Doors of Durin Arch

[bearbark]

Hi there,

Newbie to the forum and amateur woodworker. I have a project on my hands to do a 'Doors of Durin' archway from the JRR Tolkein's Lord of The Rings, and I'm looking for a little help on it. The design is attached, and it's going above an exterior doorway.

This is to be fixed to a wall, it's almost 2 metres in diameter and 1m in height. Ignore the stars and crown in the design, it's just the arch. If you know the Doors of Durin, I'm not doing the side columns, it can't be too expensive or lengthy a job.

At the moment, I was thinking of doing the arch and letters separately; the arch out of 12 or 18mm marine ply or similar sheet material with a raised trim top and bottom, and the letters out of another sheet and glued/doweled onto the front.

It's the letters that are the headache. I'd like some contrast between the letters and background. I have a router and jigsaw which should get me through the cutting; I'd rather not do a relief carving of the letters with the router from a solid piece btw, I'm just picturing a world of problems with keeping the same depth for the background.

So I'm thinking one option might be to cut the letters from a sheet of MDF; it'll give a clean edge, I can paint and glue on the front face easily.
Another option else would be to use some other type of wood, just not an edge-glued sheet and not pine - it won't be able to handle delicate letters and will end up breaking/snapping on me.

Q: For this other type of wood, would hardwood be suitable to cut letter out of? Will it break? What kind of wood should I use?

Q: How would you approach this? Does this sound like a decent plan?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MatthewRedStars]

I know you said not too expensive, but it an ideal world I'd get the text laser cut out of thin MDF/ply and glue/pin them on. It'd be quick and very accurate, just send the image to your local laser cutter and they'll (usually) do it all for you.

 

[RobinBHM]

Tricoya mdf or maybe foam board?

Both durable.......very durable and easy to router

Unless protected from rain I wonder if the exposed edges of marine ply would eventually fail.

 

[Shultzy]

I wouldn't touch mdf, not if you want it to last. Make it out of four layers of hardwood. I would have the letters laser-cut, but not individual letters as this will take a lot of precision to glue them to the board, out of the top layer.

 

[lanemaux]

Can't help with ideas on how to do this sir, but love the idea. I wonder if you can find some way for the door to open to the spoken "mellon" , wouldn't that be cool.

 

[bearbark]

Thanks for the replies,

Fair point about the exposed edge of the ply, it'll need to be a solid sheet then. And I love the sound of a laser cutter or CNC router but I don't think I've the budget for that. However I can give myself more time, so I don't mind cutting out the letters by hand and pinning/glueing them on.

As this is all outdoors, Tricoya MDF sounds good. Shultzy, with the right exterior coat would you still avoid MDF? I'll have a deeper look at what I can get my hands on in terms of sheet material. Very difficult to get solid sheet material without it being edge-glued. But maybe EG is ok? I'm not sure.

One more question about the finish, Tolkein penned that the letters only shone in moonlight. While this is obviously fantasy, it would be very cool to try create an effect that pays homage to this; major nerd points if I can pull it off. Lanemaux I'll see if there's a voice recognition door lock that responds to Sindarin
I'm going to experiment with a subtle touch of glitter, silver and/or green, or perhaps iridescent or fluorescent paint on the front face of the letters. Nothing too mental, and if I'm lucky it won't shine too much in daylight, but will glimmer in the light of the lamp. It may or may not work, my concern really is if I can cover this finish with an exterior varnish - will it stick and last long term?
Or even on top of just a black paint coat, probably matt blackboard paint, can I varnish on top of that to give a durable exterior finish?

Thanks again.

 

[howser]

I would think CNC is the way to go, i would Vcarve the letters which gives a nice effect to the font etc and then paint in the letters and then a quick sand of the face will give them all nice clean lines. If you wanted to go all out and have the glowing letters have a google of edge lit plexiglass/acrylic.

What about some kind of glow in the dark or fluorescent paint highlints in the lettering if you want to keep it cheap

It might be worth asking a CNC shop panel shop etc what it would cost, you might be surprised, especially if you can provide the finished vectors ready to cut, as its the laying out and toolpathing that takes the time.

 

[thick_mike]

I was just going to post about making the letters out of acrylic and putting a fibre optic light behind each one connected to a light sensitive switch. Super nerd points on offer there!

 

[bearbark]

Just thought I'd share the finished product, cheers for the advice lads

 

[bearbark]

Cant upload it so here it is:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEjAdzpBYge ... kwoodcraft