Durin's Door: LED Acrylic and Plywood Gates of Moria

The Lord of the Rings is my favorite book, period. I read it every summer from the age of 10 to 26 and then a couple times since. I did like the Peter Jackson movies because they got the feel and images right, even though there were some major departures. The scene before the troop heads into the mountain is one of my favorites. The pacing of the story is amazing and the details are so powerful. Of course the humor of the trying to open the door is a perfect setup for the drama after. Would be cool to do a whole voice recognition and be able to turn the light on with the password.


This is .205" Home Depot plywood and Glowforge Proofgrade clear acrylic. Same setup as my name plates but I put the arch in for added effect. The size is 8 inches by 6 inches including the base.

The blocks were knocked together in Inkscape. Vector scored at 1% power. I took one rectangle and added a few nodes. I copied it and tweaked the nodes a little bit. Did that for about eight or nine times, then flipped and mirrored them to get a more random variation in the pattern. This is actually what got me to do the gradient engraving test because I really would like to make a depth engraved brick wall. Inkscape recently upgraded to a mesh gradient so I would be able to soften the edges of all the blocks and then have an engraving deeper in between the bricks. That test to come here shortly, but I have to upgrade another Inkscape installation.

Edit: Link to SVG of the image file. I did try some tracing with Inkscape but went on to this since it was a single vector line. I haven’t been able to get the Centerline Trace extension working correctly. I edited it a little bit and exported it as a PNG to bring into the cutfile. Had some issues importing the large SVG directly. Working with support on that.

http://xaonon.dyndns.org/logos/#lotr

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Amazing!

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Awesome. I both loved and hated Lord of the Rings. Hated it because it ruined everything I read after it for years.

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This is GORGEOUS! STUNNING! I LOVE IT!!!

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Love it!

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That looks rad! Super coolness. Thanks for sharing.

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Looks great. And looks like the home Depot ply is cutting ok:)

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Speak, “friend,” and enter.

This is your most amazing item yet–I absolutely love it!!! Way to incorporate LED lighting that really works perfectly with the medium, and I love the combination of wood and acrylic.

Well done!

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Ok, I love this one. LOTR is my fav book and movies, so this must be in my to-do list :smile:

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Best use for acrylic I’ve seen yet.

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Awesome! :grinning:

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Nice job. I like it.

There are a couple of other neat variations on this theme you might be interested in. The instructables phone stand is similar http://www.instructables.com/id/Dock-of-Durin/

But if you want voice/touch activated check out this guy’s project for a hidden door in his basement.

and
http://imgur.com/a/vOnt5

There’s a reddit thread out there on this as well.

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Great project and awesome execution. Great idea on a way to design the random brick work.

Yet another “Well done!”:trophy:

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My precious!

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great job…read the book…loved it…saw the movies…hated it…lol. (after the book…nothing compares )

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It may not be the same with either, “Speak Ok Google friend and enter,” or, “Speak Alexa friend and enter” carved around the door, but it would still be cool.

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Makes me wanna break out the dvd’s!

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Oh man, that looks GOOOOOD!

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delightful!

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Wooooow! That is totally transformative use of the materials. I love it.

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