuB0417]

This is less educational more asmr

[@samsaraAI2025]

Yes very common tools that every body has at home 😂

[@ronaldbrown1852]

WOW! 👍❤

[@peterthannhauser2225]

I notice you ground your HSS bit with what appears to be a diamond based wheel as opposed to the typical AO or similar aggregate type wheel? If so, I've heard conflicting opinions about that practice (that it can load or dullen the wheel prematurely). Can you comment on your findings? Do you have to dress it more often for example?

[@agg42]

Could have been a CBN wheel. Concern with grinding steels on diamond is the diamond's chemical affinity for iron. Once there's sufficient heat, the carbon (diamond) will diffuse into the steel thus eroding away diamonds quicker than necessary.

[@laureeeeeeeeeeeeeeen]

Did not know it was okay to do an interrupted cut on a superglue arbor like that.

[@DaraFlinter]

Wow ! You really have a knack for over complicating simple procedures.I have worked as a toolmaker for over 30 years and can honestly say this is the equivalent of writing a lengthy CNC program to drill a single hole. Have you never been taught how to grind cutting tools by hand ! Anyway, there is no "r" in "sawing", what is "sawring" !!

[@OnusofStrife]

It's called intrusive r. Pretty common in English accents that don't always pronounce the letter r.

[@yamspaine]

The thing is, I learned a lot, and I could probably now make some things if I were stuck in Alaska with limited tools...

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

"oh no, British people exist"

[@Tome4kkkk]

Hi! Awesome stuff! Do you have a description of your lathe somewhere? I spent hours researching "hobby lathes" and I came to the conclusion I don't need a general lathe. I need a watchmaker's lathe. Or even just a stiffer wood turning lathe with a 4 jaw independent chuck.

[@donaldasayers]

A rhombic dodecahedron can be machined very easily out of standard hex stock.

[@slaxor]

Not to be a hairsplitter (;). But since you removed different amounts of material from each face,, is it still properly random?

[@4dirt2racer0]

what was the point of the tape in the beginning??

[@jamiehughes5573]

Absolute beaut

[@LaserGadgets]

I got a manual lathe, crappy but manual, and I can't even imagine how to do that!

[@douglasharley2440]

all you'd need to add is an indexing head, and then you're all good!

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

Great video thanks. It's inspired me to try making a 12 sided dice box in wood, using your method, but I am unclear about one thing: at around 9 minutes 50 seconds you mention removing enough material to make the face the correct size, but how is the correct size calculated?

[@chronovaengineering]

Great question. I added a pinned comment explaining all the details you need to know. Good luck with your project!

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

Thanks

[@THarSul]

felt like a bit of a shame that we didn't get to see more B-roll of the finished Die, or a nice roll onto a wooden table with a sturdy tablecloth, but incredible project either way

[@ahvavee]

A sharp tap or a short sharp shock. Oi!

[@charlvanniekerk8009]

yay second. Love the video!

[@nmmrg]

Isn't the missing material for lettering significantly different on each side for it to land evently? Can this even be called a functional dice?

[@quequeissominhagente]

👏👏👏👏👏Bravo!