NST - 2013 Style

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OK so here we go - but a bit of background first.

I am a novice woodworker.  I have never tried to build anything quite like this before, or on this scale.

As most of you will i'm sure relate to, I have always wanted to have my own TARDIS in the garden.  Ever since I was a child it has been something that I always imagined would be very cool to have but it always seemed unobtainable.

Fast forward to adulthood and the concept of disposable income (just!).  Having my own garden of course its always been at the back of my mind where I could have a TARDIS.  I have the perfect spot all lined up.

I noticed that a certain company is licensed to build a replica TARDIS and I considered saving up to treat myself.  I kept my eye on their website and started to save - although it seemed that every time I went back to the site their prices had gone up (thats the way of the world).  Anyway to cut a long story short, when the 'time was right' for me their Matt Smith version including delivery was way beyond my financial grasp!

It was then that I decided to think about building one for myself... how hard can it be? 


At this point I must take a moment to give special mention and thanks to this forum, and specifically PMC.   I cannot stress enough how his particular thread was nothing short of inspirational.  His clear and concise step by step pictures of the construction were so very helpful to de-mystify the whole process and it really did give me the confidence to have a go myself.  In addition, PMC was extremely helpful to me, and he took the time and trouble to answer a few questions for me, and it is solely down to him that I had the confidence to try.  I wholeheartedly urge anyone considering a build to check out his diary (its titled NST2010).

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OK, so a bit about this build diary.

I have to tell you that, as I type this, my (mostly) finished box sits outside in my garden, pride of place.  I always intended to create this retrospective build diary in an attempt to help others and give a bit back to this forum that was so helpful to me.

My intention is as follows:

• This is NOT supposed to be a comprehensive step by step instructional build.  As mentioned before, please refer to NST2010 by PMC for a great thread.


• I do have quite a few pictures of the stages of build.. I will include these here.


• I am going to tell you how and why I did some things differently to PMC and why (mostly its corner-cutting to be honest - im not as good as he is with my woodwork)


• Although retrospective, and am going to post in the correct sequence so you can see what I did in what order


• I still have questions and need help, even now... so any advice is still very very welcome

And to the question of dimensions.....

As im sure we all know the dimensions is a bit of a sticky subject.  As everyone else I wont post these but again there are many people more than willing and able to help out with this regard.

I would give the following words of advice though:

Dont get too hung up on the odd cm here or there.  If it looks and feels right the so be it.  Dimensions change as you progress and you just have to deal with it.  Personally, there are several instances in my build where i saw no merit in cutting off a cm from a standard sized piece of timber.  I used stock sizes and widths wherever I could, and im sure you will see that it makes not the slightest bit of difference.

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Step 1.  The Lamp.

OK so I used the newhaven lamp as my base
http://www.qvsdirect.com/New-Haven-60W-Lantern-Outdoor-Wall-Light-Rustic-pr-23082.html

removed and re-sited 2 spokes to leave 4.

I could not for the life of me find a good top for the lamp.. until I came across this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardman-Large-Steel-Nyger-Feeder/dp/B003YUL0JS/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_2

Yes, I know it doesnt look exactly right, but trust me its the best I could find...AND there is a huge benefit to it.  Once you cut the top off the newhaven lamp, the metal 'twist on and off' ring that comes with the birdfeeder is the EXACT right size to fit over the top of the stump of the newly cut lamp.  This gives you a twist on twist off lamp lid that is perfect to enable you easy access to change the bulb etc in the future.

Not perfect but im sure you will agree is a good compromise and its from currently available materials.

EDIT:

I've added a picture of the 'twist off ring' that came from the seed feeder.  You can see that coincidentally it was the perfect size to fit around the now 'sawn-off' top of the Newhaven lamp.

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Step 2:  The base frame, base, and corner posts.

The corner posts were constructed in the same was as PMC's.

I would echo comments about warped wood.  This plagued me throughout the build and I dont know what the answer is here without going to the expense of joinery quality wood.  It is impractical to hand pick each piece at the shop, and you save money by purchasing bulk packs of certain sizes of wood.  You cannot check them all.

I ruined a whole corner post by thinking that it would be OK to use a warped piece... it ended up having to be scrapped and started again.

I did all the router details the same as PMC.

Also, the base frame I laminated as PMC.  It was easier to do this than to source the correct sized wood, and theoretically to cut it would have been a pain so it was easier to do it in pieces.

You can see how it fitted together in the pictures.

I decided to attach the smaller corner post locaters directly to the base frame.  Just made more sense to me to do it that way as the eventual corner posts would have something more solid to stand on, and another point of attachment if i felt i needed it later.  This worked very well as all I needed to do was slide the corner posts onto these locaters and they stood very sturdily.

For the floor, I used tongue and groove floorboard wood.  I couldnt get ply big enough at a reasonable cost with minimal waste, and i wasnt confident enough to cut the triangles that PMC did.  To be honest it was quite east to build this floor and with a bit of filler and sanding you would never know!

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Step 3: Signboxes.

I did the signboxes next to add rigidity to the structure.

The signs themselves are opal acrylic with black vinyl signs.  These were made by a local sign writing firm.

There is nothing really to add that PMC didn't cover in his build!

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Step 4: The 3 sides.

Ok so heres something I would have done differently.

I needed to make a frame around each side to accommodate the side panels and doors.  I thought it would be better to use the wood i had and cut it to size and route it to shape.

Mostly down to my inexperience, it was very hard to do.  long cuts on a table saw one handed are hard to make consistent, and even with the help of a feather board its still tricky.

You wouldnt really know on the finished result, but there is a great deal of inconsistency with what I came up with.  If i did it again, I would buy some wood specifically for the job and do minimal cutting and shaping.

ALSO.... do not do the surround pieces on the door side until the doors are hung.  I did it first and it made hanging the doors more troublesome than it should have been.  Leave that till later!

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Step 5: Cladding the side panels and building the doors.

Ok so once again its the same principal as detailed by PMC.

This is where I decided to use the stock sized wood for the rails and stiles, as a few mm or a cm didnt make any difference.

I also decided to make things easier for myself and make the rails butt up against the stiles, and then to route out the 45 degree edges and use a chisel to make the corners.

You may know that this is the method they used to make the Tennant TARDIS.  I have to say I am very pleased I took this approach.  I was not at all sure I could manage the 45 degree cuts and precision that PMC managed on the rails, and the finished result is perfectly fine and was very quick to do.


I constructed the doors again the same as PMC, making them narrower and putting wood at the edges to give a nice finish as the are seen from the sides when open of course.

Again, I came up against warped wood here.  Very annoying and the end result is not quite as good as it could be but at the point I discovered it was too late!

What would I do differently?  well I would know now the importance of straight wood on certain specific parts of the build... the corner posts being one and the door rails and stiles being the other.  These really must be straight and true (good luck with that one!)

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Step 6: Finishing and hanging the doors

Firstly, the Pull to Open sign.

Again this was made for me by the local sign writers.  We used clear acrylic, with black lettering on one side.  On the reverse side we used white vinyl with the letters reverse cut.

Now, to be honest, I was trying to achieve a 'halo effect' around the letters.  This kindof worked, but really wasnt worth the extra effort.  I wanted the sign to glow when backlit and for the letters to stand out a bit.  Cutting 'thick' letters would have been very expensive so we achieved the effect with the thin black vinyl on top of 4mm clear acrylic.  It does work nicely but the reverse cut on the rear white vinyl sheet wasnt really worth doing in my opinion.

I didnt want the small door to open, so it is just fixed in place - too much effort for something that will never be 'used'.

Hanging the doors was a bit of a challenge and certainly a 2 handed operation.  As I mentioned earlier I wished I hadnt put the surround up before hanging the doors as it really got in the way.

Anyway, I got there!

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Step 7:  Window Frames.

Well, these were quite a pain.

Firstly, not being the expert woodworker, each window aperture was slightly different - only a mm or so but enough not to be able to get each one identical.  I did consider getting each one cut from foam board but that would have been about £28 per window and I would not have guaranteed a fit.

Secondly, back to a previous lesson learned... I really should have bought pre-cut wood for this but I decided to slice up existing board.  The end result, though passable is a little rough and inconsistent.

So, I cut all the pieces and laid them out on a template and glued and nailed them together, finally gluing them in place in the window apertures.