While there are thousands of accessories for Magic: The Gathering out there to buy, the maker community is always coming up with their own with the latest being this 3D printed life counter based on the card Sensei’s Divining Top.
Kevin McDermott – who goes by MrFoxClocks online – is responsible for this impressive creation which he has now printed in two different versions.
The one you see on this page has a filigree pattern on the top and bottom to make it more accurate to the card, while the original did not.
McDermott tells us that both were designed in Fusion 360 after initially starting the project in Sketchup, but found it difficult to go back an edit earlier parts of the model.
Over the course of a few weeks this was completed totalling about ten hours of work with keeping the numbers centred apparently eating up a lot of that time.
For reference the highest quality version of the art was found on an old blog post from 2015 about banning the card.
Printing was a bit quicker at just four hours on a stock Creality Ender 3. We’re not sure of the exact canonical dimensions of the item on the card, but this print is made to fit in the hand and shouldn’t be too much trouble to take to the local card store.
It’s six centimetres at its widest part and eight centimetres in length, totalling at just around 40 grams (when printed at 20% infill).
The printed plastic was then sanded and painted over with acrylics, needing just copper, gold and silver. A spray clear coat was then added after this to give it a sheen and product the paint, especially for those who are going to use it in many matches.
While we’re not sure that this print will spin on end like a real top, but the numbers do move and in a satisfying way. McDermott says that he originally used a 3D printed ratcheting mechanism to pull this off, but it was too difficult to make reliable.
Instead the latest version of the print uses a system with springs and BB pellets to provide a satisfying click and a smooth spin. You can see the action in motion in the gif below. How this assembly fits together is also shown in a short video on Instagram.
Those looking to make their own can find the files for the print available for free over on Thingiverse, but they can also be bought outright over on Etsy.
The solid version as well as the filigree pattern one can be found there for $35 and $36 respectively.
