Mobius's Baroque Victorian French steampunk art-nouveau closet Tardis build

[mobius]

Hello fellow travellers in Time, space and relative dimensions, I live! sorry to have been away for so long, I'm sure you all figured this was just another build that was never going to happen, but it will. oh yes it will, I'll show them, I'll show them all! bwahaha they said I was mad... er, anyway, good job I didn't build it in my kitchen, because I had to move. that was the most unexpected thing to happen to me in well lets put it in the top 3 of the last decade. the short version, after 13 years in the same flat my rent was about to triple, so I had to get out, and the only place I could afford with a basement I could use for a workshop happened to be my folks late 1800's 3 story flat, which has a gorgeous kitchen I spent 5 months rebuilding, so on the upside at least I get to enjoy the fruits of my labour. I have a large basement workshop, and live in a suite in the attic, and I have a large walk in closet, who's door is about to get considerably bigger and bluer, not to mention jut into the room, er, just a tad more than it currently does, say, 3 or 4 feet.
    So I'll have to rename the build, just take out kitchen and replace it with closet or something, I will have to make a 3rd wall, the right side now, and while it will still be bigger on the inside, it wont be as bigger, but it'll still be bigger. I painted the inside of the closet semi-gloss white in preparation. I'm also about to replace a light for someone, soon as the weather turns, which will score me a free Fresnell jelly jar, tho it may be too tall to actually use in this location, in a few years when I buy my own place I'll have enough ceiling height to use it properly. might use it anyway and squish it down in, it's going to brush the ceiling.

    having previously only seen about 2 half episodes of Eccleston's run as the Doctor, I finally resolved to start watching the Doctor Who the next generation, took them a few episodes to find their feet I thought, but I'm starting to get into it. that Rose is a cutie. anyway, I'm inspired to get back to work on this project now that it is again actually feasible to do.

looking forward to perusing this site again and seeing how other people have been doing in my absence, happy holidays one and all.

Oh I spotted a TARDIS in Salem, have to find the right place to post that photo.

[galacticprobe]

Oh I spotted a TARDIS in Salem, have to find the right place to post that photo.

Welcome back, Mobius! Good luck with your redesigns. And in case you haven't found it by now, here's the http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?board=19.0 board. I'm sure you can find the right thread in there to post your Salem sighting.

Dino.

[mobius]

hullo again fellow travelers, I didn't want to do another update til I had something to say, and some photos ready, btw I posted in the tardises spotted section, a tardis made of ice, and an electrical one, have a look. anyway, I spent 13 solid hours on monday last organising my new workshop, so that's some progress, it's not 100% organised yet, but at least I won't be buying things I already have several of anymore because I can't find them in time. and I've spent many hours redesigning my blueprint, will post a few photos which probably won't be super useful, but I've started a cut list with over 100 pieces on it, been looking around for material options, and am very close to ready to start actually working on this. I've worked out the way I will be assembling it, sans assistance, how to get the walls to stand by themselves until its all together, the signs are going to be part of a level which is essentially a coupler, like a pvc pipe one, they will sit on the walls and hold them together, and the roof cap assembly will sit on top of and inside the sign level. I realised last night that this design is based on my youthful mental image of what the tardis looks like, more than what it actually looks like, but I'm ok with that. specifically, tho the signs stick out and can from some views make it look wider at the top, I was surprised to realise they aren't nearly as wide as I thought, they stop in the middle of the columns (I know, of course they do) but in my head somehow they just kept going. if I made them more canonical my "coupler" design would need major troublesome re-engineering, so I'm not doing that. this is going to be one surreal call box.

(edit: oh bugger, files too large, have to shrink them some more. will do in a bit.)

I've actually changed some of the spex since drawing these. gave it a LOT of thought, believe me. redesigned the roof many times, it's going to have to be technically flat on top, but it will be sort of stepped like a Mayan pyramid to represent pointiness. d: the phone chamber will open from inside as well as from outside so I can use the phone when I'm inside. I'm currently planning on making the interior white, tho black has a certain appeal. I have procured a jelly jar, actually bought a new one, but will be installing it on someone's house, and taking their weathered old one. it's going to be a stubby siren on top, only have about 4" available til it hits the ceiling.

also I realised I have one chance to successfully make a materialisation video by gaff taping the feet of my camera's tripod in place, shooting the location prior to and after assembly without moving the camera.

[mobius]

couple of pics. I need to find my scanner wires. d:

[mobius]

Lumber procured! and as soon as I got to the register I remembered I have a ton of things to return to home despot for store credit, more than enough to cover the $45 I shelled out today for 2 sheets of 4x8 1/4" lauan and 4 nice straight 2x4s. ah well. it'll get used. they very nicely ripped the plywood down for me for free, I could do it, but a perfectly straight cut 8 feet long is a pain to set up in the shop, would have taken me far longer. there were 3 sheets of plywood in a 70% off bin, one was 3/4" thick, one 1/2" and one 3/8", a bit warped, I was so tempted, but I decided to stick to my blueprints instead. I want to keep it as lightweight as possible. (wow 6th try I finally got the computer to work and post this hoorah! d: )

[mobius]

spent some time recently reworking my blueprints, figuring stuff out, making calculations, rechecking them, math, math and math, yay. also spent some time at home despot pricing things out, then I spent hours today in my workshop taking stock of inventory and measuring stuff, different types of detail mouldings I have and casings, other materials, photos below.
    plan view showing construction of walls with "floor" shown below them



oh I found this tin sign and measured it, too big. on the back I found I had drawn a rough blueprint for building a call box to scale around the sign. perhaps later. I think I bought it at a convention years ago.



wood, door casings which I salvaged, these will clad the columns





noticed this yellow candle lantern, wondering how that'd look blue, I tweaked the hue in photoshop, unfortunately tho it looks nice, its way too tall for the amount of space I have.



some other bits I want to try to work in, gorgeous mortise lock knob plate I salvaged



found some textured plexiglass stuff and brass radiator screen material I will need because two of the panels will be vents so heat from the radiator next to it can get into it



look at this lovely old rotary phone, very old style hand-set, too fat a base I think tho. someone cut the wires, I could fix that, might try to get it working again anyway. also, a mail slot? hmm. maybe. absolutely no reason for it, but then, no real reason why not either I suppose.



some pulls leftover from my mum's kitchen, I like the fancy one, but it's the only spare, i probably shouldn't use it.


out of sequence, pulling nails from salvaged trim


I very very rarely buy t shirts, the mad scientist one I could not resist, the yellow time machine, maybe I'll build that next, a model possibly.



the cellar loo, I think I will do this door up properly one day. I had painted something blue and still had paint in the brush so I used it up doing this. messed up the muntons, how embarrassing.



so tonight I will crunch numbers, work on my cut-list and comparing it with my new stock list to see what if anything I have to buy. I still have to check on my warehouse( garage) to see what I have in there, mostly larger wood, very long 4x4s, two-by stock, and assorted leftover lumber.

[mobius]

type 40 build update 2-23-14
spent a LOT of time reviewing my blueprints and rechecking calculations. and then re-re-checking calculations. figuring out potential problems, and coming up with clever solutions. went to my storage garage to inventory my lumber but there was a car in the way, and it was too cold to hang out there. took some photos but I will have to really write up an actual inventory of what I have in stock there. reworked my cut-list to be neater and more uniform in format, every piece of wood going into this thing now has an ID number, and the number of parts is approaching 400!
  Sunday I started assembling the walls, and drawing layout on the doors.a scale drawing on paper is nice but a life size drawing on wood gives one a much better idea about how the ratios will look, and I am still satisfied with the ones I came up with to fit the available space. it's going to be more narrow and shorter than a full sized call box, but I'm ok with that.
  once it got too late to keep making noise cutting wood, and screwing bits together, (inner support structure now attached to side walls, hoorah!), I resumed reviewing blueprints and calculating how to make the window frames and muntons, and after much sketching measuring and thinking decided how to do it. the walls will have one hole per window, I toyed with cutting the muntons into the lauan but I realised if a glass pane breaks I have to be able to remove and replace it, but I don't want to make the window frames on the outside removable, so I will make an interior frame with muntons (the crossbars inside a window frame sash) which will hold the glass against the exterior frames, and be held in place with clips, which pivot on a screw, used for storm windows.  that way I only have to loosen 4 screws to remove the glass if I ever need to.
 also I think I can make the interior frames from the wood I will be removing to make the window holes, if I don't use a drill, but a dremel to make slits instead of holes for the jig saw.

and today, I went to my woodshed, a garage I store lumber in, car still in the way, making inventorying too difficult, but I yanked out a bunch of stuff I needed without dropping any on the nice white BMW Mini, brought it home and continued milling and fabricatin'. got 2 walls started, and made my first mistake ripping the inner edge stiles for the doors, forgot part of them is hidden behind the central stile, but I had 2 scraps exactly the right size, 3/4x1/2x73.75", by chance, so I'm just gonna attach those. they won't show anyway. weird to be done with blueprints! wish I could just work on building it all the time, but I really should do some work this week for money.

oh I returned some stuff to home depot, disappointed by how much they wouldn't take back because it wasn't in their system, when I KNOW I bought it there, bar codes change tho, ce la vie. still came away with about $225 in store credit. spent $50 on stuff right away.

and now more pictures!

worked out the specs for my windows, still unsure at that point how I wanted to construct them. I have since figured out what makes the most sense.


I write small sometimes. saves paper. nice to have a consistent cut list at last.


how will I use these things to make a Tardis? return them for store credit!


salvaged this lamp, and its twin, who's bulb broke in my recent move, from a china cupboard. might use it for the lantern


went to Rockler's for some tightbond 3, HD doesn't carry it. got some other goodies. the jelly jar is not the one I'll be using but the same type.


lumber!


these used to be shelves next to my bed which my clothes were stored on, just happen to be EXACTLY the size I need for my doors, once i cut them down a bit. but I mean after cutting off the "tabs" at the top and bottom, just the right height.


hey, my cheap router still works! the nice one tried to kill me last time. sent a bit spinning across the room, fortunately away from me, not through me!


so, this is what wood filler is for. good job I bought some today. oh wait this is totally hidden anyway, ha!


wall frame assembly on my bench


I have a wall! 2 actually.


was gonna screw the stiles on the walls when I realised I milled them a hair too fat. better than too small, my wood stretcher is on the fritz again


doors with stiles laid on them.


I am chomping at the bit to keep going. wish I didn't have to work tomorrow, but can't put it off forever. promised a little old lady I'd grout her shower.

[mobius]

hey kids! let's see, where are my notes....
2-25-14 update
I have a nasty splinter. also I goofed somehow cut my vertical stiles for my walls a couple of inches or so, on the rather short side. no worries, I"ll put them on the wood stretcher. managed to attach the vertical stiles to the walls and doors, and the horizontals on the doors and one wall, also managed to use screws that were a tad on the long side and screw the wall to my workbench, oops. ah well. I have to buy some 5/8th's screws. should have picked some up while I was at Rockler. busy day tomorrow won't likely have much time to work on it.

and now some photographs

 

it's starting to look like something!


casing/columns laid on and dummy central stile just to see how it'll look.


now I can't find my rosettes! ah well. today I remembered to take down the smoke detectors and put them in a plastic bag before turning on the table saw. the walls are getting heavy! when digging for wood for the horizontal stiles as much as I could I favoured tuff-board, a plastic type wood substitute product, fairly  light weight, I wasn't going to use much of that because it has no texture, and makes tons of fine toxic dust,  but I used every piece I had which was big enough, about 5 bars, also some lightweight pine. the original plan was as much plywood as possible for structural integrity and anti-warpage, not that it can't warp, but with opposing layers of grain direction it tends not to. I found I had 3 long boards, 2 of cherry, 1 of oak, which I was prepared to use for vertical stiles if necessary but I really didn't want to, shouldn't paint that kind of wood, fortunately I didn't need to.

starting to wish I had considered the weight when making my plans, but ce la vie, I'm strong and will still be able to haul the walls up 4 floors. sorry my posts are rambling and semi-nonsequential, I have A.D.D, I cut the window holes today, and the phone chamber hole. once i was looking at those doors with the stiles and holes cut, I started to feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I could finish this in a few days if I didn't have to work. will try to avoid work as much as possible, but people keep needing me to fix things.

[NotaMountainGoat]

Looking good, and really cool idea for a build! Almost makes me want to try my own alternate, elseworld-style TARDIS (albeit in a much smaller scale). 

[mobius]

thanks! do it! do it model size, save wood!

[mobius]

hey boys girls and others, what time is it? doesn't matter with time travel! but, time for an update anyway!

carved out some time to work on her today, got the blocks for behind the plinth blocks attached, plinths, base and cap cut, changed my mind about what I was gonna use there as I found I had just enough, and I mean EXACTLY enough baseboard with cap attached, for the 6 blocks I needed, the scrap I had left over was useless, and I had to very carefully plot all my 45 degree miter cuts, (mitre?) I had precisely no margin of error.

I used tape to hold some of the horizontal bars in place while I screwed them on from behind, this time with 3/4" screws so they wouldn't go all the way through and then some, (I'm a professional, I swear), some were snug enough that I didn't have to tape them in place.

I had to do a lot of thinking, some drawing and quadruple checking my calculations around the lower corners where I have plinth blocks, blocks behind them to pad them out, and corner moulding posts at the bottom (I have waited years for a chance to use those things! always wanted to. finally figured out what specs everything should be, oh and I found an 8 foot long 4.5" wide plank of tuff board, which I chopped part of up for the baseboard plinths, only to change my mind and not use it when I found I had the baseboard and cap, which looks way better than what I was going to use. a 2.5" cap would have looked unnatural.  like this thing is going to look normal somehow, haha.

I attached the "columns" door casing, and rosettes on top with screws and nails, and on the doors cut and set in the frames around the panels. I forgot I was going to put metal grille behind the frames, but I only put one nail in which bent, have to buy some very short wire brads for that stuff. I could not resist, had to see some blue, so I opened my can of Big Country blue, (B. Moore), purchased for a small job some time ago, and painted one panel on the right door just to see how it will look. hell yeah!  that made me happy, was hard to make myself stop but it was 9pm, and really too soon to start painting. I will use up that paint as primer, might be just enough, only have a quart, but probably go with something a little darker. I am intentionally not going to just go with whatever the official colour is this year as decreed by the beeb, but rather look at different blues and use whatever feels right. once I've chosen something, I will look at the official colours and see if I like them/it better.

some of my recycled lumber is very rough, I like that. I want this box to look old, and not like something I just built. no worries there.

bars taped in place for fastening from behind


wall with columns/casing/rosettes


rethinking, some numbers didn't seem to make sense. @_@ I showed them who's boss. er, after recalculating a couple more times. remember kids, measure once, cut twice!


my first plan for base cap was this 2.5" stuff I had


til I found I had just enough of this, also shown the leftover useless scraps. I wasted nothing. damn I'm good. sometimes.


recycled colonial door panel frames, a lucky find.


yeah, the colour couldn't be less accurate in this photo


this is closer to what it actually looks like. probably too bright a blue to use but ok for primer.


well tomorrow I really have to work, won't have time to tinker with the time machine, nor saturday, sunday late afternoon hopefully I can hack away at it some more.

[mobius]

tweaked that photo's colours, this looks nice.

[galacticprobe]

Your first color test photo looks a bit like the color the TARDIS had in "The Three Doctors". Your second color test photo looks like the Capaldi Box blue. That last color photo - after you "tweaked" the colors looks very close to the Matt Smith TARDIS' color, but with a texture the Old Girl had during the 'Key to Time' series. (I'd call that one good!)

Dino.

[mobius]

thanks, I think that last one is close to "right". she's got plenty of texture too, believe me!

[mobius]

so today 2-28-14, I went to the homey, as we call home depot sometimes, found some brads, not exactly right, but good enough, not the best selection, almost bought a bunch of detail moulding, molding? frilly wood anyway, bought some egg and dart instead, decided after yet much more thought, math, measuriing and calculating costs, to just make the window frames fancy, and keep the muntons plain. it'll be stronger that way and cheaper to boot. also took a photo of the grill stuff I was considering putting inside each panel, and did a photoshop mock up of how it would look (see below). I think I probably won't do it. not just because it's $70 in materials. I think it's a bit too busy. while I had photoshop open I tinted a photo of my walls, which didn't really work since some of the wood is painted white, but gave me the idea that if I prime one wall white, I can then uniformly tint a photograph to experiment with different shades of blue. I think this project is likely to take me realistically several more weeks to complete. that's a bit disheartening, since my ADD brain wants to chug away full steam and do nothing but work on this until it is done! but I really can't let myself do that. it'll get done eventually. I've made great headway anyway in a short period of time.





my workshop does now remind me more than ever of Jon Pertwee's at UNIT. that brings me some comfort. (you never forget you first Doctor. met him once. splendid fellow. all of them.)