1929 Trench build Waiuku NZ

[Volpone]

I wish you'd done your 'glassing before I started mine. As you describe the steps you took I'm thinking "Oooh, that would've made things so much easier and the results so much better." I plan to eventually clad the entire exterior in 'glass--as time and money permit--and I shall definitely be stealing some ideas from here.

 

[Oor Wullie]

I forgot to say thanks to Shig for his livestream of fibreglassing into a wall mould. Watching that work progress for over an hour gave me a pretty good notion of how I’d do it.

I watched other Youtube videos and gained technical insight. But I kept hearing these pros say things like “Fibreglassing is more of an art than a science” and “The best way to overcome not knowing what you’re doing is to do it”. True words.

I trimmed the loose edges with a razor knife/box cutter. Then got the PPE back on (mask, goggles, gloves, overalls) and sanded down the flat areas as well as giving the cut edges a sanding. The shop vac fits onto the dust port of the sander to reduce dust.

No matter how much you protect yourself, you end up itchy. Nasty stuff. I washed my sanding clothes separate from other clothes. Gave the shop a vacuum with the shop vac. Once I tidy up, I’ll use a leaf blower out the garage door.

 

[Oor Wullie]

I wish you'd done your 'glassing before I started mine. As you describe the steps you took I'm thinking "Oooh, that would've made things so much easier and the results so much better." I plan to eventually clad the entire exterior in 'glass--as time and money permit--and I shall definitely be stealing some ideas from here.

Epoxy resin will not adhere to painted surfaces, so glassing an existing build might be near impossible. I would have glassed my lower roof tiers but I’d already painted them.

 

[Oor Wullie]

Quick mental note. It’s been raining, this early austral autumn, after a drought of a summer. This means the air is very humid. The day I did the fibreglassing, I’d picked due to low humidity, since resin hates water, and wood acquires water from humid air.

This got me thinking about the inside of the pyramid still being raw plywood. Still a water wick. I was going to paint it white like the rest of the inside of the box. But my paint is water based. So a no-no in terms of the resin on the outside.

So I googled it and found the opposite side should also be resined, but without the fibreglass. This seals the construct from water and humidity.

The added bonus for me will be seepage by the resin into the cracks, which is essentially a good glue, as I hadn’t glued my triangles together for a few reasons. Future repairs and poor initial fit becoming irreversible. But now, the idea of gluing the gaps post-construct is appealing.

For those doing future resin work, I would advise sealing the edges of the wood with resin prior to construction. Since this is another place water can get in. I hadn’t thought of it myself.

It’s bucketing today, so on the to-do list. I’ll flip the roof upside down into a large square cardboard box as a work stand, so I can resin the inside. To paint it afterwards requires scuff sanding which I think I’ll give a miss.

Since my lamp has four long threaded rods protruding into the box, like in a real Met box which used them as a hanger for a light bulb plate, I might do a decorative drop ceiling and light placement, occluding the view of the resined plywood.


Two coats of resin on the inside

 

[Oor Wullie]

Righto, the roof is painted, moved to the barn opposite the TARDIS site and ready to roll.
But I notice that the spacing of the columns and walls and sign boxes could be tighter. Last time I built it in Tutukaka, I forgave little errors, but they end up producing problems down the line.

So my next step is to get the width of the three-stepped trim at the top of the walls and the sign box inset boxing the exact same width, 1025 mm. This makes the surround of the wall squares all equal to 94 mm.

I used the drop saw to get the four sign boxes equal and will finish these cuts with a hand saw.

The roof should be 1280 mm square, yet it’s 1072 mm square. Don’t ask me why. But I’ll respace the column feet at 1280 mm and use that 4 mm gap all around as a roof ease-of fit bonus. I can pack it out and then cover the gap with the trim that sits atop the columns.

Anywho, almost ready to get the thing up again once she’s tightened up a tad. Can’t wait.

Roof ready


Wall step width


Sign box width = wall step width


New member of the TARDIS crew

 

[Oor Wullie]

I am most certainly on Logopolis, with all the intensive measuring, trimming and planning I’m doing. The Cloister Bell was sounding.

I’ve been trying to make this second build of this box both tighter and squarer. Last time my square roof encountered a diamond of columns and walls.

So this time, I’m employing a couple of square frames to temporarily attach high and low. This will let me get the walls on to take the place of the lower square. The sign boxes will replace the upper square and the roof should go up easily.

I can think of nothing worse than lugging the roof up and into place to find it won’t fit.

Part of my issues stem from the plan I’m following. It has a wider roof than the plan allows for wall profile. Plus my own small minor dimensional differences from the plan. Wood, glue and screws moving by mms.

Anyway, I’m confident that these frames will make life dandy. I’m abandoning the tri-corner brackets which hold the columns in place and substituting some heavy duty angle brackets screwed through the walls into the columns and then to the floor. I think we all muck around with the column/pillar placement first, instead of focusing on a good fit of all parts with anchoring coming last.

It’s a wet Autumn in Kiwiland, after a dry summer. I want this ship watertight by winter.

 

[Oor Wullie]

All hail the square! The square must be followed. There is no reason for doing something other than how it adheres to the square.

Yes, using that square to brace the columns to receive the walls and sign boxes has resulted in the roof going up just as planned, and just as squared.

I rested an extension ladder onto the front sign box, moving blankets protecting the paint job and covering the ladder track. The end of one length of ladder ended above the next length to the roof, so there was a step to rest the roof on.

The remainder of the rise was around 300 mm beyond the upper end of the roof, so my companion Susan (not my grandaughter, my wife) and I carefully pushed the roof until the front end went over the end of the ladder.

Then she held it steady as I went up the stepladder inside to pull the roof onto the tops of the sign-boxes. At half way, I had a fulcrum to allow her to pull the extension ladder out.

From there, I pulled, then pushed it into place and it fell into the inside the lip of the four columns, square meets square. Did I mention how making a 2x3” framing square to brace the space changes the world of TARDIS roofing. Best idea yet.

The whole process of using a ladder track takes most of the weight out of your hands. Actually fairly easy. I had sunk a couple of stakes at the feet of the ladder to prevent movement.

Big rain and wind the next few days here in NZ. So I’ll get four angle brackets from walls to floor and four more from column to roof, just in case the wind gets wild.

Feet up at the moment. Three big days of building and feeling tired but chuffed with the roof after two years of building, heart surgery in the middle. At last, a lid!

The square frame


The ladder and blanket roof track with K-9 attending


Roofed at last


Roof sitting on sign-boxes and inside columns


Roof edge on sign box

 

[Oor Wullie]

After the roof, the next milestone is getting the lamp up in place.

Safety first, it took me some ladder willies using the A frame configuration to decide upon the opened, extended straight step ladder resting on a blanket on the sign box. Working up at ten feet and considering both broken bones and a broken lamp which had so much work put into it means you don’t go up unless you are 100% sure of coming down the right way.

Even Pipsy the Meep thinks so. She loves leaping into space but gravity is not always kind.

The threaded rods will support a shelf for the lamp fitting.

And I can recommend this self-adhesive plastic wrap. The product is made for sticking to carpeting when you are painting a wall, but it seems to be staying up nicely over the window gaps.

 

[Oor Wullie]

Probably more a record for me than for you. In the last week, I straightened the square of the roof to the square of the columns. My roof is a little smaller than the space it sits in, atop the sign boxes.

I wanted the minor gap to be equal on all sides so that the sloped cover-plate that I’m cutting is parallel to both the roof side and the outside top edge of the sign boxes. Comprende, mi amigos y amigas?

Then I rescrewed the angle brackets that hold the roof to the columns in case of tornado!

Since this rebuild is more level than it was up in Tutukaka, I’ve gained a bit of column above the signbox top to recieve the roof. Good.

But that has also lowered the wall tops just a bit. So the front three- stepped crosspiece above the doors was 5mm too much for the doors to close. I either had to drop the doors down - a major mission, or table saw off that 5 mm from the crosspiece. I chose the latter, of course, hoping I hadn’t forgotten an internal screw which was going to send shrapnel into my face at high velocity. I survived but I did see the odd spark from something! I wore my full visor (Iron Man, I call it) that I ususlly only wear for chain-sawing.

The new crosspiece dimension fit like a charm. A nice tight gap to the top of the doors. I do want to reposition one door-jam to get the doors fitting tighter together.

I’ve fashioned the trim pieces for atop the columns and against the roof edge. This closes that gap I mentioned to the rain. I put some foam rod and putty into the gap before attaching the trim to the column by brad gun.

I painted the base outer edges where that unsightly white sealant was in prior photos.

I’ve marked up the angled plates for the sign box tops to cut the squares out to fit around the columns. The plate will further seal the gaps at the sides of the sign boxes and the angle will shed water off the top of the sign boxes. I wonder if the concrete call boxes had an angle here. It’s certainly a rain trap otherwise.

I dragged out the band saw I bought two years ago before my heart surgery and it sucks. Won’t start since the hatch won’t lock. I’m outside warrantee but called the stockist snd they’re willing to have a look at it. This saw would have made cutting the squares out a snap. I may have to jigsaw them or, gasp, handsaw.

Finally I put some vinyl wingnuts up the threaded rods to hold the lamp to the roof. A lot of turny turny.

Doesn’t look like progress but it is.

The column trim


The foam gap-filler rods (noodles)


Gap-filler rods in place, followed by putty gap filler


The above door stepped cross-piece in place


The base edge repainted. Another angled rain plate will go on the outer floor, just like on the sign-boxes


The sign box sloped rain plates marked up for cutting

 

[Oor Wullie]

The upper structure is waterproof. I cut and painted the angled moulding plates and mounted them up.

I attached them to the top of the sign boxes using the brad gun, quickly becoming a go-to tool. The paint has some adhesive quality so no other glue.

Any gaps between the plate and the roof edge or the column surrounds got a bead of silicon.

I’ve never been great at caulking and I’m still not. I had hopes after watching some Youtube caulking vids. The secret seemed to be that silicon won’t stick to soapy water, so a spray of just that on the caulking tool or even my rubber gloved hand certainly didn’t stick.

But my choice of clear, paintable silicon began to have a skin in seconds, so that soapy tool didn’t smooth the bead out as much as it dragged it into place.

So a bit of a hack job, but a good seal of the gaps. I’ll paint it tomorrow. You don’t see it from ground level so I’m all good with waterproof winning over beauty.

I guess there are slower drying silicons that can be shaped for longer. This stuff can be used on wet or greasy surfaces, so it’s pretty rugged.

Selley’s All Clear silicon



Ground level view



Mr Blobby



The floor edge angled plates are next

 

[Oor Wullie]

As promised, I’ve dived into the floor trim, the bit of floor from the outside of the walls to the edge of the base angled edge line. So water is shed down the moulding and then off the base.

A few tricks to make it better and easier than my solution when the box was half-complete in Tutukaka.

The first is a contour gauge/profile tool. The teeth on the gauge slide parallel to each other, so if you push it into the fluted round-over corner of the column, you get a copy of the profile to transfer to your wood.

Last time, the centre mullion of the wall contacted the floor and had to be profiled onto the wood. This time, I cut the thickness of the moulding out of the bottom of the mullion so that rain off the wall hits the top of the moulding instead of a puttied cut out.

Once the profiles were copied on the four pieces of moulding, I cut the square part out with a bandsaw, but a jigsaw would have worked as well.

For the round parts of the cut-out, I chose a hole saw that looked to be the right radius. I drilled the hole saw into piece of scrap wood so I could then use the drill hole as a steady axis and line up the round arc for the cut out to the scribed circle.

I tried the drill press but it’s too hard to get a good alignment under the safety shield. I also tried to simple hold the moulding for hole-sawing, but things were moving around.

So I opted to clamp the moulding onto the circle guide wood, using a thin top piece of scrap to keep the clamp from marking the paint job. The whole assembly was clamp to the work bench. I grabbed a lamp from the house since the garage gets dark once the sun passes the door. So I call this solution THE CLAMP AND THE LAMP. I used a hand drill with the hole saw bit and it worked well.

I’ve primed and painted the exposed cuts and will mount the plates tomorrow morning. More of that blobby silicon for any gaps and the brad gun like on the sign box plates. Once painted, the messy sealant is less visible.

I was up at 5:30 AM since my wife started a new job today with an hour and a half drive each way. So I’m sleep deprived. I’m happy the scrolling fit well enough. Rain in two days, so I’ll be keen to see if she leaks anywhere.

The profile gauge in action



And the transferred profiles

Left, Back and Right



And the Front profile to accomodate the quarter round trim over the door hinges


Some of the fits







The clamp and lamp solution (I just really liked getting it done easier)

 

[Oor Wullie]

Quick one, the outer floor plates are on. I laid a bead of silicon along the outer edge to stop capillary action from sucking water under the moulding. Then I brad gunned the pieces in place. Followed by a line of silicon at the wall to moulding line and around the column trim. Haven’t painted it yet as rain came early.




Aha, I never knew I could add multiple photos in the same upload. Cool.

I had some water inside, since the doors need further work. I don’t like having too much extra bits on her, but I’d bought a rubber weather seal at the start, two years ago and will try it out. Sheds water a couple of cms away from the door bottom.

 

[Oor Wullie]

Another thinky thinky post. The doors are randomly further apart that they were on first build. So I consulted the plan, and it did not specify the gap size. Yet if you add all the door dimensions and subtract that number from the total gap, you get 10 mm. That might include the two hinge gaps and not leave much between the doors. I get 13 mm between the doors and last time I had 10 mm. I’d bought some square soft rubber to fit there.

This time, I’ve cut a custom infill of wood and painted it. Not yet attached.

On top of this, the moulding pieces I put on the floor edges looked so good, I put one in the door gap!

The doors close to hit the inside of this sill. That means rain can still go in. The rubber draft seals I had and showed in the last post are inadequate for heavy rainproofing. I won’t go into detail since I won’t use them.

So I spent time looking at other weather strips. The coolest is a spring loaded strip which pops up when the doors are open and closes down onto the sill as you close the door.

The way it closes is a knob on the door sill on the opening side, which pushes the strip down. Youtube vid at

. Or google Raven RP3 Automatic Door Bottom Seal.

I got two since I don’t know if cutting it in two would make two usable strips. I pack only comes with one closing button and I need two.

The catch is these buttons are on the open side of the door stops. I have two inward opening doors, because it’s a TARDIS!

So my gap map come in handy. I could attach a low “doorstop” to attach the two buttons to. I could also cut a piece out of the bottom of ghe door mullion to fit the left strip under. The rest of the gap csn be filled with the custom piece I made.

That the theoretical. I just don’t want rain getting in. These weather strips clamp down tight on my moulding and are a cool ‘moving part’.

Anyway, photos as I get it built.

 

[Oor Wullie]

I told you the last post was a think-piece. I’m still thinking this morning. I went out to feed the chickens and stopped at the TARDIS and realised I hate that 13 mm gap between the doors, so I will move the two door-jambs in 6 mm each and close it.

So I lose the use of the gap as a placement for a short doorstop to hold the two cams (what I called buttons because they are just a small wheel of vinyl).

But what I have outside the plane of the outer door is the left door mullion! Remember, I was going to cut it short to get the weather strip under?

What if I instead made a mullion shaped piece as part of the floor sill that matched the door mullion visually?

This piece, sitting forward of the door plane is essentially a door-stop, in carpentry language. It could take the two cams for each door closing weather strip. And the permanent short mullion-shaped door-stop doesn’t let rain past its part of the sill.

The down side of this is having a trip hazard if both doors are open. But, showing off the TARDIS, having only the right door for entry, has no visual peculiarity to it. Brilliant.

The other down side is the work of moving the door jambs inward to close the gap. The hinge end of the door is correct height since the jamb sits on the floor. In the past, while door hanging, I’d struggle to find a perfect height piece of scrap wood to level the door.

But another stroke of insight is to put a piece of scrap to the floor vertically and put two screws into it to temporarily attach it to the inner door. Perfect spacer, assuming level at the start.

Then I pencil a line where the outer jambs are sitting and once the jsmb and door are loose, pencil a parallel line 6 mm in each side to eat the gap. Then I can work on getting that new doorstop into the sill where I want it.

One small hitch is the mullion has a taper on each side, so I need to know if the cam screw will go into a flat plane snd not be foiled by that angle.

All good. I’ll show you what I’m talking about when it’s done. I love these self-closing weather strips so much.

A friend asked me why it was taking so long to get the box built. She missed the point that the act of building is the enjoyable hobby, not simply slapping it together and never talking to it (Idris) again.

Face to face, baby! That’s the part I like. I’ll never own her, she owns me.

 

[Oor Wullie]

I was rushed to get the doors adjusted, so no process photos, sorry. In that we are all working off different plans, your door-jamb, which mine attaches to the door hinge and the column/pillar, may not be detachable and movable like mine is.


It went smoothly and quickly. To keep the door level, the jamb bottom is on the floor, so two screws fitting a “crutch” piece of wood on the latch side of the door kept the current height from the floor. This took seconds.

I drew a pencil line on the outer side of the jamb. Easy.


Got the six screws out and measured and drew a second parallel line to where I wanted the door, as a visual register.


The left door, seen from outside, had a sliding bolt lock at the top, from last build. So I shifted the door along and slide the bolt up. The 6 mm parallel line register was achieved. The crutch held the door square and I simply drove in the screws to their new position.


Then I found an old offcut strip which was 3 mm and staple-gunned it to the inside right door edge as my desired gap between the two doors. I’d read that 3.2 mm is the standard gap when hanging doors.


So the right door was crutched up and the jamb unscrewed and a 7 mm parallel register line was drawn. Pushing this door along until the spacer strips contacted the left door and checking that register line, I screwed that jamb in place.


Crutches unscrewed and spacer strips removed, the job was done. A perfect 3 mm gap between doors. Where once was a visual eyesore of 13 mm gap, I now have 3 mm.


I got the phone box door back on and the door and phone box handles back on.


You’ll see that I have one font size on my phone box sign. This came from a file on this website, of the original 1929 Met boxes. I like it better that the variable fonts. I want the incongruity of having a Met box in the yard instead of one of the classic TARDIS looks. It’s taller and more period and my Chameleon Circuit just liked it that way. It’s all a dimensional illusion anyway.


Next stop is:
Those rain strip put on the door bottoms.


Phone box rainproofing inside by rubbered batter-trim, magnet latch and foldable shelf for the phone.


The door lock on.


The windows puttied, painted and installed.


Then the “shed” is done. Just the interior trickery to make it a mind-blowing bigger on the inside TARDIS to go. But beating the winter rain is paramount, for the moment.


13 mm old gap


3 mm new gap


Phone box sign and two handles on


Right door slide bolt lock


Night latch lock positioning lines