4-H Fair Project Tardis

[merry]

Once she got her roof and base cut and I saw it altogether, I thought we could probably come up with better lamp parts so I rummaged through the button box again. 

The contenders:


The winners:


She and her dad drilled the holes for the lamp.  For safety reasons he did the wooden and metal disks, but she drilled a hole in the roof for the lamp (aka nail polish bottle) to sink into.

One last big decision to make--how to attach the trim.  Her dad is suggesting she use a few spots of glue and a brad nailer.  She wants to use trim glue--she's not wanting brads that don't fit her model scale and she knows she doesn't have time to fill those to where they won't show.  I also think she's just had enough of learning new tools for now and will be glad to be back on familiar footing.  One advantage to using brads is that she could paint the sides before the trim goes on and that would make the paint job much easier.

Tomorrow lamp building, making handles, and sanding down wood filler.  At least that's the plan. 

[geminitimelord]

20% to 50% off and 12 months to pay??? Wow what a great deal for a washer and dryer!!

Oh yea the project is looking good too   

[merry]

20% to 50% off and 12 months to pay??? Wow what a great deal for a washer and dryer!!

Oh yea the project is looking good too  

Yeah, I shoulda held out.  I got one for 10% off and it's been a stinker.  I'd much rather have had a stinker at 50% off.   

Thanks for encouraging her.  She's not seeing it yet and was pretty concerned when she was sanding this morning, but I can see past all that wood filler and dust and it's going to be awesome.

[merry]

Day 25 was all about the sanding and filling.  She'd spread filler over the exterior side and door panels with an old store card the day before and let dry well.  I had her carefully take my handheld sander to it to knock the outer stuff off and then it was tedious hand sanding for the rest of it. 

Afterwards she added some touch-up filler to spots that needed it.  She would have liked to have more time at this stage to get it "just right" but there wasn't time--she had to move on.

Here she is starting to spread a big blob of wood filler on the first go round:

[merry]

Evening of Day 25--A little more sanding of the touch-up filler and then it was The Big Event of gluing on the trim.  She'd cut the trim very carefully and it fit well so she expected this to be a straightforward glue job, however the first side she tried had a number of horizontal pieces that didn't fit.  Same deal on the next side she checked.  I know her trim was cut properly because I checked it so I'm guessing that it was due to the wood responding to temperature/humidity conditions as she did bring the box in and out as needed the past few days.

She had a bunch of extra pieces of trim to play around with, so only a few more needed to be recut.  All trim pieces had to be labeled as to side and direction and then marked positions using a wood spacer.  Here's one side all labeled--you can see the one vertical trim piece she chose as the best length to base the others off of when she first started cutting.  She called it "The Master". 


She glued the trim pieces down using Titebond Molding and Trim Glue.  It's a wood glue only thicker (about like craft Tacky Glue) and it really works great for applications where you need something to stay put without shifting.  The downside, of course, is that you don't have a lot of working time with it because it grabs fast.

Day 26--Glued on the two remaining sides, let dry, and then did some housekeeping with sandpaper and a hobby knife to get off excess glue, filler, etc.

[merry]

Day 27 -- It's Friday and project check-in is Tuesday so the pressure is on.  Today was devoted entirely to building:  by afternoon she complained she'd become a "slave to her Tardis".   We made a list and she started making decisions based on time remaining and risk.  One of those was to change the handles to something she could install easily right near the end with little risk.  The other was to put off building the lamp.  If absolutely necessary her brother or I could do that since it's not a wood component of her woodworking project and it could be attached at the end.

The goal was to get all construction tasks done so she can begin painting on Saturday.  First was to get the handles made and then holes drilled out for both handles and lock.  We'd spotted some tarnished brass hairpins in the jewelry making section of Hobby Lobby that matched her lock nicely and it looked like it would be no problem to shape them up since hairpins are usually pretty flexible.  So naturally she could barely bend them.  I went after them and even with needlenose pliers and brute strength  I couldn't get them shaped right without breaking.  Finally with only a few pins left (and a lot of valuable time eaten up) I shaped them into a squarish U-shape and she went off to get the drill ready and mark the trim.

While she was doing that I decided to give it one last try and took a scrap piece, made it into a squared off U, and inserted it into holes made in scrap trim.  Then I whacked it with a hammer.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  That did the trick--not what she had in mind but much better than it was.  Don't know why I didn't think of that hammer treatment in the first place...

Here she is lining up the drill to cut the hole to sink the lock.  It was around then that she said that this whole project has been "tragical" on her nails.


The last big job of the day was to cut and glue in the small window trim.  The plan was for her to glue in the outside four pieces and then decide how to handle the inner pieces there based on where she was at.  We had two sizes of basswood trim to choose from and the smaller 1/8 x 1/8 looked better.  I wasn't sure there would be enough of it and since she had to keep going no matter how late so I went to the local hobby store and bought enough. When I say "enough" actually is that I bought several packages so she could pick out the best pieces since she doesn't have time to deal with basswood fuzz.

Here she is cutting trim with a hobby saw and miter box.  It worked so well I wished I'd bought one years ago.

 
By the end of trim, it was getting very late and she'd been at it all day and really, really wanted to go to bed so I provided support in the form of homemade brownies and a picture taped to the inside of her Tardis for inspiration:


Next were the signs.  I'd been at the copy shop earlier in the day and she wasn't pleased with how they turned out.  Will be trying again today.


We decided she should leave the small inside panes until morning.  There's no way she can do all of the inside trim in the typical fashion so these are going to be pieces of scale lumber I found at the hobby store.  They're the same width as her trim pieces, only very flat, and will be attached from the inside so timing isn't as critical.  She was just too tired to do it well tonight.

The last job of the night was to exoxy in the lock.  The best fit drill bit for that hole was a little big and drilling chipped a little piece off, so she'd done some filling earlier that needed to be trimmed away.

[merry]

A very tired Tardis builder heads off to bed.

A new Tardis stands waiting, nearly ready to come to life...

[geminitimelord]

This miniature is looking awesome. Is your kid the one doing all the work? If so excellent job!

[merry]

Yes, she's doing the work, with constant guidance along the way since nearly all these skills are new to her.  There's been times when she's needed a second set of hands to hold (such as learning the feel of the table saw or marking off that door trim) and a few times when we did something for safety purposes (ie cutting something that was too small for her to do safely). And as of today we can add one time because she physically wasn't able, when it turned out the glass didn't fit every window hole and she isn't strong enough to sand those spots out and a sander won't fit.  I can barely do it. 

[Scarfwearer]

This is a fabulous project! I have daughters a couple of years either side of your daughter's age - both have spent some time in the workshop with me building stuff. A really good thing to do I think: it's time I got them out there again.
Much appreciating the time you're taking to document this on here in such detail too!

Crispin

[merry]

Day 28 -

The first order of business was to double check the windowglass before the smallest trim pieces went in.   The first order of business for the day was to do her nails because she couldn't do her best work while looking at "tragical" nails all day.

Second order of business:  I'd had her check the glass when it came home and they would all go in, with a few being a tight fit, but as I mentioned, they sure didn't all fit now, especially on the curves and any area with a little interior paint.  Not sure what all happened there, but the window pane pieces she needs to glue in next were pretty delicate so it had to be done now.  She gave it a good go and wasn't strong enough to sand--I could barely do it.  Maybe it would have been better to find someone to grind off the glass edges more, but that seemed more risky at this point than sanding.

Anyway, she worked on another project she's way behind on during that time.  When the glass fit I had her go over the cornerposts and anything that looked like it could use a little freshening up with 400 grit sandpaper.  Then I had her close her eyes and go over the whole thing with her fingers.  I always do this with my model rocket kids when they're too tired to sand anymore, as their fingers often pick up what their eyes miss.  Afterwards she cleaned it up with the air compressor and took it inside for the final gluing and--hopefully-- painting.



We'd talked about a number of options for the small inner window trim, including using metal strips and epoxying the trim right onto the glass.  In the end what happened was to glue in thin basswood strips I found out our local hobby store.  The owner does a lot of railroad stuff and he thought it would work.  

Nice, clean wood to work with. She could just cut it with a scissors.


She marked off in front where it was square and glued the pieces in from behind.  The only thing I would have done differently is to have her glue in horizontal strips of the same stuff at the top and bottom to give the ends something firm to adhere to.  Most of the bottom pieces were seated against the bottom of the window but the tops all weren't.  Afterwards I had her flip it over and add a bit of extra trim glue there to help secure it.

Have no idea how this will work out in the end, but she didn't have time for the traditional trimwork.  I think she might be able to go back later and add it on top of these strips but I doubt she will unless it doesn't hold.




Holes for any electrical is going to wait until after because she doesn't want to risk it at this late point and she just doesn't know what she wants yet.  The base screws on so that should be do-able.

Masking and painting didn't happen, so that's what's on deck.  She has fruit ready that has to be made into jam today and trip out for candymaking supplies and she's competing for work space with a sibling who must finish all his projects today.  Gonna be another late night, I suspect.

[DoctorWho8]

It's nearly there!  Say, if she wants to show it off to like-minded people, my club's next meeting is August 13 at 2:30pm at the Bloomington Library Conference Room.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[merry]

The Tardis is painted and I'll post pictures and details later.

But I wanted to mention now in case anyone accustomed to working with balsa wood has the urge to give a metal lantern a quick spray of metal primer out in the garage in a paint booth (aka root beer soda box) at 12:30 am, resist, I say!  This is the dark side and will only lead to removing it with a hobby knife and mineral spirits in the morning. 

[merry]

Day 30 - Fair Project Check-in Day

The Tardis is awake...

[DoctorWho8]

Ooh, you tease, you.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff