Alphabet Die

This is a die I designed to represent the frequency of letters in normal English.  

"E" and "T" for example are much more frequent than letters like "Z", "J" and "Q".  By rolling several time, you can get a series of letters which can easily be rearranged into common words.  This allows you to play word games similar to hangman, scrabble or boggle.  Similarly it can be used in education to make spelling games.  It can be also be used to create random names or words.  I use it to do this in role-playing games.

The letters "X", "J", "Z" and "Q" all share one side.  The letter which is upright is the one which is rolled, ie the letter under the point of the triangle which is furthest from the roller.  "Z" and "Q" share a point, are are chosen by whether the point is slightly to the left or slightly to the right.  If the point is straight up and not even slightly to the left or right, it should be treated as a "Z".

Due to the large number of sides, it needs a fairly smooth surface to roll on.  It can also roll a long way if thrown too hard.

I found 5cm diameter was easily legible, but that 6cm was a better size.  When printed at 6cm diameter, the grooves in the letters are large enough to fill in with a fine tip 0.3mm permanent marker.  This makes the letter much clearer and easier to read.

I printed them successfully in white PLA with Layer height of 0.05mm, Walls of 0.8mm, 25% infill.  I printed them at 200 degrees on a 70 degree bed.  The print took about 10 hours and used about 30g of filament.

I have included 3 files, one full die and a split die with files for the top and bottom halves.  I found that printing the full dice on point (ie no side is flat on the bed) works quite well.  The underside needs support and is slightly messy, but can be cleaned up fairly easily and doesn't seem to effect rolling.  I found it is best to print the two halves separately to prevent stringing making a mess of the sides.  The two halves have holes which line up for locking pins.