Scarfwearer's Baker-era Sonic Screwdriver

[Scarfwearer]

I've wanted to make a Tom Baker era sonic screwdriver for ages, to go with my scarf and console. Probably the best way to do this would be to turn one from aluminium rod, as the original was done, but I don't have the equipment or the skills to do that. I also thought it would be nice to find a lower-energy way to make one, using parts that are readily available, so I had a go at making one from stuff I have to hand in the workshop.

First I collected together a few bits of plastic pipe and dowel of a few diameters, and turned some of the dowel in the pillar/bench drill using a file, a chisel and some sandpaper of various grades. Here's the collection of parts after I did the wood-turning:


I used some threaded rod to hold the dowel parts together, and a ½" bolt shaft to weight the handle to make it feel believable.

Here's a test assembly to see roughly what it would look like:


I sanded and primed the parts a few times to try to smooth out the wood grain,



but didn't really get it smooth enough, or get the wood-turning to be accurate enough, so the result is rather rough.



So I'm regarding this as a prototype.

At some point I'll go shopping for some rods and disks of materials that I don't have to turn on the pillar drill, and hope that I can produce something with a better finish.

But it's a start! It literally cost me nothing, as I even had the spray paint on hand in suitable colours.

Crispin

[the_temporal_mechanic]

LOL, maybe this week I'll drop you guys a line and let you see what's in the new Toolkit....  Again, wonderful work there my friend.  I like the final finish shown above, as usual you paintjob is wonderful.

[Teletran]

A wonderful effort and beautifully effective especially from a cost/benefit standpoint. I think furniture makers use bee's wax to fill wood grain although I'm not sure how well that would paint up especially with spray paint but I thought I'd mention it. I notice that the plastic tube has near perfect finish.

[geminitimelord]

Very Creative! However with you that is just the usual in the creative department that is.

[Dematerialiser]

It's great! I love projects like that - look in the garage and see what you can put together out of the bits you've got :-) I've had some good results with silver plasticote - I think that if you sprayed the whole thing lightly several times you could hide a lot of the remaining wood grain (but it might clog up the smaller details..)

[davidnagel]

What a brilliant use of bits and pieces. That is a marvellous replica and looks quite neat with its wood texture showing

Good job dear chap

[Scarfwearer]

Cheers people! On the strength of your encouragement, I'm off to B&Q later to see if I can find some suitable pipe and rod...

Crispin

[Scarfwearer]

Well, I found some overflow pipe at 22mm and an electrical conduit at 20mm, I also found some old ½" copper pipe that we recently removed from our house that's 15mm on the outside. Close enough.
I couldn't find anything at the in-between 17mm size I wanted, but found a jumbo marker pen body of that size. It tapers very very slightly, so I was able to slip little rings of the conduit onto it and tap them tightly in place. I also hot-glued the end of a carriage bolt onto the base of the sonic, just to finish the end off.

Then it was primer, aluminium spray paint and some spray-on clear lacquer.

Here's the result:




It's better than the wood turning, but the cuts are still a bit rough. The head and neck are also still wood, though with another layer of primer and paint, you can no longer see the wood grain.

It doesn't have any movement or sound effects in this version, but although the outer surface is mostly plastic, with the threaded rod and ½" bolt in the handle, it has a believable heft.

Crispin

[the_temporal_mechanic]

Crispin!  Wonderful job there!  I love it!

[deck5]

I also thought it would be nice to find a lower-energy way to make one, using parts that are readily available, so I had a go at making one from stuff I have to hand in the workshop.

Not bad!  I have a RussRep aluminum one, and I daresay from 10 feet I'd be hard pressed to tell yours from his.

[Scarfwearer]

Crispin!  Wonderful job there!  I love it!

Well, we can't have you having all the sonic fun...

Crispin

[zander yurami]

That is a great looking SS.

I will be trying to make 3 Baker Sonics for some friends soon, and your thread will help a lot.

[thecloisterbell]

This is a dirty trick that I think they used in the 1996 TV movie. Do i think the screwdriver here is great Of cours ::)e

[Organic Mechanic]

Nice work man! I wish I had found this thread before I started mine, you have some really great ideas here. I never thought of adding weight to the handle. Kudos dude. VERY nice.

[fjdwheat]

Crispin I really like the process for the screwdriver.  Great ideas and finished prop!  If you saw my workbench right now with all the odd parts trying to come up with a screwdriver of my own.  I have built some custom lightsabers and in doing that they can look any way I want because each Jedi had his own design and who knows it might have been.  However, when building a sonic screwdriver am I allowed the same freedom?  I know there were other time lords.  I think if I keep the look similar a fan would know what it is.  Or is it something that I should stick to the thirteen options?