CondorG2's Tardis build

[condorg2]

Hello, everyone!  I'm building a full size Tardis to stand outside in my front yard.  After a few delays, I finally got started on my Tardis the weekend before last.  Would you believe that in a week I still haven't completed the base?  After reading some of the other threads on this site, I got all worried about rain getting into my Tardis, so I decided to put a grate in the floor so that water could run out.  This lead me to the bright idea of having the floor slope down toward the grate to make the water flow out, and this is what has taken me so long on the base.  I made the floor out of concentric squares cut at a slight angle (see photos - if I can get them to work properly).  The outside square is five inches wide and one inch thick.  It is flat.  This is what the posts and the walls will rest on.  The pieces of wood making up the sloping floor are 3 inches wide (the maximum height of my table saw blade).  The floor slopes down from one inch to 1/4 inch - the height of the grate (which is actually the cover for an air conditioner intake).

The first photos show the outside ring of 1 inch thick wood being attached to a 1/2 inch piece of plywood.  I put these on first so that I could screw them in from the bottom (to keep the screws from showing).  Then I attached two 3/4 inch pieces of plywood under this.  All added together, this makes the base 3 inches tall on the outside.  It also makes the base solid and VERY heavy (I already mashed my finger with it once).  After these were all stuck together with "Liquid Nails" and screws, I cut approximately a 10 inch square hole in the middle for the grate to go over.  By the time I finished cutting a hole through 2 solid inches of wood, my jigsaw had smoke pouring out of it, and now it won't work at all.  Luckily, they're not too expensive.

I've got a friend who has a welding shop, so he's got all kinds of tools.  He brought over a grinder which he used to smooth out the edges of the hole and - more importantly - the edges around the base where the pieces of plywood came together.  One or two sides were a little uneven.

This past weekend, I attached the sloping pieces of wood to produce the result you see here.  Now all I have to do is attach beveled pieces around the edge of the base, and I've got quite a bit of wood puttying to do.  There's quite a few little gaps in the floor where the some of the sloping pieces didn't quite meet up properly.  Still, for someone with very little woodworking experiece, I think it came out pretty well.

Okay, let's see if I can get these photos to work so that you can see what I'm talking about...


Attaching the one-inch ring.  As Milburn Drysdale told Jane Hathaway, "Pucker up and clamp it!", though I don't think this is what he had in mind.  (any Beverly Hillbillies fans out there?)


The outside ring is done.


Here's all the pieces of plywood stuck together with the hole cut in the middle.  Nice smooth edges.  This thing is HEAVY!



This is my progress so far.  The grate in the middle isn't attached yet.  It's just there to show how it will look in the end.  Not too shabby for a beginner (if I do say so myself).

[the_temporal_mechanic]

Anything to report fellow North Carolinian?

[atomicgraph]

looks like a solid build you got there. they get heavy real fast. good luck with every thing, and i'm looking forward to the finished product.

[condorg2]

Thanks atomicgraph!  I was hoping to get a lot done over the four-day weekend, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way.  I got all my puttying and sanding done.  Then yesterday I started working on the beveled edge around the base, and I managed to saw my thumb in the process.  OUCH!  That put a quick stop to my work yesterday.

[atomicgraph]

yikes!!! gotta watch those power tools. the table saw is the tool that made me the most nervous but i hear the band saw is the one accountable for most injuries.

[condorg2]

Yeah, I guess I wasn't nervous enough around the table saw.  I'm sure that will change from now on.  That's what I get for removing the safety guard.  It was getting in the way (of my thumb apparently).  That's put a damper on my building progress, at least for a few days.  I want to give my thumb a few days to heal before getting back to work.  This is really frustrating since I'm already running behind in my build.  I'm ready to get to work on the corner posts & walls!

[chrisrowand]

Sorry to hear about your accident Condorg 2 and I wish your  thumb a speedy recovery.

I'm going to patronise everyone here and tell them to all be careful when using any powertools.
Remember to use circuit breakers,  safety goggles, etc and for God's sake watch your fingers.
Unlike the Doctor, you are only given one pair of hands to last a lifetime.
No piece of wood is worth risking losing a fightin hand!!

If you think cutting wood is dangerous (and it is) just wait until you ready to assemble the big beast.
There you are perched at the top of a step ladder, screwing in signposts, whilst dangling precariously with the other hand, the whole 10 feet box wobbling until you have put in enough screws to secure it safely, imagining  that the last thing you will ever see is a TARDIS wall, crashing in on your head.
Yes its a dangerous business making a TARDIS.

[condorg2]

Thanks for the advice, Chris.  I've been good about wearing goggles and even a dust filter to keep from breathing in all the sawdust.  I thought that I was being careful with my fingers before, but after this I'll definitely be more careful.  I hadn't used the table saw in a few days, and also I guess I got in a bit of a hurry to get my base done.  I'll keep your words in mind whenever I finally get around to putting up the walls.

[condorg2]

Hello, everyone.  Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  In case you were wondering, I haven't really gotten any more work done.  I did get the beveled edges on my base, but I've got quite a bit of puttying to do.  Unfortunately, the puttying that I've already done has started cracking, so I've ordered some higher quality putty.  I started working on my corner posts, but it seems that my wood is all warped, and I got really frustrated with them.  I've decided to go and get more wood for them, but at this point it's gotten too cold to really get any work done, so everything's pretty much on hold until it starts to warm up.

Chris (Condorg2)

[DoctorWho8]

There are some remedies to un-warping wood.  I think if you look at Colin's build (Sorvan), he talks of what he did to straighten wood for his posts.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[condorg2]

Thanks!  I'll take a look.  I got so frustrated when I started putting my posts together that I just dropped everything.  None of the pieces were fitting together properly.  The final straw was when a piece was warped from side to side (like it had a curve).  Part of that may have been the way I cut it.  It's a bit tricky maneuvering those long pieces of wood around by yourself.  I'm getting a friend to help next time.