The Rose Screen

The Rose Screen

Learn about a custom DM screen made by Tusano at Maker Works, from start to finish

Getting Started: What to Make?

• Who's Tusano?

  Great question! Tusano has been a member at Maker Works for 4 years. He’s a friendly face you can spot in the wood shop, likely working on crafting items for his business, Tusano Trading Co. Check out his wares!

• What's a DM screen?

  A DM screen is used for concealing your notes and dice rolls from the players when you are the “narrator” of a roleplaying game, such as in Dungeons & Dragons. It can also serve as a wonderful thematic decoration when you’re telling your story, so as to immerse your players in the world you’re portraying.

Diana’s previous DM screen, made of extremely sturdy duct tape

Three years into doing charity streams on Twitch, Tusano found himself collaborating on a fundraising campaign for The Jimmy Fund with Diana of the Rose (a content creator with an organic reach of over 200k people). With her help, they were able to raise more money for The Jimmy Fund than Tusano had ever raised before.

He started thinking about how he could thank her, and as a maker, it only made sense he’d make something.

After seeing the poster-board-and-duct-tape screen that she’d been using, Tusano knew what he had to do.

The Project: Challenges, Solutions, and Success

Tusano bought 4.5 feet of maple from Johnson’s Workbench and got straight to work:

1. Jointing the wood, to flatten the bottoms

2. Planing the wood, to flatten the tops

3. Chopping the wood with the miter saw

4. Ripping and cross cutting with the table saw (plus a bit more jointing)

5. Gluing up to create a larger board

6. Sanding with the drum sander, to smooth everything out

Jointing

The jointer flattened the bottom of Tusano’s boards

Planing

The planer flattened the top of Tusano’s boards

Chopping

The miter saw chopped the maple to create the individual boards

Cutting

The table saw ripped and cross cut Tusano’s raw maple (requires high focus!)

Gluing

Sanding

The drum sander added a smooth polish to the boards

Getting there!

Here is the DM screen in its unfinished glory

After all that work in the wood shop, the boards were ready to be engraved. Using a laser cutter/engraver in the Maker Works craft area, Tusano was planning to get extreme detail that would act as guidelines for coloring. But what would he engrave…? Well, fortunately, he had that figured out early on!

Illustrations

This is what would go onto the cover of just one board — and there were five boards, all with unique illustrations!

Laser engraving

Running at 70% speed and 100% power, Tusano was able to get all five boards engraved in just a few hours

After engraving

Testing Colors

Before being confident placing pen to wood, Tusano and Ross tested how the colors would look.

Start of Coloring

Final Screen

Less than 24 hours after the screen was fully ready, Tusano was catching a plane to where he’d give the screen to its recipient.

• How do the boards fit together and move?

  Tusano embedded magnets into the sides of the boards, then placed metal rods between each of them. The magnets are just sturdy enough to keep the DM screen together, but allows for rearranging of the panels if desired!

At the End: Realizations

“For a while, I’ve haunted the halls of Maker Works like a kind of mercenary, taking work from who I could and helping out members of the community. When it came time to make this screen and I hit the wall a few times, there were people who stepped up to help me, and I was surprised by the outpouring of support I received. I realized clearly just how many people were invested in seeing me succeed.

So, the most valuable skill I learned is how to adjust my perspective around the fact that, in a harsh world, I should look at my communities as forces of support and care, rather than singularly faceted organizations or self-interested parties.”

— Tusano

• Who helped with this project?

  Here’s who Tusano listed as supporters:

  • Moral support from Anke (a member who works primarily in the craft area)

  • Access to Brad’s laser cutter (a member who rents an office at Maker Works)

  • Garage access from Tusano’s friend Jack

  • Staining and coloring by Ross Monk

Tools

• Table saw, miter saw, jointer, planer, drum sander, and pneumatic hand sander, all in the wood shop

• Laser cutter in the craft area

• Wagner HVLP finishing sprayer (Tusano’s) from Rockler (Novi, MI)

Materials

• 4.5ft long maple board from Johnson’s Workbench (Charlotte, MI)

• Sanding sealer & water-based lacquer from General Finishes

• Water-based markers

• 1/4” x 1/8” rare earth magnets