Thanks Volpone. You're probably right. In totality, she's gonna be a heavy ship, but we do get annual hurricanes and she's in an open wind fetch, so four holes full of cement couldn't hurt.

Got the site eye-level today. The base blocks get perfectly levelled, in addition. Fun to see the blocks where they'll remain.

I got those two bent and striped screws out easily with a plumber's adjustable toothed wrench. Nothing a good sleep couldn't solve.

That's all for today m'boys and m'girls, hmmm. You can tell I'm feeling Hartnell today. Watched The Gunfighters the other day. Great musical narration and Dodo was a real star. Then back to Leela for a while, for no paricular reason.

I like Leela. This is looking good..... I have to ask what are those plants in the background to the right of that tank? They look like some kind of Tree Fern. It would appear that your ship has already landed in the Earths deep past....Leela would like it there!

Hey Andrew, the ferny looking plant is actually the overhanging tree foliage in my foreground. Those leaves are small. But in the distant area I do have a cabbage tree which looks like an alien tropical. Don't really know what kind of tree that created that illusion is. Not common so I'm trying to find out. But, yeah, NZ plants are pretty archaic looking. I'm a yank transplant here for 30 years now.

'Curiouser and curiouser' cried Alice. It has me very interested- what ever it may be! Yes, I know a little about the plants and animals of New Zealand, a veritable Time Capsule stranded away from the rest of the Planet. I look forward to your finding out whatever it is and to seeing more of your police box build! I am also curious to know,  considering the hurricanes you people get, are you going to do a concrete job on the box? I have often wondered why people who live in the tornado belt in the Americas do not build their houses from stone! ( Or even underground!)
  Many thanks,
    Andrew

.....I've just had another peep at you most recent picture, the one which has aroused my curiosity, and now I can indeed see that those leaves are just in front of the camera! Ive seen this before here in Cornwall, but at present my mind is a blank. ( Up late building a Box!)
  Andrew

Hi Andrew. Yes I'm going to anchor her down following hurricane/cyclone protocol recommended for a metal shed I put up last year. The four inner corners of the base frame will have heavy stakes screwed in which go down into augered holes which are filled with concrete. Plus, I'll angle bracket from each inner column face to the floor boards. Since Volpone mentioned having his lamp assembly affected, I'm working out further bracing for that inside the roof tiers since my plan simply calls for the base square sitting at the top of the four angled roof triangles. I've seen some designs to brace it better. Paid too much for the fresnel chimney to lose it.i look forward to a good storm once she's complete so I can sit inside and see how she repels water and wind.

I'm at the stage of wanting to get the floor and columns up, but I have all my wall ply sitting in the way of where I need to position the table saw, so I guess the next job will be to get the squares cut and the walls laminated so I can get them out of the way.at least I can screw the walls up quickly just after the easier base and column construction.

That sounds most secure! It will indeed be a treat to watch your box weathering a storm!- Lets hope that lamp stays put!

No progress due to weather and other matters calling but the cogs keep ticking in terms of NEW TOOLS! As my next job is getting the walls made, the plunge saw stops just short of corners, which then need to be finished by hand sawing. I've been watching wood joint videos and some guys use fine toothed cleaver-looking  saws for fine cutting. Found this one which looks like it will be perfect. Plus the routing will round the corner angles and this saw should finish them sharp and square.

Speaking of squares, the window holes have to be very truly squared so I got a large square to test the lines already drawn.

Cheap fix while I wait for free time.

Springtime is near and I have a nice sunny day. So I got my eight window back sheets cut. Bit of a time saver is stacking the three wall sheets and cutting them as one with the plunge saw. Worked well. Finished off the corners with the fine tooth saw posted above.
I used the precut window frame members to ascertain a good fit, basically not too tight.
 
No major disasters. Got the front sheets stacked on the sawhorses for the eight x three holes. By doing the exact same cut in all three, the angle routing can use a second sheet as a router bit bearing guide.

That will leave the front doors to do and the phone cabinet hole on the left door back when I cut the front one, using the stacking method again.

Really happy with the plunge saw.

Got a piece of 290x45 mm board for the lanp base, which is 260 mm squared.

Did more site levelling but I'll wait til the base and floor is in place for those photos.

Chuffed to be back in the game.

The back sheet window holes done.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Next time in town I'll pick up one of these pocket hole jigs for roof tier and column screwing from the inside angle. They go in at an angle and hide the screw. Didn't think NZ had them but found one at a small hardware shop.

Ok, another tool ordered. A drill guide. Since I'm setting up a woodshop to use beyond the TARDIS, I looked at getting a benchtop drill press. One limit to them is the size of the table determining the size of stock you can drill. My lamp assembly is 260mm diameter but many drill presses had less than 130 mm space between the center hole and the column to the back. The cheapest, good quality one was $320, a bit pricey.

The challenge is to get a perfect vertical set of holes through the acrylic flanged cover dome, the round wooden top plate, the 45 mm base block and the roof center square so that the four threaded rods to hold the fresnel between these members is tight and straight.

Online tips for hand-drilling a perfect vertical set of holes were iffy.

Then I found this stainless steel drill guide, available in metric or imperial and having a row of .5 mm precision bit choices. $59 NZD. Also good for drilling corners or dowels as there is a V-slot on the bottom.

Hoping this works well for my lamp assembly.

Cheaper than a drill press and not limited to stock size or position.

The tool is made by Big Gator in the USA.

That's a clever tool.  I've often wanted something like that and couldn't find anything.  Thanks for the details. 

Quote from: Oor Wullie on Aug 25, 2022, 04:16 amOk, another tool ordered. A drill guide. Since I'm setting up a woodshop to use beyond the TARDIS, I looked at getting a benchtop drill press. One limit to them is the size of the table determining the size of stock you can drill. My lamp assembly is 260mm diameter but many drill presses had less than 130 mm space between the center hole and the column to the back. The cheapest, good quality one was $320, a bit pricey.

The challenge is to get a perfect vertical set of holes through the acrylic flanged cover dome, the round wooden top plate, the 45 mm base block and the roof center square so that the four threaded rods to hold the fresnel between these members is tight and straight.

Online tips for hand-drilling a perfect vertical set of holes were iffy.

Then I found this stainless steel drill guide, available in metric or imperial and having a row of .5 mm precision bit choices. $59 NZD. Also good for drilling corners or dowels as there is a V-slot on the bottom.

Hoping this works well for my lamp assembly.

Cheaper than a drill press and not limited to stock size or position.

The tool is made by Big Gator in the USA.

That is bloody handy!

Feel like I'm getting somewhere. 32 squares cut and 9 to go on the doors and the inside cut for the phone cabinet.

No secrets here, one of the three wall sheets had one side of horizontal lines drawn wrong. The correct 112 mm spacing between squares on one side and 120 mm on the other, 12 being the link to the error.

Bad random luck saw this sheet on top of the pile of three walls, all cut at once, so the error transferred on all three.

Luckily I cut the vertical cuts first, not focusing on the irregular horizontals. Once i cut the first set of horizontals, the saw track exposed the issue as it span both sides, which didn't match.

I fixed my lines and got it all cut out by plunge track saw and my fine tooth saw for the corners. The error only produced 6 small overcuts which I can fill with outdoor wood filler. They will be gone once sanded and painted.

The moral is, never trust your past self, since the future self is smarter by experience.

Next step is cutting door squares and bevel routering the lot to a 22.5 degrees. I'll do some test runs on scrap first.