Coming together nicely!!

Regards,

Russell Suthern

Sunny day, so off to town for my window framing, roof tier and retaining wall wood, and a can of Resene equivalent paint which promises to match BBC approved Pantone TARDIS blue. Once I get cutting, it will all go together rapidly. 25mm fence paling is the only dimension I can find to rip down and sand into the center wall and door strips. I also freaked last night, finding that the plan's call for 140x35 mm wood for the roof tiers does not exist as a dimension in NZ. Seems Britain, the US, Aussie and Kiwi standard dimensions differ! But I kept looking and found 138x 32 smooth decking boards will work just fine and it's in stock in our otherwise wood shortage at the moment. Just some wood for the top and bottom of the lamp to find and I've got all my materials. 

I wrote to my acrylic supplier Weprofab in China to order 8 full sheets of hammered glass acrylic for the windows. Looks perfect. I gave up trying to see if they'll insert blue lucite in pane 5 since most show TARDISes I like are the early ones from Hartnell to Tom Baker and they tend to have what looks like the same dirtied hammered glass look in all panes. This way I can pop them in and be done. I'm going to rip a 12x12 mm corner into 24x24 mm stock for the frames to make an L shape. Then drop-sawing notches to take the 12x12 mullions and muntins. This leaves a 12x12 inside lip on the frames to set the acrylic into. I'm cutting my inner ply window holes 12 mm wider on all sides than the outside hole so that 12 mm can be seated and the remaining 12 mm of the 24 will be outwardly exposed window frame. Lots of small joinery to  do but you get the idea.

I've had a week off due to a sprained wrist while flipping the compost pile, not even TARDIS related.

But I did get my window framing started.

On the research front, I'm readying to do the heavy cutting and have read all reviews and watched all youtube vids on my new B&D table saw. Kickback is real people, wood flying back at you at 100 mph if it gets pinched between the blade and the fence, especially small stock like the window frames which I need to cut square rabbet joints along lengthwise. So, short message is do your research, know your tool in and out and stay uninjured. I got some great advice from a nine fingered staffer at the hardware store.

The other search has been for the elusive window acrylic. I've given up trying to source from China and India as they are not now replying. Found a new place in Eugene, Oregon which has a nice range of textures Including hammered, called Divot, which I'm after, plus some other cool ones which could be nice for console builders. Website is https://www.novadisplay.com/design-customization/materials-and-finishes/patterned-and-textured-acrylic/. I'll show the nice textures in photos here. No pricing yet.

Those images remind me of a lot of the old early sets.  The BBC must've had a line on formed plastic shapes and they made good use of them in countless space stations, alien worlds, etc. 

Hahaha, forget those acrylic window panels. The quote on a set of 8 panes came in at USD$ 2000! They only sell by the full sheet, so I'd be paying for a plywood sized purchase even though they'd cut it.

Ouch!

Just as well.  It would've been maddening if the price was a bargain and then you found out what the shipping was going to be.  Because I bet it would've been an arm and a leg. 

More window pondering. I sourced either No1 or No 2 hammered glass at 3mm thickness. Around $300 NZD but I want it. So now I'm reading up on glazing.

As my rebates to sit the panes in are on the inside, it's east to tap the glazing pins in and putty it up and paint the putty.

But usually the putty is on the outside, which creates questions of if I need to further putty and paint around each of the six pane exposures where the frame, mullions and muntins cross outside.

The other question is does the textured side go inside or out. My design sense says out. If this makes it dirty on the outside, no worry, as a TARDIS SHOULD LOOK GRUNTY. But how does the hammered texture take putty? I guess I'll give it a go. Putty inside and out. Should be a fun learning curve.

Some tips: order the panes 1/8 inch or 3 mm less for each dimension to not have too snug a fit. Put a small bead of putty down before laying the pane in. Linseed putty has less shrinkage. When you prime and paint the putty, leave 1/16 inch paint on the glass. This should be a real challenge on the hammered side.

Building a TARDIS MAKES YOU A TRUE JACK OR JILL OF ALL TRADES.

Finally got some M6 stainless nyloc nuts for the threaded rod holding the lamp construction together. I also went for nylon wingnuts for the cap fitting so I can service my solar light if it ever dies. Maybe I should mount it inside and use a mirror on the inside of the cap. Probably better.

Had to buy a 600 x 1200 mm sheet of 18 mm H3.2 ply just to cut out a cap circle for the lamp.

Raining hard and recovering from covid booster #2 which has hit me worse than the first three shots. Resume work when the storm passes.

Thought I'd show you Time People my choice in glass across all panes. Bit of afterthought tells me to have the flat side outside in order to get the putty and paint watertight in the six small frames. Inside putty doesn't need to be as flash on the textured side full frame.

Got my glass, putty and glazing points. Here's a simple youtube of how to get the points into the rebate of the frame once the pane is in place:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rCz0T9FBDIA

So now I can focus on getting my windows built. The mm precision of the glass cut size will determine my rebate width to take the glass. Then my frames will determine my square cuts into the inside ply rebate which should accept 12 mm of seating and 12 mm of outside exposed frame. Getting the corners square on the frames and wall cuts are essential.

I got back to digging out my placement site, nestled among the veg gardens, a compromise with my significant other. Less visibility from our street but that might be a good thing as crime is on the rise as covid and Putin have their economic effect. I'll see her from my kitchen and work desk and she'll have a backdrop of our bushed valley below.

I'm doing retaining walls of varying height to suit the hill slopes. One more day's digging and levelling and I'm ready to lay the foundation paving blocks to sit the base on, high and dry.

The progress on the placement site.

Been raining solid, so back to research. I think the only components I'm missing are the door and phone cabinet handles, the phone caninet hinges and the lock set. Things so simple, but not.

Focused on handles which are at my big box store. I see from many photos that the phone-cabinet handle is around one third the height of it's door and the door handle just under half the height of it's adjacent inset square. My height is 330 mm plus a few mm each direction for the chamfering. That gives me a target set of within same brand handles at 110 and 165 mm. I found some Zenith polished chrome ones at 115 and 150, in the traditional tardis style, but the door one has three screws each end where most tardis photos show 2, either horizontal or vertical set. 3 will be strong, but a slight deviation.

The other type I won't get are Sylvan Bilston in pewter. I saw these in the shop and liked the steampunk spiralling in the handle centres. If Idris had a choice, she'd flash out a bit. Def not traditional, but so right. They come in 160 mm (closer than the 150) and 128mm (13 mm over the 115).

Photos of both sets below.

My next research is the square cuts for the phone cabinet door. I think this square is not champfered, like the window holes and door blanks are. Most photos show a tight fit to the door. Plus the hinge needs that right angle. But I see that the vertical visual line of the champfered edges must match the line of the cabinet door to look right. So I've worked out the 22.5 degree router cut to add 4.5 mm to each side of the cabinet hole. Might cut that last after routering at least one of the other holes to prove my model drawing. The plan I'm using doesn't have a working phone cabinet.

My honey is away three days later this week, so hope to get some cutting done. She wants to film each step. I want to focus on that saw blade and my 10 digits.

Bit of a nice day, so I cut my window frame lengths and jointed the mullions and muntins. Fairly happy except the lock nut on my drop saw depth guide vibrates loose so the cut on the mullions was a few mm deeper than I wanted. So take note to calibrate often. Won't matter, since they will hide it at the glued joint and both will be further jointed into the frames.

Next window step is to rabbet the glass insets on the frames, then get their corners cut to 45 degrees and the joints to take the mullions and muntins cut.

Then the gluing and painting and finally the glazing.

Back to the retaining walls at the placement site.

I know it doesn't look like big progress, but I'm almost done with the landing site, retaining walls backfilled with gravel and dirt, pegs in and screwed to boards  and waste earth removed. One more day of fine scale levelling and tamping and I'm good to get my base blocks in place, defining the footprint snd scale.

Ordered a Yale nightlatch with barrel and it should arrive in a couple of days. $35 NZD. Did a hardware trip and got the cabinet hinges, the two handles, weather stripping for the hinge side of the doors and some magnet catches for the phone cabinet and the base of the two doors. Plus some slidebolts for the top and bottom of the left door.

Next up is the base and floor, to be cemented via stakes off the inside of the frame to keep her safe in the freak winds.

You didn't ask--and I don't know anything about the wind in New Zealand--but as someone who's had similar worries, not only are police boxes larger than you'd think, they're also heavier. When I built my TARDIS I was worried that someone might steal it.  Then, as I was lugging the sides out to the assembly location I was thinking "nope, this thing isn't going anywhere," and that was before it even had a roof.  I did have my lamp glass blow off one time.  Luckily it didn't break and I've since re-engineered the lamp assembly.  I hope it wasn't rude for me to mention this and if you've already got it planned, I'm not trying to talk you out of it.  But if it winds up being problematic, you can probably get away with it not being anchored to its foundation.