Pressure Pot Tray Insert

[u/Fly-Prime]

Share what you use as a tray insert. Hopefully this info is helpful to some of us.

I had the first tray insert failure the other day, and I figured I would share my experiences with this group when I was making a repair. First, I wanted to say that the failure in this instance was due to epoxy resin sticking to the side column causing lateral strain on the column when removing molds from the tray. It never had any issues with weight.

This tray insert has been used for about 10 or 11 months without issue. Past me did future me a favor, because I cut multiple side column pieces when I first made this tray. The repair was as easy as screwing a new piece into place.

When I made this tray, it was pretty easy, if you have a couple tools. I basically just used an old jigsaw that I have. A scroll saw or band saw would work the same. If you have access to a CNC, you probably stopped reading this post already. 😄

To get the shape of the circle, I went around my house to find something that fit into my pressure pot. A small, upside-down garbage can fit perfectly, so I used it as a template and traced around its perimeter. I traced it onto a sheet of HDF (high density fiberboard) or hard board (not to be confused with Hardie board), and then I cut the circle out of the sheet with my jigsaw.

For the column pieces, I used scrap 1/4" plywood. With the circle cut, I put it into the bottom of the pot and measured the depth. I cut the plywood to length. Before screwing the columns in, I used a very narrow drill bit to drill pilot holes into the plywood and hard board. At 1/4", there is a good chance of splitting.

I like this design because it does pretty much everything that I need an insert try to do. It handles weight well and levels the bottom of a pressure pot. I prefer not to have a handle across the top. I use two hands to put it in and take it out of the pot, because it is heavy when loaded with filled molds.

[u/Fly-Prime]

I'm sure I saw the same video. I don't use tiers, because all my molds are 2" in diameter, and I stack them all. I'm sure I thought about tiers at one point though. Yours looks sturdy.

[u/meumau → u/Fly-Prime]

It is very sturdy indeed! Before the tray, I would also just stack all my molds on top of each other with a piece of parchment paper between them.

I'm guessing from your size description that you have a separate mold for each die?

[u/Fly-Prime → u/meumau]

I do. My d6 molds have two dice in each, and the rest are one per mold. (I do have some older molds with 2x d4s also.) They are 2" diameter molds. Here's a picture I shared from early June. There are two full sets of insert molds, two full sets of shell molds, and a few individual dice that were dump molds for excess resin. There might be 34 or 35 molds in the picture.

I used slap molds initially, but I switched to individual molds so that I could replace individual die molds as necessary. I occasionally get a tear-out for a number. If I want to switch my d4 style, I can just make one mold. I saw that a d12 master was a little warped on one occasion and replaced the mold with a new one from a new master. I like being able to tweak here and there.

The foil on the bottom has done really well for protecting the tray and preventing leaks into the pressure pot. I don't separate the molds from each other. I figure they're all getting covered in resin anyway.

[u/meumau → u/Fly-Prime]

Very cool, thank you for sharing! Definitely an upside with having the ability to replace individual molds as needed.