Russell and Mikes Tardis build ( not forgetting Franko the robot)

[russell glen]

I will be taking my time over this, as I have two daughters that require my skills on their properties, a fence to erect at home and a car port to build, plus a classic car to finally get a move on with the restoration, and Lord know how many other calls on my time

initially I am just getting hold of materials, so a metal plate ( with the spelling mistake) for the phone cabinet is now sitting here, the St Johns circular badge, and some steel and wheels for the base

I am starting from the top for some obscure reason, I did consider ordering a commercial light fitting and then striping it for the lens, however, as it will be 9 feet or so in the air, I came up with a much cheaper alternative
whilst out shopping with the dragon, she purchased some clear lexan flowerpots for her orchids
so today I nipped back to the garden centre and got two more, although they taper slightly I dont think it will matter too much, No 2 Son in law found me some LEDS, battery powered with a controller that were described as blue ! well they are pretty much white, but they can be set up to pulse on and off like the origional tardis lamp with a little delay
I also found in my box of left over stuff, some white plastic pipe for a 4 inch bathroom extractor fan, so I plan to wrap the LED strip around this, cut three small slits in it to mate with the lugs in the flower pot, and then line the inside with some blue film used for stage work, which I think will look much better than blue LEDs as you will not see individual lamps, but an overall blue glow, the base for the flowerpot will be glued on top to give a little protection against water, and make is stronger, and the small holes filled with clear silicon, which I will use to bond it together, once done I can make the wooden base, top cap, and four support bars
here are a few pictures of the bits now gathered, give me a week or two to finish sorting car spares, repair a bicycle, and fix the starter motor on my Italian Motorcycle and I will crack on with the job, my helper Mike will join in later, but he is very very old and needs strong drink to encourage him to get a move on !!

[russell glen]

Well, after a manic few days of tidying up, fixings things, and chucking stuff out, I managed to find a few hours this Sunday to begin work
The plan is to build a Brachaki Tardis, as that is my Era, and being smaller will mean less kids passing through each time and raising the excitement level during our charity event

first bit of good news, two lengths of Tanalised timber 6x3 inches arrived , left over on a job !!!
so with these i decided to form the base, originally I had planed to lay them three inches horizontally and six inches vertically to allow the uprights to sit inside them, however looking at the drawing so thoughtfully provided on this very site, I realised that by laying them sideways, the doors would cover part of the timber, and the join into the plywood floor would not be exposed to the weather, and no matter how well you seal it, the different types of timber will move and leave a crack for water to get in
so after consulting the drawing, working out the size, and adding a bit for the buggeration factor ( me measuring it wrong ) I set to with the sliding compound saw, then some glue, and self drill self countersinking screws, soon had the base locked together, checking it with a square is difficult due to its size, so I measured across the opposing corners, and an error of 1/16th was found, so square enough for me, and it can be cleaned up with a woodworking plane later on
I conscripted my grandson to help, as it is heavy and awkward to move around, he of course was overjoyed to be dragged away from whatever mentally challenging game he was playing with like minded idiots on his PC

[russell glen]

a view of the timber mitred ready for assembly, and then glued and screwed together

[russell glen]

The base looked a little weak at the corners, and worried that kids jumping about might weaken the joint, I decided to glue and screw some corner blocks into place, alongside bearers
later on I will cut and weld a steel frame to screw onto these sections, with will locate the four heavy duty wheels, and the four adjustable feet, that I saved many years ago from some massive old power supply units
also to do is to cut and insert the plywood floor, and fabricate some side skirts to conceal the wheels ( shown in image)

[russell glen]

timber glued and clamped ready to form the lamp top and bottom, for the dome on top, I cut circles out of the 20mm softwood, and glued them together, drilling a hole in the centre first, allows the use of a steel rod to centre them, and then mark with a pencil, to assist when gluing the parts together
once dry I will use a mixture of wood chisels ( very sharp) surform, 40 grit production paper and a spokeshave to obtain the correct shape
you can of course, use a lathe, but I dont have one, and am simply using normal hand tools
an old dodge is to insert a long bolt, with nuts both sides, clamp the bolt into the chuck of a drill, secure it, or use a workmate, then spin the drill slowly and use production paper or a surform to shape the item up
with care, this move can get you out of the doodoo
but you may die or be horribly mutilated so dont blame me