At AtomStack, we believe in the power of creativity and innovation. Recently, we launched an exciting challenge in collaboration with Thingiverse, inviting makers and designers to incorporate our logo into their projects.
The response was nothing short of inspiring! In this series of blog posts, we’ll share the remarkable stories of our winners—each showcasing unique designs and inventive applications of laser engraving technology. From imaginative creations to practical solutions, these projects highlight the incredible talent within our community. Join us as we celebrate their achievements and explore the creative journeys that led to their success!
Editor's Note:
Another creative highlight from the #MarkAtomStack challenge is the engaging "Atom Stacker Game," a unique game-of-skill that brings an interactive twist to the AtomStack community. Designed as a game for one or multiple players, Atom Stacker challenges participants to stack as many "atoms" as possible on a stand without letting them topple over.
With two modes of play—competitive, where players take turns and try not to cause a fall, and collaborative, where players work together to build the tallest molecule possible—this project is a fun and clever take on laser-crafted games.
Below are the project details and story, as shared by the maker.
Project Details
This is my entry for Thingiverse/Atomstack-challenge. It is a game-of-skill kind of game called Atom Stacker and can be played by one or more players.
The rules are simple: stack as many atoms as possible on top of the stand.
There are two game modes:
1.) Competitive:
The players take turns. Whoever causes one or more atoms to fall down, loses.
2.) Collaborative:
Work together to build the biggest molecule possible. And if you run out of atoms: Just make some more! (by laser cutting and/or 3d printing)
Project Story
The 3d files were created using Blender and the 2d files were made using Inkscape. I printed the PLA parts using an Anycubic Kobra 2 Pro FDM printer. Since I don't own a laser cutter, all the wooden parts were made using tools from my workshop (eg. fretsaw, bandsaw, belt sander, drill, lathe, files, sandpaper...and brown paint to 'burn' the edges.)
The idea behind the project was to create something that could utilize both 3d printing and laser cutting. In additon to that, I didn't want to just slap an AtomStack logo on some random object. I tried to find an idea which could be able to reflect the name even without the logo.
A stacking game made sense so I designed a stand and some atoms which could be stacked and would look nice at the same time. An Atom-Stacking game.
I really don't have any experience with laser engraving but I think there are quite a few areas where a laser cutter/engraver would be the better solution.
Number one on my list would probably be cutting parts from materials which can't be 3d printed. E.g. adding PLA or Resin to wood working projects sometimes just doesn't feel right. Transparent materials are another example as it is almost impossible to print those in a convincing way. (Weight, strength, durability and other material attributes can also be challenging with 3d printing.)
I guess one could also save quite some time by cutting larger flat pieces instead of printing them. I tend to use a band saw for things like that, but unless you spend a lot of time on it, the results will not have the same level of detail/precision compared to printing or cutting.
Speaking of wood working, I'd certainly try to use a laser cutter for transferring digital drawings/sketches to pieces of wood before cutting with a band/scroll saw. Printing on paper and transferring to wood with carbon paper is both time consuming and not very precise.
I'm not sure if this is even possible with laser cutting, but cutting painted materials like paper, cardboard and wood could be super useful. Burn-marks and precision might be an issue but if it worked it would be a huge time saver for e.g. board game development. You could (2d) print a set of cards or game tokens on paper, glue that paper on a piece of ply wood and laser cut the pieces afterwards.
In order to achieve the same results with 3d-printing, you'd have to cut all cards/tokens from the paper and glue them to the printed pieces one by one. Most of the tedious manual steps could probably be eliminated with laser cutting. (Cutting plotters might be able to do this too, but they'd probably run into material thickness issues pretty fast and keeping the parts from moving while cutting isn't all that easy as a moving blade moves through the material.)
