A Met Box Build

[barnacle]

Bit more progress...

Purists, don't shoot me! The cylinder is only a temporary fitting, until I find an appropriately sized fresnel. (It may well become permanent if I can't find one for reasonable money, though... j

How long do any of us in these sorts of projects keep hold of the concept of "reasonable" money?    (Says the man who all but stole his Fresnel for $20.)

If I'd known the final cost... I was off by 50% in my estimate.  Of course, that'd probably only been 25% if I'd been a bit more careful with the saw--and for that matter, the calculator and pencil...  

Seriously, though, if you don't find the Fresnel you're waiting for, the cylinder looks good too.  After all, there was a period of time where that's what the TARDIS had.

[domvar]

Someone should suggest to Mooncrest that they have a look at Matt's build and take a trip up to Crich.  I'm sure they would do very well out of it.

[galacticprobe]

Someone should suggest to Mooncrest that they have a look at Matt's build and take a trip up to Crich.

Or even suggest they contact Matt to make arrangements for a possible trip to his place. (They'd likely have a better time there than they would at Crich, trying to look like they were supposed to be doing another moulding of the lens. Matt managed to get one, but it doesn't mean the next guy would, and I think the last thing anyone wants is for Crich to put up a barrier around their Police Box to keep people out of arms' reach of it.)

Dino.

[domvar]

Crich are cool and also desperate for money, those trams don't restore themselves you know. 

Random trivia time one of the original Crich tramway museum volunteers was Brian Jones of the rolling stones who gv up his weekends in the 50's and early 60's to help build the museum traveling from cheltenham to derbyshire every Sunday to help out.

[fivefingeredstyre]

OK, so i've not forgotten my full sized TARDIS refurb, whilst i've been goofing off making models, honest...

Theres a little progress with the lamp...

I've stuck with my tried and tested method for making the flashing beacon. First off take a can of lager. Any 440ml make will do, I went for San Miguel because I find its quite light, refreshing and on offer at the local Co-Op...

Drink the contents and keep the can.



Then, cover the can in an LED tape...



and then fix to the inside of your lamp housing...



Next up,  I really need to finish the doors and windows, so next up is the phone panel door. I'm planning on installing an actual phone cupboard this time round, so given my meager woodworking skills, this should be a laugh...  

[galacticprobe]

This is brilliant, Steve! It looks like one of those tall bulbs in there. (You know the kind... it's cylindrical, incandescent, and in every way other than shape the same as those "balloon-shaped" bulbs.)

Quick question since I didn't see it mentioned when you posted about the lamp: where did you find that cylinder, and what are its dimensions?

Also, your woodworking skills aside, if you do half as decent of a job on the phone panel door as you've done with the lamp's base, then there should be nothing for anyone to laugh at. After all, the construction method is basically the same, only the frame for the phone panel is a little larger (but both are about 1-inch thick, according to what measurements I've seen posted in our References).

Dino.

[fivefingeredstyre]

OK...

If anyone has a particularly weak stomach they probably want to look away about now...

You all remember a few months back when everything looked like this:





Remember how pretty it looked? Well it's actually very, very bad. I'm talking properly Davros/Master/Missy evil to Police Boxes made of wood...

A couple of months back, when everything had thawed I had a quick maintenance inspection of my TARDIS.

Basically I found this...





All of the internal supporting infrastructure columns had rotted away in the cold and damp. The floorpan was buggered as well. In fact the only thing that was holding it upright was the outer cladding of the corner posts.

Not only that, but rot had set in to some of the outer cladding as well:





Well, I did say to look away if you were squeemish....

At this point I decided I needed a stiff drink or five. Or more.

Once I sobered up, I decided I would not be beaten by the elements and set about setting things straight.

(Cue the A-Team theme music...)















I have never used so much wet rot hardener and filler in my life!

By now it was mid-April and the stress was so much I had to bugger of to the Bahamas for atwo weeks. I'm sure you can understand why.

When I left the old girl was looking like this...

[fivefingeredstyre]

So when I got back I turned my attention to finishing my doors.



I've been searching for ages for some hammered or pebbled glass in the UK, but to no avail. In the end I got some shipped over from the US (thanks eBay)



It was bigger than what I needed so first off I made a mould of the full sized pane



Cast myself a resin version and cut it to size.I then made a number of moulds of the resized version and cast myself some clear polyurethane versions



Next up I installed them  in the door window frames I made before xmas



Whilst all that was going on I set about replacing the lamp and re-painting  



as well as rewiring:



All this took place over the last couple of weeks. Significant progress has been made since then, and all the windows and doors were refitted this weekend:







Oh, and this bit I'm particularly pleased with...



I'm still not finished yet, as I still have to paint the back face and the side nearest the furn tree (I'm going to need to cut the tree back before I can get to that though). All that should happen over the next few days...

I deliberately didn't post any updates before now, as I was genuinely worried that the box was completed screwed beyond all saving; However I've managed to make it solid once more.

I'm under no illusions how temporary this is though. Some of this has come about because of the way I built it originally. If I had my time over again there are a number of things I would do differently that would have prevented this from happening for a little while longer; however with the British climate this is always going to happen to a wooden box. Personally I'd say 7 years is about the life expectancy for this sort of thing.

Hopefully I've bought myself a couple more years though - which should be more than enough time to plan and build what's coming next...  

[russellsuthern]

Holy crap.....those pictures really made my heart freeze!!!!

Great job on the refurb, though... As you say, hopefully you have bought yourself a couple more years.


Bloody weather, eh....?


Russell

[Scarfwearer]

I'm very glad you managed to do such a good restoration. It's always been a handsome box, and good to see it looking healthy after its troubles.
The British weather is brutal for wood outside.
If you have any tips on how to protect an outdoor Tardis, I'm sure a lot of builders would be interested.

So I have to ask: six power sockets/outlets?

[fivefingeredstyre]

Thanks guys. Thing is, irrational,as it sounds, I'm really attached to this box. I used to build a lot of props and models when I was younger, and I lost the impetus when I got married and became a father, some 25+ years ago. The box was the first thing I built when I got back into this and had the time and space, and although I've built loads of stuff since then and learned loads of new techniques along the way, I really want to keep this one alive as long as I can.

So I have to ask: six power sockets/outlets?

its a common mistake people make. You can never have too many socket outlets.

One of the will be used for a frost heater, mind 

[Rassilons Rod]

Thing is, irrational,as it sounds, I'm really attached to this box.

Why would it sound irrational?  Its a great box

[Volpone]

Looks like you did a similar design to mine.  I'm shocked and at least a little surprised that the full-sized corner posts rotted that badly.  A little.  I've got a lot of similar rot problems.  I had some extra Hardibacker cement board laying around that replaced plywood in a couple spots and I'm hoping my ventilation will avert some of your rot issues.  Hoping but not expecting. 

As an aside, your problems illustrate the most counter-intuitive bit of outdoor TARDISes (at least to me):  You'd think the rot would happen at the top.  After all, rain comes from above. 

But it lands on the ground.  And the ground stays wet a lot longer than the air.  And the rain that hits the ground spatters up on the TARDIS.  Or runs down from the roof and the sides and pools.  So you actually wind up with as much (more?) bad rot on the bottom 12" as there are on the top 12".  Well thanks for the update.  And I like your repair pictures.  I shall file them away should I ever run into problems with my corner posts.  (And I should probably do an inspection, truth be told.) 

[fivefingeredstyre]

Exactly. One of the things I would do next time is left the base off the concrete by about 1/2" that would allow air to circulate underneath and stop a lot of the stagnation thats happened here.

I'd also cut ventilation grills into the floor pan which will pull air through from underneath the box and provide the base with an air change that will help keep it dry.

Just things you learn along the way I suppose.

[Volpone]

Hmm.  TARDIS used to be up on 4-8 bricks.  Now it's on a concrete slab.  I may have to stick shims under the corners.