Erik Hagen
Norway
Stavanger
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I've been looking all over for a good storage solution to my Dominion set - complete with Intrigue, Seaside, and promos. All the cards are sleeved, so using Happycamper's dividers in the original box didn't work out - the dividers would be too tall. Also, I wanted a box with room for the inevitable expansions.
So I figured - heck, why not build one myself? Sounded simple enough, despite the fact that my DIY skills are limited to changing lightbulbs.
I went to my local hardware store (apparently I have a local hardware store) and purchased some 5 mm thick plywood, which seemed both thin and sturdy enough to suit my needs. I got a leftover sheet at 80 % discount:
I then carefully constructed a Plan. I measured how wide and tall the box had to be to fit three rows of sleeved cards, with dividers in between. The length would obviously be the width multiplied by 1.618 - both because that's a golden rectangle, but also because that particular length fits well in my games cupboard.
I used a regular hand saw to cut out the pieces. Some power tools would have been easier and would have produced a better result, but seriously, who here at BGG owns a circular saw?
I assembled the pieces using small nails and glue. I drilled small holes for each nail, otherwise the plywood would crack. Here's the assembled Box without the dividers:
And here's the Box with the dividers in place:
The next step was to make a lid, and to cover the outside of the box with some fabric to hide the nails (and the cracks caused by my combined lack of skill in measuring and sawing).
The lid is held in place by the four pieces of wood glued to the corners of the lid. It would obviously not stay in place if I were to transport the Box vertically, but that would also make a mess of the contents.
I used universal, quick-bonding glue to attach the fabric. Here's the Box with the lid on:
Here's the Box with all the cards in place:
I used Happycamper's dividers (thanks!). But they seem to be a bit small, especially when using sleeved cards - the top of the sleeve would have covered the text on the divider. So I cut them leaving the space between the dividers in place:
So there you go! A box with plenty of space for future expansions, sturdy and not too bad to look at.
My one concern is that the box isn't labeled with the name of the game on the sides and lid. Any suggestions? I thought maybe to cut out the logo from a sticker and sponge paint it in using white paint. But the last time I did any painting was in kindergarten, so I might need to experiment a little first.
If anyone wants more details about my work, go ahead and ask. This wasn't really that hard, all you need is a hand saw, a power drill, and some common tools. If I can pull this off, then anyone can!
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Giannis Sofianopoulos
Greece
Athens
Vrilissia
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Excellent work! Congrats!
About labeling why not scan the cover or find a high resoulution image and have it printed on sticker? I think it will look even more professional!
What are the final dimensions? It looks kind of large.
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Erik Hagen
Norway
Stavanger
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I'll look into the sticker option. Sounds like a lot less work than the paint thing! :)
The final dimentions are: 50.5 cm x 32 cm x 10 cm.
So it's big, but smaller than my Starcraft box. It's like Bantu + 20 cm in length.
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Chris Morse
Wales
Merthyr Tydfil
not the nose, not the nose!!!
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Nicely made.
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Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
Permanent microbadges: Zendo fan, Columbus Blue Jackets fan, Dominion Fan (one of these days I'll make the background non-white)
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It looks heavy. The cards themselves are already pretty heavy, without a box made of wood. Are you carrying that anywhere, or do you play the game at home?
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Steven Metzger
United States
Pullman
Washington
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Not trying to sound like a complete jerk here, but couldn't you have just gotten a box that holds 5000 (the ones you find packed with M:tG cards) for less? Wood is nice though
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Jonathan Morton
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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There's a nice label included in Carthaginian's file. Here it is on my 550-card box.
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Joseph
United States
Mercer County
New Jersey
This is how I spent my 2011 Supporter Bonus ... how about you?
Alright 2012 ... Let's get this year started!
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ErikHagen wrote:
My one concern is that the box isn't labeled with the name of the game on the sides and lid. Any suggestions?
Can you get to a color photocopier? In the US you can find them at a FedEx Store or most office supply stores, but obviously I don't know how it is in Norway.
If you can use a color photo copier, you can make copies of one of the box covers, then use spray adhesive to attach the copy to the box. Depending on the cost of the copies you could do several copies and do a collage.
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Erik Hagen
Norway
Stavanger
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I have a color copier at work. I'll have a look at the available high-res logos tonight. Thanks for the ideas!
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Sterling Babcock
United States
Colorado
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Nice job. Lots of work there!
Did you end up using the 3 sets in one alphabetical tabs that I posted under happycamper's Seaside set? I was curious if you found the ability to refile the cards from either side to be useful.
Dominion_Card_Dividers_ALL Based on HappyCamper's Files
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Sterling Babcock
United States
Colorado
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I was just thinking: It would look really cool to line the box with fabric as well, especially if it was a thematic print. It seems like it would look nice.
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Erik Hagen
Norway
Stavanger
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metzgerism wrote: Not trying to sound like a complete jerk here, but couldn't you have just gotten a box that holds 5000 (the ones you find packed with M:tG cards) for less? Wood is nice though :)
No jerkiness taken :) I already have 4 of those MTG boxes for my MTG collection, I wanted something else for Dominion.
Yes, I know I could have coated a cardboard box with fabric. But where would the fun in that be? :)
Besides, I think dividers wouldn't fit into those boxes - at least those that I have. And the whole point is to have all the cards easily available in a single box.
And yes, wood IS nice.
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Erik Hagen
Norway
Stavanger
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Solamar wrote: Nice job. Lots of work there!
Did you end up using the 3 sets in one alphabetical tabs that I posted under happycamper's Seaside set? I was curious if you found the ability to refile the cards from either side to be useful. No, I used Happycamper's individual files, and printed only on the front. Your system looks good, but I have a feeling that if I add future expansions (and boy will I!), then the front and back of the dividers won't match anymore, so I'll have to keep figuring out which dividers to replace, or just replace the whole set. Seemed easier to just use the one-sided ones and just add new dividers.
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Matt Smith
United States
Orion
Michigan
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I own a circular saw. I've used it too.
Nice box, BTW. I just moved my cards into a shoebox and used cut-down 3x5 cards for dividers. Not the prettiest box, but it saves room and transports well.
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Ben Bodrero
United States
Tremonton
Utah
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I just got my own copy so I fear I will soon be coming on this dilemma myself as the temptation to get the expansions grows. However I had an idea different than a traditional box that sounds easy enough.
Take a long strip of cloth about twice as wide as the cards are tall. Fold almost in half so that when a card sits in the crease you can still see the title. Once you figure out how much space is needed for each set of cards, you can sew (when I said easy I really meant for my wife) vertical lines to create pockets. Cards are separated, titles can be seen, and the whole thing could be folded up accordian style and secured with an extra flap of fabric and a rubberband. Badda-bing, badda-boom! Instant compact, lightweight, transportation-ready Dominion! For convenience sake it may be worthwile to make a separate one for each expansion rather than one humongous storage cloth. It seems that everything would fit nicely in the original box if more structural support is desired.
Unfortunately I am still all talk and no action on this idea, but I think it would be cool to see someone's pictures if they beat me to it.
Ben
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Geir Erik Ø
Norway
Sandnes
Geeks!
Hello!
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Bra boks.
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christine Lawrence
United States
Stoneham
Massachusetts
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Thanks Erik for the inspiration! Armed with about 7 weeks worth of 8th grade shop class as my only experience with such things, I decided to take on the challenge of creating my own Dominion Box.
I opted for a 13"x13" size. True, it is likely only going to fit the base game, intrigue and seaside, but I wanted to make sure it was portable (and perhaps the limited size would stop me from buying more expansions?).
I opted for 1/4" plywood again to help keep things portable. In hindsight, this was too thin to work with. I had the same problem with the plywood cracking. Drilling helped, but it still cracked a bit.
I opted to make the top flat and open/close with hinges and a clasp. After constructing the box, put several coats of paint, followed by several coats of water based poly. I used Carthaginian's file and some blank cards to decorate the box.
I should have taken pictures earlier on in the process, but during the early stages, the likelihood of total failure seemed about the same as success.
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