Eclipse Ship Parts Tray and Dividers

thingiverse

I'm still new to the world of 3D printing, but I thought I'd tackle one of my favorite board game organization nightmares: Eclipse. Specifically, my first project was creating a tray for the game's ship parts. Between my expansions and the Rift expansion (which I've yet to find), there are approximately 300 different ship part tiles and 26 unique components that they fall into. From what I've seen, the Rift expansion will add new tiles and more copies of existing ones, so I wanted a solution adjustable for this and any future expansions. There are two trays and a lid: a flat bottomed tray, a cover/tray combo, and a separate lid. A set should ideally consist of one of each. Each column can hold about 80 tiles, with dividers taking up the space of four tiles. The tray set should hold 480 tiles total, with room for 50+ tiles to be added in the future. I still need to figure out how best to print the middle section. It's either going to require a ton of support or the ring will be split off and glued on manually. To make it easy to find the tile you're looking for, I'm customizing the tops of the dividers. The prototype was an attempt at keeping the icons similar to those on the tiles, but my printer just can't handle the scale required. In the uploaded dividers (which haven't been tested yet), I've opted for a slightly different arrangement of symbols. They're printed face down, which works out well on my heated glass bed. You may need support if you want to print them on their side. The pins are not flush with the sides; it made the fit too tight. Still a work in progress, but I figure there are other Eclipse players who would like something like this. March 21st - Found a slight error with the Interceptor Bay divider. Fixed and re-uploaded. Printed out several other dividers and added another photo. March 23rd - Created a smaller prototype mockup for the bottom, mid, and top tray using measurements from the full-sized model. Experiencing corner lift on the middle tray, even with brims, and the lid/bottom of the middle tray is about 1mm too short. March 28th - Printed out the full-sized mid section. Usable, but still have too much warping. Might be worth printing two lids and two bases, gluing one lid to a base rather than dealing with the hassle of the middle layer (it also uses a ton of support material). Appears that the orbital/monoliths and discovery tiles will fit in the slots (the orbitals are slightly tight), and there is ample space for them. Got a few more parts to print, then I'll get some action shots. April 2, 2016 - Posted additional shots now that I've got the tray completed. The dividers didn't come out exactly as I'd like, especially any divider with text. Holes are easier to print than posts in this case; the shields/computers are barely readable, but the weapons, drives, and missiles came out alright. April 19, 2016 - Redid a number of dividers (annotated with _v2) to increase the text and symbol sizes for hopefully better printing. (I'll be testing them whenever my replacement thermistor comes in.) Also added tiles from Shadows of the Rift (except for Transition Drive; probably just as simple to print Tachyon Drive in a different color instead). May tweak a few things here and there later on, but for now, I'm calling this done. Print Settings Printer: Monoprice Maker Select Resolution: 0.2mm Infill: 15 Notes: Print trays at 0.3mm, dividers were printed at 0.2mm. Glass with hairspray (PLA) works great for the base tray, but dividers require painters tape to really come out well. Was not able to get the small details to adhere otherwise. Print dividers in groups of at least three at a time. (Possibly more if you've managed a fast print speed) Otherwise, the layers don't have enough time to cool and the shape ends up warped. Middle tray can be printed out as a single unit, but if I were to do this again, I'd just print two bases/lids. They're more likely to come out straight with proper adhesion and use a lot less support material.