Altoids Tin Portal

A pocket-sized portable portal! This Altoids insert is designed to hold 2 rectangular mirrors (one normal, one “one way”) in parallel with a light box powered by a 3V flexible LED filament between them.

Additional Materials:

• 1/8" thick “one-way” mirror - cut 47mm x 82mm
• 1/8" thick normal mirror - cut 47mm x 82mm
• 300mm 3V flexible LED filament (I am using Adafruit's “n00ds” https://www.adafruit.com/product/5503)
• 3V coin cell battery
• Battery housing & switch (I am using Adafruit's CR2032 holder w/ switch breakout for convenience's sake https://www.adafruit.com/product/1871)
• Drill
• Tin Snips
• Super Glue and/or Hot Glue
• Electric Tape
• Sand Paper
• Solder & soldering iron for the electronics

Instructions:

1. Thread LED filament leads through the hole in the main body ("Nood Layer") so they both stick out the bottom by about an inch. Adjust the slack as you glue in step 2.
2. Super glue the LED filament to the channel inside the “Nood Layer” (see pictures). It helps to tie it down at the sides & corners with string while the glue cures
3. Glue the plain mirror cutout to the “Mirror Bottom Frame” layer
4. Once the LED filament has cured in place, remove any strings and glue the one-way mirror cutout into the top of the “Nood Layer”
5. Glue the “Top Layer - Mask” on top of the one-way mirror on the “Nood Layer”
6. Thread the leads at the bottom of the “Nood Layer” through the hole in the “Mirror Bottom Frame” and glue the two pieces together.
7. Glue the “Base Cutout” layer to the bottom of the housing with the cutout aligned to the hole with the LED leads
8. Solder the leads to your switch & battery. Use hot glue to secure the connection (optional).
9. Mark the back of your Altoids tin where the switch will be, drill a pilot hole and use tin snips to cut out a hole for your switch. USE GLOVES & EYE PROTECTION, EDGES WILL BE SHARP! Sand down the rough edges as best you can and cover them with electrical tape.
10. Glue your switch & battery in place
11. Press-fit the housing into the Altoids tin. It will take some oomph and you may want to sand down the edges depending on how well-aligned your printing and gluing are

Tips:

• Wear gloves. Super glue sticks to skin better than anything and mirrors love fingerprints (keep a lint-free cloth nearby for smudges)
• Be very careful pulling the flexible LED filament through holes the leads are very delicate and extremely difficult to repair if you snap one
• I used mirrored acrylic sheets for the mirrors because it was easier for me to cut and sand down to size
• Alignment of all the pieces is pretty important to getting the end product to fit. But some dedicated sanding can fix most bad alignment jobs.
• Check the polarity of the leads by connecting them to the battery BEFORE you start soldering.

When I first set out to make this, I looked around to see if anyone else had designed something similar and came across this Instructable, which was very helpful: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Altoids-Infinity-Mirror/ Kudos to them all I really did was refine the design a bit.