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Scarfwearer's Season 14 Wooden Console

Started by Scarfwearer, Sep 23, 2009, 08:57 am

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lswl

Quote from: Scarfwearer on Jun 18, 2011, 04:53 pm
Actually I was looking at Gallifrey Base recently and they were considering removing the facepalm smiley...

Crispin


Shows ya what they know  ;) (No really, we need it)

Scarfwearer

Jun 18, 2011, 05:47 pm #196 Last Edit: Jul 26, 2011, 09:38 am by Scarfwearer
Well here's a partial update.
rails1.jpg

I bought the brass for the rails from a small metals supplier a long time ago now, and it's actually aged somewhat from its original too-shiny appearance. The supports, however, are as too-shiny as ever.

I tried baking some new hinges I had lying around to see if I could get them to age artificially. I put them in a hot oven and baked them for 30mins and then 60mins, and succeeded in getting them to go copper-coloured and then virtually black.

This is not quite what I wanted - I wanted aged brass - which is dulled yellowy black, rather than the reddishness of copper.
It turns out that the colour I got is actually burnt lacquer. Being a consumer product they'd been lacquered to protect the bright finish. There are various nasty chemicals you can buy to strip lacquer off brass, but looking around on the internet I read that you can just boil the brass for 15mins in a solution of baking soda, at which point the lacquer will peel and rub off.
This actually works! The brass wasn't actually tarnished at all under the lacquer.

Now having removed the lacquer, I tried another technique I found:

Once again, you can buy nasty expensive chemicals to age brass. Alternatively you can just seal it in a Ziploc bag with a tissue soaked in vinegar for a few hours, which produces a very nice aging effect.

So here's the pictorial summary of my experiments with this so far:

hinges.jpg

Untreated on the left, 30mins baked, 60mins baked, peeled and treated with vinegar vapours over night on the right.
The next step is to try this with the supports I bought.
Unfortunately I was not able to source any identical to the ones used on the prop, but these seem close enough for me, and I agree with JellyBaby that they look better anyway :).

Crispin

geminitimelord

Thought this was a Propbuilding forum  not a Smiley Contest?

Crispin, WOW..... I LOVE IT.. Cant wait to see it complete.

galacticprobe

Jun 19, 2011, 05:23 am #198 Last Edit: Jun 19, 2011, 05:24 am by galacticprobe
Crispin, I've read through the part where you talked about the piping for the railing, and waiting for the three remaining support posts for it to arrive, but I don't think you ever mentioned where you found those support posts. The only such supports I've been able to find look the part, but the smallest have had a 2-inch inside diameter and been 4 inches tall: way too big. Where did you find yours?

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

timegalaxy5

heheheehehehehe, wow wow wow, i wish i had one! ;) wow, must be great to have something like that, that is that close, (or even better) to the show. hmmm, to do list,

1. make really cool secondary console

timegalaxy5
--------------------------TIMEGALAXY5------------------------

Rassilons Rod

Jun 19, 2011, 04:03 pm #200 Last Edit: Jun 19, 2011, 04:03 pm by rassilonsrod
Quote from: geminitimelord on Jun 18, 2011, 08:30 pm
Thought this was a Propbuilding forum  not a Smiley Contest?

Crispin, WOW..... I LOVE IT.. Cant wait to see it complete.


Agreed... On BOTH counts.

-The Management.
In the cities in the streets there's a tension you can feel,
The breaking strain is fast approaching, guns and riots.
Politicians gamble and lie to save their skins,
And the press get fed the scapegoats,
Public Enema Number One.

Scarfwearer

Jul 07, 2011, 03:05 pm #201 Last Edit: Jul 26, 2011, 09:39 am by Scarfwearer
So I applied the baking technique to the rail supports I have, but it didn't work. The lacquer is clearly a different material.
I boiled them in baking soda for 15 mins and also rubbed them with nail varnish remover and then baked them again.
Eventually the vinegar-in-a-bag treatment did the trick. These supports are actually brass finish which means they're some other metal that's been plated with brass. The steps I took have actually partially damaged the finish, but it just adds to the aging effect.

To attach the rail supports, I pre-drilled the holes, as the wood is hard and the brass screws are soft...
rails4.jpg

I cut the brass tube to length as I fitted the rails, to ensure that I didn't get any bad fits as a result of my inaccurate wood cutting. I cut a 30° angle on a piece of 2x4 wood and poked a tight-fitting hole through it on the pillar drill to get an accurate angle to cut against.
rails3.jpg

I also pushed some thick electrical flex through the brass tube as I fitted them to stop them rattling if the fit wasn't perfect.
rails2.jpg

And here's where it is so far:

rails-done2.jpg
rails-done.jpg

For my next trick, I'm going to make a cover plate for the hole in the top until I get to make something more interesting to fit there.

Crispin

Kingpin

I think I've run out of good words to say about this build.  Another great update, looking forward to the next.

handofomega

So what is holding the brass tubes together inside the supports?  Did you weld them?

Scarfwearer

Jul 07, 2011, 08:28 pm #204 Last Edit: Jul 26, 2011, 09:39 am by Scarfwearer
Quote from: handofomega on Jul 07, 2011, 07:18 pm
So what is holding the brass tubes together inside the supports?  Did you weld them?


They're held there by geometry. :)

brass-tubes.png

Because of the positioning of the supports there's actually nowhere they can move.
I chose the diameter of the brass tube to fit exactly across the interior of the supports at a 30° angle. It needed a little trigonometry to figure out the diameter, but unfortunately I've lost my notes (as I did the calculation last year... or the year before), so I'm going to have to redo it or find them... :(
I threaded orange flex through the pipes to stop any rattling due to my assembly not being perfectly geometrical...
Funnily enough, the whole thing was loose until I tightened up the last support to pull it all together, at which point it all fixed in place! :)

Crispin

Scarfwearer

Jul 07, 2011, 09:25 pm #205 Last Edit: Jul 26, 2011, 09:40 am by Scarfwearer
I got some 9mm MDF board and a 9.5mm ¼ round router bit to make the lid.
router-bit.jpg

You can use a router table for this, or a router extension arm - both work, and I've used a home made template arm when cutting roundels holes in the past.
This time I drilled a hole in the router table at the right distance to make the lid 6½" to make a 13" lid.
I also made a slightly smaller disk to fit on the underside of the lid to hold the lid in place. I used a straight router bit for that.
routering.jpg

Here's a picture of the lid in place - in natural light this time, which looks a lot better.

lid-in-place.jpg

I've also started staining the interior - so here it all is with the doors open.
staining-inside.jpg

It'll need at least another application of stain, and also the interior control panels and shelves...

Crispin

rocket

Farewell Sarah Jane, you will be missed.

DoctorWho8

That is looking really sexy. ;)  Don't forget the plinth. ;)
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

celation

Love it. Just love it. Brilliant!  :)

the doctor who2

WOW that is absolutely amazing!  :) So can't wait to see this finished, it'll look totally awesome.
Keep up the good work  :D
"There's no point being GROWN UP if you can't be CHILDISH sometimes!"

The Fourth Doctor - Robot, S12 E01