Introduction

I needed some dice cups for a backgammon tournament and could not find lipped dice cups locally, so I decided to create this simple model. I decided to play a bit with ideas for generating internal geometries that randomise the dice when shaking. 

The first idea was to make ridges in the inside of the cup to jumble the dice around when shaking. The second idea was to create some (semi) random geometry on the inside to create many faces that the dice can jump from when shaking. Honestly I do not think that there is any difference between the two, but the second one looks fancier.

How to print

You can print the STL models attached and they will work properly as backgammon cups for 16mm dice. If you want, you can also work with the OpenScad file to change the model to your needs. To do this, first measure the dice and change the variable inside_d to be about 1.5-2x the size of the dice. The cup height is not that important, but the more dice you want the cup to hold, the higher it should be. The initial parameters are fine for regular (tournament) backgammon dice.

You can easily print the models as drawn without supports. The ‘random’ geometry is easier to print due to less steep and shorter overhangs. I used a brim due to it being a tall narrow print, but with good bed adhesion this is probably not necessary. The print takes about an hour to finish.