Hello.  I've spent the last couple of weeks thinking about and planning this.. now the Easter break has appeared and in the morning it will be time for some full-tilt 'Tardis' action.    The little one with his Police Box fascination has spurred me into action.. I've only fancied making one for.. well.. decades!

My initial idea was that this would be around a half-size, half-depth 'cabinet'.  Something to keep the kids' toys in.   The only place for it in the room would be next to the telly, but even at that scale it was going to encroach on my tv viewing from my favourite seating position!   So my wife suggested the guest bedroom.  Suddenly we have a lot more room to play with!   So after a couple more changes I've scaled it to 88.5%.  Sounds a strange percentage.. but this will hopefully make it be 2.4m tall, including the 'lamp' on top.  This gives a couple of inches of space between it an the ceiling.

I'm going for a Thomas Yardley-Jones Mk1 design as a basis, though I will vary slightly on a couple of details along the way.

The only way I can really make this - and especially for it to go in the house (something so big) is to make it a 'useful' piece of furniture.   And it has now jumped from being a cabinet for toy storage, up in size to a wardrobe.  

I'm also not going to make it blue (if I can be forgiven!) its going to be mainly polished solid oak, with oak veneered MDF for the 'usual' panels in the doors and the floor and back, to help keep costs down.   Oak goes up in price almost constantly.

Here are some of the bits which arrived yesterday, patiently waiting..



And here are some of the printouts with measurements converted to scale, and some notes too - (and the little fellow's Tardis Handbook and Type 40 Instruction Manual!)



Early start tomorrow, and hopefully more pics with some progress in the evening.

Cheers
Ian

Reading the thread title, I was going to say, "be a shame to use oak and then paint it all blue."  Great minds.  That said, I shudder to think the cost, even with veneer.  I planned to use pressure treated wood and balked at the cost of *that,* instead going with cheap twisty pine (that I was glad I was painting blue). 

I've always thought it would be nice to see a really well built oak TARDIS, not painted but varnished & left in It's natural colour.
I think that would look rather spiffy...

Good luck with your build.

Regards,

Russell

I've had a long day today.. and I'm bushed!

Was up just after 7 to start at 8.   Before I left the house I thought I'd measure the space where it is to go.. and it was looking a bit tight to the window, so I thought I would scale it down a tad before I began.

Luckily I had scanned in my notes once before, and photoshopped out the scaled dimensions, for when I altered it before.   So I had to work out the scaled sizes again before I could start cutting.   It is now going to be 84% of the original size.  This makes it about 60mm narrower than the previous scale (88.5%) about and 4" shorter.

Indeed - as Volphone says - the oak wasn't cheap.   If you want to know, the planks of 1 1/2" x 7" and 1" x 7" oak, plus 2 sheets of 7mm oak veneered MDF came to £576 including VAT.   Probably a good job I'm only making a Half-Tardis!

It is some very nice timber though - its solid, heavy and has a nice grain.  I'm thinking its not going to be something you'll move in a hurry once its assembled and in position on site!

Due to the cost, I didn't rush cutting it up.  Wanted to keep waste right down.   Here is Thomas surveying the cut up wood from standing on a box.   He's been asking when will it be ready!



I've cut up bits for the posts, door frames, base sides, top sign frame and some steps - then planed and thicknessed it ready for a good start tomorrow.



Hopefully tomorrow will bring some shape to it!

Quote from: Volpone on Apr 19, 2019, 03:57 am
Reading the thread title, I was going to say, "be a shame to use oak and then paint it all blue."  Great minds.  That said, I shudder to think the cost, even with veneer.  I planned to use pressure treated wood and balked at the cost of *that,* instead going with cheap twisty pine (that I was glad I was painting blue). 

With oak - you can get an electric wire brush to it.. and it rips out the softer grain, leaving a nice aged/weathered look.   Then you could water down some blue emulsion and give it a 'wash'.   Though not entirely sure how this would turn out.. and its not something I'm planning on doing with this!

Quote from: russellsuthern on Apr 19, 2019, 07:47 am
I've always thought it would be nice to see a really well built oak TARDIS, not painted but varnished & left in It's natural colour.
I think that would look rather spiffy...

Good luck with your build.

Regards,

Russell

Thank you!   I do like oak, and for years I've thought it would be nice to make a three foot high oak Tardis.   Never thought I'd be making something this big though.   6" oak corner posts should look good and solid.

Another long slog.  I usually like to do nothing on my bank holiday weekends!

Beginning making doors today.  First job was getting the angle around the panels correct.   I've read in a couple of places on here that the angle is 22 degrees.  But looking at the measurements on Tony Farrell's (fabulous) Mk1 plans (25mm deep panels and 7mm difference between front of the door legs and where the leg hits the panel).  This works out at 17 degrees.    If it was 9mm.. that would make 22 degrees.    Anyway.. our cutters for window sections are mostly 17 degrees, so it makes sense to use that.



Then a small rebate for the panels/windows.



The teak doors on a concrete Police Box would have had mortice and tenon joints.  But these doors won't be getting as much hammer as originals.  Plus screws are a lot better than they used to be, so I've just done simple joints to screw together.



Once glued up, little fellow happened to pop in to see if they work yet!




Probably have a go at posts tomorrow.

Cheers
Ian

That oak is beautiful.  I'd be tempted to do nothing but hand-rubbed boiled linseed oil for a finish. 

Thank you.  We've use linseed oil on exterior green oak projects.  But on this I'll be using Osmo Polyx Hardwax Oil (code 3032 - which is a satin finish for floors and furniture.)  If you've not heard of it, its a German product and its fab.  Its really thin and can be brushed on or wiped on, and you can obtain a finish as if its been sprayed.  I've used it on furniture quite a lot.   It can be used to touch up repairs too and it blends in.  You can also get exterior grades.

This morning I opened up the workshop at 8.15 and found a mouse sat staring at me!   It didnt move so I tried to poke it towards the door with a stick, but it just ran and hid in the no-man's land corner of mess.

I was going to start with posts today, but after spending all day on just doors yesterday, I thought I'd do a few smaller bits today.

I started with the edging for the base.  I used softwood to form the rebate for the floor piece (19mm oak veneered MDF). No one will ever see it, and I want to make sure I have enough timber for the roof.




Then I did the molding for the top sign box.




Then I made the last couple of bits for the 'three steps'.




Also finished the 'middle of the door laths'.  Two are just halves, with it being a half-Tardis.  The other creates the rebate for the front doors.




I did a bit with the posts.. then decided I'd had enough and left a bit earlier than the last couple of days.  I havent seen the kids or wife much this hol!

And as its Easter Sunday I left some chocolate on the mouse traps before I left!

Last day of the Easter hols on this and I worked all day on the corner posts.

I thought that I should also do the post top bits at the same time, so save on setting up the cutters on the spindle molder twice.   I remembered I had this off-cut of a 6" newel post from a huge staircase I did 5 or 6 years ago.   At that time I had made a 4" oak dice for the elder off-spring.  I thought I could do a 6" one too but didn't get round to it.  At that size though its more of a deadly weapon when thrown than a fun game!




The spindle molder doesnt have cutters to do the corner shape in one, so I did rebates first.  Also don't have the correct radius cutter, so used a larger one, and will hand plane down to the line later.




Then I glued the 2 sections of each leg up, and then took this pic of the doors and posts so I feel like I've actually managed something this long weekend!




I'm jiggered after spending most of 46 hours doing this over the weekend, after doing a usual 4 days at work.  Tomorrow is back to usual work, and I won't be doing anything beyond measuring up for a new job tomorrow in the evenings.    I may do Sat & Sun next weekend.. Though Saturday is normally 'day out with the family' day.   We'll see what happens!

Laters
Ian

PS.. keeping score.. Mice 0 - Mouse Trap 2.. !

Seriously.  I know I already said it, but that is some beautiful oak.  And you clearly know what you're doing.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

With the weather being windy and rainy, I decided I would swap days and play in the workshop today.  Tomorrow we'll go for a ride somewhere.

I began work on the roof.. which started the day looking like this..




Then I cut it into the various bits.




Next was planing it up and working out the angles to bisect the top levels of the roof.




Thomas popped in to ask if its nearly done and helped work out some details!




Also planed up bits for the first step above the sign box, and the infill bit for the back of the top of that box.

I glued some bits of the roof, then pushed the bits together to make it look like I've done something today!




Another full-tilt long day where I didn't get to put my feet up..



Well.. maybe once then!


Today a replacement lock cylinder appeared in the post too.  I bought a cheap new 'old stock' short night latch.  Its brass and I want brushed steel on the outside, so I found a blank one on ebay and ordered it.   Well.. the picture was of a blank one.  The one which arrived had the Spanish lock brand 'BASTA' stamped on it.   I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I'm not too bothered about having most of a swear word on our Tardis!  So I sent it back and found a reasonably priced 'Yale'.  I don't think you can go wrong with Yale!

My wife saw it and said, "Its not going to lock is it?  It doesn't need to."

I just gave her a special LOOK..


Tomorrow's ride is going to take in some feint TY-J ambiance!



Oh.. anyone know the angles for cutting the slopes of the roof?   And save me a bit of working out next weekend!

Have fun,
Ian

An update I shall call 'Tardis Cutaway'!

Back to building next weekend, but today, for inspiration, have been channeling where the Tardis once was, and recreating a scene..!

Quote from: kutan66 on Apr 28, 2019, 08:11 pm

Daddy, what am I doing?

Lovely build so far! Looks like its going to be a monster to move though!