I had a request a few months ago to make the Bento Box, but in emerald green, sapphire, and pearl white resin. Of course I said yes and that it would be no problem - I had wanted to make this out of resin to reduce the layer lines and make it sturdier anyway and this was good motivation to do so. Before you click away, if all you wanted was to see the finished set....
So, yeah, I'd say it was a success! It is sleeker, more beautiful, has quality of life upgrades from the original, and feels like a more quality piece when held.
Does that mean that it was super easy to do and came out exactly how I intended? Absolutely not. I'd like to walk you through the process of transforming this set.
To start, what makes this different than the original set?
I designed the original Bento Box as an example set for the 3D print contest held by the US Tak Association a couple years ago. I have since made a couple for various tournament prizes and have been very pleased with the overall form and function of the piece. However, this commission gave me the opportunity to throw off the self-imposed 3d-printed only restriction and explore some other methods that would lead to a higher quality product.
To start the project, I needed to find a sheet good from which I could make my masters. I wanted something without layer lines that would also be dimensionally stable and easy to work with given my current tools/knowledge. I went with 3mm acrylic as the most affordable option that fit the other requirements. It's a little brittle, but I wasn't making the set out of it, just the masters. Turns out, just like lumber, manufacturers don't tell you the actual size of the material and what I received was acrylic sheets that were ~2.8mm. that doesn't sound like a big deal, except that I had already begun the design work while awaiting the sheets and had to redo, since each part of the Bento Box proportions hinge on the size of the pieces and -.2mm loss at this size would have made some sloppy walls and very loose storage.
I also used this opportunity to upgrade my game scoring token, which was way too chunky in the original design. I went with a small trophy cup token that fits in slots similarly to how the standing stones work.
After the board was made, I needed a way to make the box. Due to the very thin sheets of material and the holes in the board, a traditional 2-part mold would not work. I tried a few different things and could not come up with a good way to do this as a single, prebuilt assembly. So, I decided to pour my own sheet goods. I made a mold of a sheet of acrylic, poured resin in the mold, and then machined the resulting sheet of resin.
The next step was to work on the piece trays and blockers. I 3D printed these because they would be an internal component (making me less concerned with layer lines) and would also be much easier to prototype and get into production this way.
I had a couple great thoughts when redesigning these:
First, I would reduce the amount of material I needed for the bento portion of the box by removing the dividers - the piece trays would become the props that hold up the blockers in the center instead of being additional pieces. The stiffness of the resin vs the original filament aided in this transition.
Second, one thing that annoyed me about the original Bento was that the pieces would fall over in the tray once you removed enough and then they were hard to grab and continue play. So, I divided and staggered the piece holders, making each hold 5, aiding reserve counting during play as a side benefit.
Once all was designed and mocked up, I needed to make the molds so I could make everything out of colored resin. I used 3 different moldmaking techniques during this process. The board halve, piece trays, and sheet good slab were all made using open-top molds. The pieces and trophy marker were made with a squish mold. And the capstones were made with a cut mold. Here they are!
Molds done, all that remained was pouring, assembling, sanding, sealing, and double checking everything :)
The pouring went as expected. It took a couple tries to get the right color and to learn how each mold wanted to be handled. I work in an unheated garage and this step was also hampered by the weather. Resin likes to cure at room temperature or a bit higher. The thinner the piece, the longer it takes to cure because it does not produce enough heat to aid curing with the exothermic reaction. Here was my solution, though it still took a full three days to cure (it was a 24 hour cure resin) for each batch.
The assembly was fine, but man are <3mm pieces hard to line up square and plumb.
Sanding was quite a chore and always is for resin. The pieces were doubly hard due to their size. I literally sanded until my fingers bled because there was no good way to hold them without my fingertips scraping the sandpaper.
Once sanded with various grits, I sealed with urethane for a gloss finish and then let cure.
I played with the set for a couple days and adjusted a few things. Then I took glamor shots and mailed it off!
So, problems...
The magnetic closure is a bit weak due to the weight of the set (I had designed it with the 3D printed heft in my brain).
The assembly was tricky. I'm rethinking the box design and will tweak this for the next iteration.
This set cost quite a bit in materials and time - way more than I sold it for :)
And why did it take me so long? Well...
I had other projects:
And went to PAX Unplugged to run events.
And made Chrimmus gifts:
And took some hikes:
And helped remodel a friend's bathroom from the studs out:
And all the other life stuff too :)
Thanks for sticking around to the end. Let me know if you enjoy this kind of stuff and I will take that into consideration next time I want to send out a wall of text and pics :)
