Tiffany & Co Engagement Ring Box

 One of my favourite things when building Lego models are the little Easter Eggs that are hidden inside. This is one inside my model. I needed something that was the same height as a tile but with a hole in the middle to allow the bars which hold the technic axel connectors to pass through. A Lego Minifigure wedding ring was the perfect part that also makes for a nice Easter Egg in an Engagement Ring Box.

I'm working on an update to how the ring is held. The current design uses a sliding brick pulled forwards with a v belt. This new design removes any moving parts and instead relies on six flexible axel connectors. The ring is pushed between two lines of this which hold it in place.

It just passed 2500 supporters, so we're half to the next milestone and a quarter of the way overall. Thank you to everyone who has supported so far!

The part about this model that annoy me the most are the eight gaps around the top and bottom where I have had to use 2 x 2 round plates to hold the 1 x 1 quarter round tiles on the top. Yesterday I was scrolling through a Lego parts list (as you do) I spotted the 3 x 3 heart plate and realised that I can use it to get rid of the gaps from the front and only have four rather than eight. Plus using hearts in the model feels appropriate.

These are the parts that have changed

This is how it looks with that change

 The very first Lego version of this was made out of at 1x1 tile and plate in a model of my own proposal. The photo shows it on one of the cakes at our wedding. Later I was looking at the Tiffany Ring Box and thought it would be an interesting challenge to try and build a 1:1 scale Lego version that looked and functioned just like the original. About year later after lots of trials and tinkering here it is.

I thought I would share a cut-away image of the ring holding mechanism. It works by allowing the rear "cushion" to slide on two technic cross pins. It is pulled towards the front cushion with two V-Belts which loop around it and the single round stud. There are two rubber track pins which stop the two cushions moving too close and add a little extra friction to hold the ring in place.

I realised that I didn't include an image of the bottom of the box. As you can see it looks the same as the top to give the same finish all around just like the Tiffany ring box it is based on. This presented some challenges when creating the mechanism to hold the ring as it meant finding a way to invert the studs in a very small space.

The renders of the box show it with a classic Tiffany style ring however I think it would be good to allow people to use their own creativity and include a number of parts that let you customise the ring design. Here are just a few possibilities.

I thought I would celebrate the first full week of building support with a super simple mini build inspired by one of Tiffany & Co's classic necklaces.