I tell you, finding an accurate Baker hat is more difficult than finding a unicorn..
Believe me, I know!
😮
Russell

It's a really good day to work but my reserves have been shot by mowing the lawns, giving the primary K9 a shave and a bath ( the pups have gone back to SPCA after three weeks of us growing them out. The two boys have found families but Missy has another two weeks before she can be spayed).

Funny, when I was putting in the concrete anchored posts we were mulling over their necessity. But we have the second seasonal cyclone (hurricane) coming from Sunday through Wednesday morning. So the ship's anchors are getting good use.

I have to re-pipe some stormwater spouting today in preparation. We have it filling a barrel now but the storm will outdo that tenfold.

Back to hats as I'm resting from the mowing, here is a nice Baker style with high crown. The brim varies in width between the front and the side however. $255 NZD. Still pricey, but the frontrunner. It's based on Indy Jones but it's very close to Baker's first hat.

When your box can't get to the Vortex, the Vortex comes to your box.

Crickey! Batten down the hatches!!!!

Dear Oor Wullie,
  As an aside to my rather flippant 'batten down the hatches' comment left here some days ago, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to yourself your family and all New Zealanders effected by Cyclone Gabrielle. It is truly a terrifying natural disaster which has over taken the North Island and I hope to goodness that you are all alright.
  My only hope is that your beautiful country and its people are able to recover and recover soon.

  All the very best
   Andrew

Cheers Andrew, the worst is over. From a home perspective, we came out unscathed other than 30 hours without power, 12 without cell phone or internet, a few broken tree branches and that's it. The TARDIS held up well and I only had to re-rope the tarp once. Bit damp but it'll dry.
But we were in direct line with the storm for three days, even had the eye come over.


The North Island took a big hit with major damage to power lines and roading. Big slips, trees and lines down, flooding and under road wash outs. To get to Auckland at the moment means some major detours as the main motorway is closed at multiple points. Livestock and crop loss is a killer for near future food supply and it's price when it stabilies.

And then there is loss of life down in Napier and Hastings in the Hawke's Bay. People swept away in flash floods. Even rescue workers have died. We had another big rain event only two weeks ago so, between the two, many lost their homes and possessions.

Survivor guilt a bit. We're OK as well as my kids in Auckland.

Catching up on chores and clean up, including getting the woodshop set up again. Back to it.

Thank goodness you and your family are alright. Thanks for the update there too. Tragic about the loss of lives and homes and livestock etc. Terrible. I hope everyone will manage to clear it all up and normal life can resume soon.
  All the very best
   Andrew

P.S. Glad that your Box stood up to it! Indestructible!

Back onto the TARDIS after a couple of wet weeks in the way. Today I reactivated the window build - drilling, gluing, screwing and puttying the mullions and muntins securely to the frames. Sanding and painting to go before the glazing.

Also glued up the tier 1 roof rise. Handy to have a big builder's square to get it, um, square.

A handy tip. If you are using a drill bit which is too small for your drill chuck  to grab, find a spent phone charge cord, cut around the plastic sheath to the wire and pull a sheath tube off with pliers. The drill bit fits inside and the drill will be happy to grab hold.

Glad to see you are back at the box. All is well with the world!!
  All the best
  Andrew

Got the bandsaw cutting straight after a bit of cussing. The link below is the best advice I've found.

Dollar bill width spacing between the side guides and the blade, the back guide 1/8 to 1/4 inch off the back of the blade or else the push of the wood could contact it, setting the blade wandering.

And the blade dead centre on the wheel tyre.If the blade wanders right, it's riding the tyre too far back, opposite for a left wander, too far forward. This might be the opposite to what the guy in the link says but you can still go for a straight cut by experimenting with the blade position.

The saw I bought is tinny and shakily built. It almost went back to the store, mainly because the safety switch which gets pressed when the door is secured wasn't reliable. Until I realised the lower door also has a switch. Once you hear the click, you're going.

So the 16 squares on the back of the TARDIS sign boxes can finally get cut!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdrkmx6ehI

Trip to town today to food shop. Side trips got me 4L more of TARDIS Blue paint, semigloss this time for the more rain prone parts.

I also got some expanding weather stripping for any gaps between the columns and tier 1 of the roof. It expands up to 25 mm but stops once it fills the gap.

And my signmaker finally came through with my aluminium phone cabinet and St John signs. These designs are from the early days of the Met boxes, including the size of the St John circle. They fit really well.

Oh yeah, and the groceries.

My molecules are a bit loose after a morning on the sanders. I'd cut out the rear squares from the sign box plates yesterday, on the bandsaw. I then glued and clamped two butt ends onto each bottom plate, the slots for the signs to drop into all lined up.

Some of the butts and plate extensions which sit over the columns had a bit of overlap so I used the belt sander to make them flush. Worked well.

Then I started sanding the wood putty down on the window frames with a vibrating corner sander. That's when I started shaking apart. Not hard work but vibrating tools leave you feeling you've used them. I'll finish the window sanding tomorrow.

Then I'll prime the windows and the sign frame part of the sign boxes. I don't want to jump ahead on painting the box parts fully until they are fully joined with a light sanding.

Got the sign box wood assembled today and sanded, prepped for priming and painting of the sign surrounds. The bottom plates are glued to the butt ends but the top plate is only temporarily screwed in place. The internal boxing is cut and sanded and will go in place when the signs do. Each box was test fit to the TARDIS and are just right. I'd like to have these in place on the box by the end of the week.

The painting is delayed by a rainy day today so I'm catching up by gluing in the internal side boxing. These side bits pass the columns and make an open box to the inside of the TARDIS to allow light to pass to the outside through the signage plates. Plus handy shelves for the odd yoyo, bag of jelly babies or a spare dimensional stabiliser.

Stupid, stupid primer painting. Boring as sin, but a means to an end. Sign boxes, roof tier 1, door baffles and phone cabinet shelf primed.