Drilled Die Key Chain

The die key chain is very simple to make yet somewhat time consuming and painstaking. Basically all you will need are a box of dice, a drill, and a with a drill bit that's about the same size as the dimples on a die. If you are going to use an electric drill, make sure you are very careful! You definitely need to secure the die in a vice or through some other means. If your drill catches, it could throw the die at you or endanger you in some other fashion. I prefer to use a manual drill mainly for this reason.

Dice can easily shatter if they become too hot, or if too much pressure is applied. That in mind, I highly recommend protective eyewear and possibly some sort of facemask. There will be a large amount of powdered shavings left behind by the drilling and these could be accidentally inhaled.

When drilling, if the die becomes hot or if smoke begins to drift up out of any of the holes, stop drilling immediately and allow the die to cool before continuing. You could risk breaking the die if it collects too much heat or the surface could burn leaving a brown stain.

All of the holes should be drilled out about 1/8" before going further. The idea is to connect the holes inside the body of the die without drilling too far. Turn the die around as you are working on it to make sure you aren't drilling further than you need to. When connecting two holes which are opposite of each other, make sure you have drilled sufficiently into the die from both directions before the holes meet. Drilling straight through the die from one side to the other will likely cause the material on the exiting hole to crack away.

Once you have a finished die, which could be after several unsuccessful attempts, you want to add a key ring. I recommend using the smallest ring you can find and then connecting a larger key ring to that. Be careful to not break your die when adding the ring! The last step is to carefully scratch away any black material left where the dimples used to be. That's it.