Every Christmas, the community I’m a member of (the one that I keep mentioning every time I write about Comics Outmash) organizes a Secret Santa. This Christmas was my 3rd participation and I got a little carried away for my friend, who happened to be a fan of Lord of the Rings. Read on for the whole story or scroll to the bottom of the page to see the final product.

The Idea

After I got my assignment, I asked my friend (anonymously, via the tool we use to do the draw) what he preferred as a gift. His response being completely unhelpful (“I like everything!” or some bullshit like that), I took this as a carte blanche to do whatever I wanted, so I started thinking about a way to mix Lord of the Rings, 3D printing and maybe some LEDS.

With that in mind, I went searching for a model on MakerWorld and quickly saw this big ring and in a comment, someone who stuck the ring on a dark-tinted wooden plank. I loved the idea and figured I could do the same.

The Print

I ordered a roll of gold PLA Basic filament from Bambulabs, waited a few day and started the print. The model was really good quality, so I had no problems during the print.

Even if I knew what to expect, the result still blew my mind. I didn’t have any LEDs yet, but you could already see the writings on the ring appear if you used a phone’s flashlight at the right angle.

After 2 years of printing various pieces, I wanted to spend a little more time finishing the print with… something. Once you’ve watched enough DYI videos, you know it will probably involve epoxy, one way or another. I looked online for the best way to finish a PLA print and found a product named XTC-3D which only midly terrified me. I ordered a box, put on my big boy pants (as well as my gloves and my mask) and put a coat on my freshly printed ring.

I don’t recall if I applied a single or multiple layers of resin on the ring but I was very happy with the extra shiny and glossy finish it had. I was a little less happy when I realized that some of the extra resin pooled at the bottom of the ring and worse, stuck to the piece of cardboard I let it dry on, so I had to fix the issue with a Dremel.

The Board

My goal was to recreate the product I saw in the comment because nothing had inspired me to do differently (yet, wink wink). I took some roughs measurements of the ring and onward to Home Depot I went. I grabbed a board, waited for one of the 3 shop assistants in the entire shop to be available for some hardcore slicing action and took my 3 freshly cut boards home.

My goal was to find a nice dark tint to apply after sanding the planks. Unfortunately, the smart person that I am decided to leave the boards outside… in December… during a particularly rainy week. Unsurprisingly, the boards warped almost immediately.

Additionally, I realized that the boards were quite heavy, which would have been a problem once it was time to ship my gift to my friend… in Europe. Maybe the gods of DIY were simply watching over me and decided to save me some time? In any case, this forced me to focus on the LED part while I thought of something to do.

The (scary) electronics

When I looked at LED strips I could use, I found a lot of results on Amazon, which I’ve been avoiding for a while now. After asking around, an artist who works with 3D printing and LED recommended a shop in downtown Vancouver. After I reached out, they suggested that I came to the shop with the ring to see exactly what I would need to make it shine. After 10 minutes, I left the shop with an LED strip, a power supply and some wires. All that was left to do was soldering everything together.

Except, I don’t know how to solder. I learned the basics when I was in school but almost 25 years have gone since and I can’t say I remember much. Once again I put on my big boy pants, asked my neighbour for his soldering iron and… almost had a mental breakdown. This definitely was not the right project to get back into soldering. To say that I did a shit job would be the understatement of the century.

I’ll fast forward to a week or so later to me going back to the electronics shop asking the same questions as before with the added precision that I utterly suck at soldering and I need to finish my thing before 2034. Today, I wish that I’d said something when the first shop assistant said that all was needed was “a little soldering” because I left the shop with a a power supply I could simply clip onto the strip.

10 minutes after getting home, the LED was ready to be installed into the ring.

The Frame

While I was focusing on the electronics, I had a different idea on how to present the ring: I would stick it onto a frame. That way my friend could easily put it on a wall or on a shelf. After a few iterations, I landed on an idea and went to the closest thrift store to find a frame I could use.

First, I sanded the 2$ dollar purple frame I bought and put a coat of rock-like texture (from a spray can I had bought for a previous project, I should write about it too!) then a coat of black paint.

While I originally just wanted to stick the ring into the middle of the frame, I came up with an idea for a picture to put in first. I downloaded a PDF version of The Fellowship of the Ring (which I assumed was fine since I own the physical books?) and looked for the chapter where Gandalf recites the infamous poem:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

I gave it a somewhat parchment paper look using Procreate and ordered a print online.

Once all the pieces were ready, I put the picture into the frame, applied a layer of Mod Podge to protect and seal it and poked a hole in to pass the wire from the ring.

Finishing Touches

The frame ready, I installed the ring and secured it with glue. I originally wanted the piece to be put on the wall (you know, since it’s a frame) but I got a little worried of it falling. Instead, I decided to print supports.

Here is the final piece…

… and here is the final piece with the ring switched on.

Although I got my 3D printer at the end of 2023, I feel like I only started getting bold with my prints at the end of last year. I’m really happy with the way it turned out, even if I definitely feel like I bit more than I could chew at the time. I started right before my parents were visiting us for Christmas, I had started working again… but everything worked out well in the end and my friend loved the gift. I learned a lot in the process (mostly that I need to learn how to solder).

For future projects, I think I should invest in some slightly better recording equipment. That way, the next time I record myself applying a coat of resin on a 3D printed piece, maybe we’ll see more than just mostly my jeans.