Wall Panel Question

[philipw]

As I begin to make my final plans for my outdoor NST, I decided that I wanted to build an indoor one that can break down and take to our shows we produce here in Texas. Or put it in the front yard for Halloween...

I've started working on those plans with the help of photos of the Eccleston Tardis, which was mentioned here as being auctioned awhile back. As it turns out, a friend of mine here in the US was the winner of that auction. He has been kind enough to send me a lot of photos of it.

One thing I noticed that I didn't expect was that the panels are a sandwich of much thinner plywood than I assumed. It is only 1/4" plywood.

I don't recall seeing anybody using plywood that thin and that got me to wondering if it was just assumed to be thicker by those that have built one, such as I assumed. Or if knowing it was 1/4" a thicker ply was used anyway?

[Scarfwearer]

I don't think the thinness of the ply was known by many until you mentioned it - certainly not me. I think most people want to build a sturdy TARDIS, but using thin ply would certainly make it lighter for moving around. Sheets of 1/4" ply are quite prone to warping, unlike 1/2", though once assembled into a TARDIS that would be much less of a problem. If it's stored broken down there would be more risk of that, though.
I'd considered making one using hardboard and battens for fan filming as my build is really too heavy to move around much (nearly 600lb).
Of course, if you really want to move it around a lot, there's something to be said for building with fibreglass, which is lighter and more stable...

Crispin

[philipw]

I really like the idea of it being so thin.  I sure hadn't read about it being so thin before either so I'm glad to hear that from you.

Funny thing about warping though. All plywood and MDF will warp, some much worse than others (generally the cheaper the ply, the more it warps).  I find it's much easier to keep thinner plywood flat than thick because once thick plywood has warped, it takes a lot of pressure to flatten it back, if it's even possible. Thin ply doesn't have this same issue. Also, with the applied wood on the outside, that should be able to easily hold it flat. This has me thinking that it might be a good idea to use pocket screws on to assemble the applied pieces to each other prior to attaching them to the ply, just to make sure that frame is as solid as possible.

I also store my plywood completely vertical, and think storing a knockdown tardis would be well served if it's done that way as well. Even a little bit of a lean on plywood puts in a gentle warp that's difficult to deal with when building anything flat from it.

[ShadowRAM]

I made my doors out of the next size down from 1/4" for weight and cost.  I forget the exact size but it was measured in mm.  I made the runners down the sides out of single 1x4s and then press fit in the cross beams.  Short pan head (#8) screws and a little wood glue pulled the whole thing back flat.  The only problem I noticed was the whole thing wanted to curl the side beams in/out if I wasn't careful.  Not sure what the exact final weight is but you can easily pick each panel up one-handed and they are fairly sturdy.