Wooden Sonic (Mark VII)

[ailaG]

Doesn't work on wood? Well, this one will be MADE of wood.

I thought I'd try some wood carving. I kind of dived head first into this entire field so advices will be appreciated. This was supposed to be just a "pilot" and then it turned out nice, so now that's the "production model".

I only did most of the handle so far.

Above: mine. Below: an image of the toy.


Another angle + an actual toy:


It's made from a branch I found on the street, hence the little flaws. Carved with a regular hobby knife. I may re-do it a second time from a proper block of wood after I'm done with this.

The dimensions are off because the branch was thinner than a Mark VII Sonic, and because I worked off of an image model without measurements (I borrowed the toy after carving this) but these are things I'm willing to accept, especially that this is a pilot and that I'm trying to make a good enough gadget to show off at scifi conventions, not necessarily a perfect replica.

Things to do next:
1. Carve the grooves in the white area. I was given some advices but it's pretty tricky. Advices will be appreciated.
2. Carve the second half. I'm thinking I won't carve the parts that are supposed to be silver, and following an advice, make these out of popsicle sticks. The kind you buy for art projects, not the kind that actually had food colouring on them. That way I can attempt at making the moving part MOVE, though that's not a must.
The claws may prove a bit tricky.
3. Style the second half.
3.5 Sandpaper.
4. Install a green LED. Another first for me, though it should be a no-brainer. I need to research the glass that covers it a little more, there's an arts & crafts market in the area, I may ask a glass artist there to do that for me. But a bare LED would be good enough, too.
The only problem is that the LEDs are in the mail and may not arrive in time for the upcoming scifi convention.
[edit: and I need to figure out how and where to install a button for it. I may wait with that until I see how the second half comes out, as this probably wouldn't affect the process anyway]
5. Think about colouring. I wish I didn't have to, because it'd make it look less like a wood carving project, but if I don't paint it it'll look like, well, some sort of a draft for a project. I'm thinking of using black tape over the black area, because the wood there broke a little, and using the original wood's colour wherever it's supposed to be golden. That way I can keep enough of the carved wood appearance.
6. Research sound boxes? Though there isn't really room for one.

Deadline:
April 7th, the day before the next big scifi/fantasy convention here.
Incentive to meet deadline:
I showed the photos to too many people, they'll be asking


Welp, this is fun, I hope it continues to work out.

[ailaG]

Well, I tried to make the second part out of popsicle sticks but due to the size and shape I had to use whole sticks.. which made it look like a 3 year old glued some sticks together. So I just took them off and people at the convention didn't notice.

I'm thinking of filling the grooves meant for the moving part with tin foil paper for the time being, but I do want it to move.

I covered a part of the handle with a thin black foam sheet, making it pretty AND hiding some holes caused by defects in the branch

I put batteries (I focused on materials that can be found at home for the self-made touch. And budget.), which were held by staples (!) which apparently are perfectly the right size for my batteries (!) glued to the top of the Sonic. The LED was taped to the top - one leg touches the battery directly and the other connects to the rest of the circuit. I wanted to run tin foil through the grooves to hide the external circuit as well as I can but it had too many points of potential failure and the deadline grew near, so i just ran a couple of thin wires on the outside.

For the button I used a mistake that I had made earlier, as this is my first attempt at carving / whittling. I had cut a wedge too fast which left a little hole right at the edge of the black part. Both sides of the circuit reached that hole, NOT touching. I glued a small tin foil rectangle to a small foam sheet rectangle and glued that to the black part. Foam sheets don't change their shape easily as long as you're not too hard on it, so when you push the rectangle it pops right back up.
When you push the rectangle, the tin foil goes into the hole, touching both wires and closing the circuit - and the LED lights up.
When you let go, the foam moves back up just a tiny bit and the circuit opens.
Worked like a charm.

Last but least (see what I did there?), I ordered green LEDs online and they arrived 2 days too late (I wanted the Sonic for a convention) so I pulled a white LED from a cheap key ring flashlight. Then I tried to think how it could be green, without much shopping time on my hands since it was a holiday.
And then I noticed that I had just eaten a popsicle with green semi-transparent plastic wrapping.
I cut that (yup), taped it over the LED (I'm not kidding) and it worked like a charm.

So I'm quite content with the way my Sonic is made of bits and pieces from everywhere and so many low-level improvisations because that's what I wanted, the Sonic the Doctor would build if he only had a couple of minutes and a knife. He wouldn't order shiny parts online, he'd pry something open and use junk to create an elegant, wonderful device.


Without further ado (okay, just a little bit) some more photos:

The clamps, which I ended up not using, but I will when I figure out the best way to install them. I'll also use a rubber band so they can open and close when the mechanism opens and closes.


Some tools, and the popsicles for the moving part. They're upside down, you see the parts that go in the grooves


The Sonic, fully carved, with the clamps near it. LED not installed yet, just lying next to it. In retrospect I shouldn't have made this little ledge for the LED, it was supposed to hold the batteries in it but it came out exactly their side, making the sonic a tad too tall.
I left the original outer shell of the branch for style.


With the circuit and the moving part, before I finished it



The morning of the convention is the WORST part to realise that there's no way to make half your screwdriver look decent


Any ideas for the moving part are welcome. Any opinions are welcome (especially practical advices). The moving part looked bad but worked okay, except that the claws kept colliding with the battery and ruining the circuit. I bought slightly smaller batteries but that won't be enough, I need the moving part (or at least the claws) to be at a larger diameter yet allow the claws to press against the Sonic when they close. Tricky!

p.s. I call it the "SuperSonic Screwdriver" because you can't hear it. Still need to get a tiny sound box.



Bonus: At the last moment I also made this necklace to wear at the convention:

(http://bit.ly/HJvAes)
It has nothing to do with building or original props but it's Whovian.

[ailaG]

Look! Matt is holding it! The Doctor is using the sonic that doesn't work on wood (or, well, anything else) - but is made of wood.


(Too bad I didn't ask for a pose where you can SEE it)

Well, sort of. When I installed the "clamps" on the sonic the LED stuck out too far, so I dug a little hole for the batteries (plus used smaller batteries) so they won't take up as much valuable space. And then I couldn't get the circuit to close, since there's no proper solution for pushing the wire against the negative side of the battery. I put a dummy LED there and secured the battery so it'll look semi-photogenic.. Well, not like I had much of a choice.
The silver sticks are MUCH different now. They're a lot thinner because they looked funny at the proper width, and they're coloured properly, not just the tin foil experiment in the photo above. I'll upload photos some time soon.

And yeah, this is my weird(-ish) "The Doctor just said he liked the sonic that I made" face.

You can see my other toys on me:
- An "upgraded" vortex manipulator. I replaced the buttons with a cogwheel with a spiral shape on it, another hidden cogwheel turns it; Replaced the "speaker" part with a mirror; Added a semi-transparent clock that I can pull up "to tell what time I arrived to", controllable by a button.
- A neural relay on my neck. Colours and directions are inverted because that's how my original materials went and altering that would ruin the result. I should re-make it with the proper colours and directions, not that anyone would notice. The circuit, when it works (...), has 2 modes: all lit, and partially lit (2 LEDs or 1 LED). It runs through my shirt into a switch in my trousers' pocket.
- I'm holding a toy that I made to look a little like the sonic mark VI. An upgraded sonic mark VI, and totally out of proportion. The original toy mimics a butterfly knife without a knife, so I painted it into a sonic and added a LED + battery + sonic tip cover. That way the tip is concealed when carried, it's more compact and you can pop it open or twirl it (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPyvyr34Rc).


All in all it was a fun convention and meeting Matt was an amazing experience, even if we only got to speak briefly. I gave him a TARDIS dreidel (from my other thread here). He seemed really happy about it, played with it.

[DoctorWho8]

Awesome experience! Glad Matt was into your wooden sonic and a TARDIS dreidel.  I'm sure that will see much use on the set.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[ailaG]

Oh, if I see my dreidel on set I'll have to be sent to the hospital with a hearts attack. (Plural)
I'm flying over for the next one in a few months, so David Tennant and Billie Piper will get one too (each..).

[DoctorWho8]

Was this from San Diego ComiCon or the Official Doctor Who Convention from March?
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[ailaG]

It was at The 11th Hour in Birmingham UK last month (http://www.seanharry.com/11/index.htm) he was there the last day. Unfortunately Comic Con is too far for me at the moment :/ (So is England but still)

However high my respect for that guy was, it doubled after that day. He talks like a fan of his own show and has endless amounts of energy for his fans. And can't spin a dreidel without dropping it apparently (though, you know, I didn't mind)