Equipment for cutting out hexagonal tiles and other parts

I read your post in diagonal.

There is a ways to position your hex so that you only need to cut using straight lines. I don have a picture, make sure the hexagons leaves and empty triangle area between each other.

Else, you can use a Cricut, die cutting machines. Much more expensive.

If you can find yourself a programmable laser cutter, then you may be able to save yourself some time. For me personally, I use a Glowforge. It may have some technical limitations (though were I honest I'd admit this comment really comes from me not spending nearly as much time maximizing my use of it), but when it comes to developing prototype components like tiles of various types, it's very useful.

With a laser cutter, you can also engrave/cut artwork into the flat surfaces of the things you create, so affixing artwork isn't always necessary. Anything you can devise in a computer graphics program - from shapes to illustrations - you likely can apply to most prototype materials with a laser cutter.

Speaking of materials: as long as you have a strong enough fan to blow away exhaust, then you should be able to cut through wood, paper (including card stock, which I recommend for game components), mat board, leather, and acrylic. You can not typically cut through glass or metal, but you can most definitely engrave into both.

Through trial and error, I learned that corrugated cardboard is surprisingly difficult to laser-cut so I don't recommend it.

I have used stiff, sticky-backed felt for this. You can buy it in 9x12" sheets in your choice of colors, from Amazon and elsewhere. Print your artwork onto paper (I'd recommend card stock), stick it onto the felt, and then cut with scissors. The felt cuts quite easily, but is stiff enough not to be floppy.

When I did this, I was cutting fairly large hexes. If your game has a lot of (say) 1" hexes it's going to be more tedious, but it's still a lot easier than cutting cardboard.

P.S. This is only good for one-sided tiles. If you need double-sided, it won't help.

I realize that I am due for another round of printing and cutting cards too! I use plastic sleeves with standard cardbacks for the moment. So it is just paper. But I understand your frustration. I can read it off the OP. Cramping your hands is definitely not pleasing. A Cricut Maker 3 (Not the base crap) would sound like your best bet. But it's like $550 CAD + Taxes (since they have a Canadian website).

The other option is to figure out HOW MANY times you need to buy these hexes and price this with The Game Crafter to see if an investment into a Cricut is worth it. Like if you are going to be doing 1x or 2x more... Probably not worth it as TGC may cost you like $30-40 USD.

But if you are doing it like 10x or have multiple games for this use... Then that's $300-400 USD and the Cricut Maker 3 will be the best alternative in terms of investing in something worthwhile and good for your hands.

Just remember that Cricut has a Canadian site... And the pricing is different than the USA website. So make sure you navigate to the RIGHT page. the Cricut Maker 3 is slightly more expensive in Canada and they offer packages with material and accessories too.

My big FIND this week was my ex-boss contacting me to tell me that "Squarespace" Canada is offering a FREE Online Sales portal once you past the credit check given your SIN and company information. I passed ... So now I have a Squarespace online shop to work on.

Why is it worth it??? Same cost like PayPal: 2.9% + $0.30 CAD per transaction. No additional fees. This is GREAT ATM. And there is no LIMIT on the amount of products you can have. While StoreEnvy was good ... They have a whopping 6% commission rate. If I can SAVE 6% ... On each transaction... That's quite a bit of savings. Just an ASIDE...

Best of luck(!?) figuring out if TGC or Cricut is the better avenue. Cheers!

I was going to mention aligning the hexes to make fewer cuts like everyone else said, but having a more complex shape made up of many hexes makes it much worse.

For cardboard components in general I use label paper and various thickness cardboard. For complex shapes like that I would use the thinnest and easiest to cut cardboard I could possible get away with, to make cutting less difficult. Maybe even just print to the thickest regular paper my printer could handle.

Do you have to handle those hexes much during play, or are they just set up at the beginning to form a game board? If it is the latter than I would just print to regular paper (maybe slightly thicker) and put under a sheet of plexi for playtests. Regular paper and plexi is how I prototype all game boards, and how I print'n'play almost all games I want to play (makes no sense to make mounted game boards anyway when plexi makes for such a nice game surface). But if you have to move the shapes around during play plexi is not a good solution obviously.

@let-off
You just blew my mind. Bricks are just hexes pretending to be rectangles. I never knew!

Hi, sorry this is such a late post but I've only just joined the forum. I wanted to suggest using a sharp chisel (and hammer) with the same width as the hexagon edge. It has the advantage over a knife that it can be positioned exactly on the edge - it doesn't need to slide along it - so you don't need to tense up your wrist as much. You may end up with arthritis of the shoulder and a swollen left thumb though. It's also very noisy. But a sharp chisel can easily and cleanly cut through a typical game board thickness.