I had a request

[Colonel_Klink]

Before Christmas I was happily building a letterbox, long overdue since the last one I built has deteriorated, when I was asked to build a TARDIS for my daughter's birthday. I hate unfinished projects, and yes I have a lot of them... Anywho the brief was for a TARDIS to be built before 28th of January.. this year!
So this is my build diary...

TARDIS Mk 1 - a 1/3 scale version to be used as a bedside cabinet.

I am a 3D modeler who also dabbles in woodwork, so after finding some plans of the fore mentioned TARDIS (here on this forum) I first made a 3D model of it in Blender, converting the  measurements from the plan as I went.









Next... A small building/object can be as complicated as it's larger brother

[Colonel_Klink]

2. Construction begins.

My version of the TARDIS is constructed from 6mm plywood salvaged from a large packing case, and several sticks of 2" x 3" framing timeber I had in my timber stack. My workshop is generally messy and has been used for storage the past 7 years due to my recovery from cancer and a heart stent... and that I have been a lazy sod as well. Still the intention is to get better organised when I don't have these pressing projects (letterbox and TARDIS).

The following pictures are the progress so far. The project was started 6 days ago and I only spend a few hours each day working amongst the dust and the noise.


I cut the corner posts to size first (this was a mistake as I found out later)


A makeshift jig for cutting the chamfers on the base pieces. A number of jigs were made including a mitre jig for cutting the corners of the base on a crosscut sled.


Jig set up with two nicely cut chamfers. I could have used the router but the saw bench makes less dust.


Test to ensure base pieces fit together


Test layout of one of the walls. All of the walls are from 6mm plywood.


Initial gluing of external frame pieces to  the wall backing panel using spacers to ensure everything fits.


Because my clamps don't reach more than a few inches I made a clamp to secure the frame pieces to the back board. I may make a couple more of these if I ever decide to make another TARDIS


Clamp at work... The PVA I use takes about 30 minutes to set so I usually go make a cup of coffee while I wait for each gluing sequence to dry.


A couple of the assembled walls. 3 of the panels extend past the frames so they slot into the base, corners and trim pieces.


The test fitting of window frame pieces.


Base glued up and tightly secured with a strap clamp. Internal blocks were glued in each corner to reinforce the setup. The slot for the walls has been routered into 3 of the base sides.


Test fit of a wall panel and a corner post.


Test fit of the pieces so far.  It was here when I discovered the corner posts were about 15mm to short... I have a couple of ideas to fix it,,, in the meantime I will sleep on it...