James' TARDIS DVD Cabinet.

[stormageddon]

So I was sitting at my PC one day surfing the internet, when I come across somebody who had made a DVD cabinet in the style of the The TARDIS. So I decided that I would just go for it and build my own.

So I started by looking up existing plans for full scale replica TARDIS' and found a couple of good ones, then decided how much room I had for height, which essentially was 2.1 metres. Doing some fancy maths which took me quite a few hours, I converted all the sizes from the existing plans to fit my restrictions, and also to make it convenient for what was available at the local hardwares. These are my basic dimensions:

Basic outside Cupboard: 1840mm High, 838mm wide, 184mm deep. All the pine shelving I used was 19mm thick.

My sizes were determined by both the size of regular DVD cases, and what timber was available. This is a rough plan of what I did up for sizes at the start.





So I started working straight away straight away.

Shelf width ended up being 800mm wide exactly. so I cut all that to length, and the sides were 1800 high exactly. Except two shelves the top and the bottom which were 838mm to sit on the top and bottom of the side boards.





Doweling is pretty simple once you know what you're doing, I happened to be able to get the use of what is known as a 'Doweling Jig' which made the whole process much easier


I used 8mm dowels.



To measure out the dowel holes on the sides I measured up from the bottom using my measurements for the spaces in between the shelves which is 205 on all except the top shelf gap which was larger at 232, and then making the thickness of the shelf, 19mm. Using dowel points, I then marked exactly where the holes needed to go so the dowels matched up and so the shelves went on straight. This worked pretty well for the most part, it was just my lack of skill that let me down a bit and a few things weren't as square as I would have liked.


Dowel Points ^^^^


Dowel Points in the pre drilled shelf dowel holes ^^^


Mark for where to drill the dowel hole^^

I then drilled all the holes first with a smaller drill of about 3 or 4mm to start the hole, and then drilled the 8mm for the dowel to fit in.

Drilling holes^^^


I lined it all up and it fitted all together with a bit of convincing (I had to bash a few dowels in to make them fit because of my bad woodworking skills)




After fitting it all together nice and tight and snug like with plenty of wood glue,I also decided to use screws to hold it together, just for a bit of extra insurance.


And it worked really well!

[stormageddon]

I did forget to mention that the width of the sides may be 184mm, but I made the shelves a little less, at 140mm, so there was space between the inside of the door and the back of the DVD cases, and the DVD cases fit perfectly on the 140mm wide.

So at this point I got a bit slack for taking loads of photos, But I think I took enough to get the gist of it.

Once I had all the shelves in, I put the Top and Bottom pieces on, I measured those at 838mm and sat on the top and bottom of the sides, respectively. Then I nailed the backing sheet on. I used a 3mm ply sheeting, and just some small tack nails.


This is the shell complete with the back on.^^^

I didn't take any photos of it, but for the base I used basic 70mmx35mm stud pine. and I beveled the front edges. I screwed them on threw the bottom shelf, with about 20mm to maybe 22mm so the doors had something underneath them.
After that I used 90mmx45mm stud pine for the corner posts, and again had them jutting out maybe 20mm for the doors to hinge on to. This might sound a bit confusing, but I'm pretty certain I have a photo to show it once its done to show what I'm talking about here.



This is after the first coat of the blue, you can see the idea of how the corner posts are positioned.

[stormageddon]

So once I had finished all the main cupboard part, I started on the Doors. In my opinion, the doors were the most important and they are the part which I did the best.

For the door framing I used 42mmx19mm pine, and then the panels are 3mm ply.


This is the basic dimensions of the door frame.^^^

After I cut all my pieces to size, having 5 pieces at 331mm for the cross sections and two pieces at 1835mm. Again to fit it all together I used dowels, this time I used 6mm dowels. in the same way as the cabinet, with the doweling jig and the dowel points.

It took me a fairly long time to figure out how to fix the panels onto the framing of the door, I finally figured out how to do this. I made slots slightly wider than the thickness of the 3.6mm ply that I used, which was a bit of trial and error. I used a Triton work bench with a circular saw on it. you can see in the next photo, and I set it up so that it cut the slot in just the right way, which was 5mm deep and directly in the centre of the 19mm pine framing. I took a lot of mucking about and testing on scrap pieces, but in the end it worked perfectly.


This is how I made the slots, if you have a router with the right size and shape bit, that would work as well, but for me this seemed to be the best and easiest way.


Here is how the slot worked out, because of the thickness of the blade being thinner than the thickness I needed the slot, I figured out that I needed the slot to be 7mm in from each edge, so I had to run each piece through once, to get that edge right, then turn it around and get the other edge exactly right. I hope all of that makes sense. I had help from my Father-In-Law, who is pretty handy and experienced at making all sorts of things, thank goodness.

After all that was done I cut all the panels, making sure I added 10mm, to account for the panel fitting into the slots, making each panel exactly 409x336mm.


This is the cut panel.


This photo was taken when I put it all together on a dry run without any glue, all the dowels and panels fitted together so well and snugly that the door stayed together without glue, I eventually glued and clamped both doors.


Finished doors, ready to be painted.


Everything undercoated and ready for the magical Blue paint.

I bet at this point seeing that photo ^^ you are thinking, 'where are the window panes in the top panels'? Well that comes later....


After three coats of paint the cabinet is finished and looks just about right. and loaded up with movies already. Just waiting for me to finish the doors and attach them.

I had a lot of trouble trying to decide of what exact colour blue to use, there are so many different opinions out there, and then you have to decide on which version of the TARDIS exterior you want to do, (I chose Matt Smith 2010 TARDIS). I eventually decided on using a Accent brand colour, called 'Smalt' and I am very happy with how it turned out, in my opinion it looks almost exactly right, but it's hard to tell. If you want to use it, I know for a fact that Accent brand paints are only available at Mitre 10 and True Value Hardware's in Australia.

[DoctorWho8]

I think your color looks very good.  Waiting for the final results!  Are your going to add a mock stacked roof and lamp?
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[stormageddon]

Thanks! I wasn't planning on doing a stacked roof and lamp, mainly because where I live at the moment has a low ceiling and there isn't enough room, haha. But I am planning on making the 'Police Public Call Box' sign for above the doors, to make it look a little more complete. I suppose if I move somewhere and it has more room I may think about adding the roof and lamp, that would look good. It might be hard to do given the depth of the cabinet though.

[stormageddon]

Right. So I had finished painting the doors in the perfect blue paint, except for the top panels.
I then tediously painted the 6 panels in gloss black and the bottom two corners in a light gloss grey.
For the white framing, I just measured it all up, but first, I had to make them 7mm thick, and all I could get 11mm x 11mm. My father-in-law also had a thickness planer, which is this awesome thing which planes long bits of timber down to the right thickness. I did that. My timber was then 7mm x 11mm.

I cut it all the right sizes to fit, painted it all gloss white, then put it all in the right places and held it there with double sided tape while a nailed through the back with small cut tacks.


Finished Door.


This is the sticker I used, once on the door it looks a bit small but I think it looks ok.
If you want one you can get it from a website called Redbubble.com, just search for it.

I got some hinges and attached the doors!!


I had ordered a sign for the door so I put that on and put on the St John Ambulance sticker that I found online as well.



I am going to eventually make a sign for the top and all the rest, but this is as far as I have gotten so far, I will post the progress when I get some time to build and paint the sign.

[stormageddon]

So I am finally getting around to planning and doing up my top sign (Police Public Call Box)......

Wanting to know if anyone can help me, I am trying to figure out all my dimensions that I need, but I'm not really sure where to start, the gap between my two posts at the top is about 837mm, and I wanted to do the full box and everything, how much does it normally stick out over of posts? I have found the PDFs of the signs on here, but what the the standard dimensions of the sign? If I knew what normal height and length they are then I could figure that out to fit into my dimensions....be really great if someone could help me out. I wasn't planning of having it backlit, its a bit hard to do, so I was just going to do full black background and just white for the lettering, does this sound right? My corner posts are too short, I did a bit of bad planning, so I think I might make them a bit higher and try to make it look seemless. If anyone has any advice, I will grateful for anything.

[DoctorWho8]

Rule of thumb: The ends of the signboxes end about halfway in the middle of the corner posts.  Height depends on what you feel is right.

For you, take the width of one of your corner posts and add that to the 837mm (33") gap, that will give you the proper overhang of the sign boxes over your posts.  If I were to estimate, it looks like your posts are about 50mm (2") wide.  So your sign boxes would be about 887mm (35") wide. Height wise, 120mm (4 3/4") to keep it proportionate to a new series TARDIS.

The New Series TARDIS signs are about 48 5/8" X 5 3/8".  There is an extra 1/8" all around so the signs can be inset in the frame of the sign box.  For you, I'd say about 866mm (34 1/8") X  97mm (3 27/32").  That also factors in 3mm (1/8") all around for the inset.  Don't take my measurements as gospel, but it'll get you in the ballpark.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[stormageddon]

Thanks heaps, that should really help, now I've just gotta draw my plans out and then get in and do it!