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George's Bedroom TARDIS Door

Started by flipperth, Mar 23, 2009, 12:38 am

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flipperth

Mar 23, 2009, 12:38 am Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:49 am by Scarfwearer
Hi All - I was going to build a full size replica of the New-Series TARDIS in my back garden, but not having a garage and the shed being too small to store the bits whilst building it (my wife is not that patient and/or forgiving to allow me to use all of the house!) I decided instead to convert my son's new bedroom door into a TARDIS door.

The build is almost complete and I am very happy with the results.

The brief of the build was to create a replica of the New-Series TARDIS but within the dimensions of the current door frame (i.e. so that should we ever sell our house the TARDIS door could be converted back into a door with little effort). The only caveat to that is the lantern, for which I have had to cut through the plasterboard, so there will be some work involved in restoring that!

The result is a rather elongated TARDIS, which may not be to everyone's taste, but as a useable bedroom door and it being a not-too-disruptive-to-the-fabric-of-the-family-home build I think the compromise of the elongation is worth it.

The build is a two sided affair, with the back of the door being painted white and telephone to be attached in due course. It has a lantern, into which I plan to incorporate a light and sound effects (using my 5" Flight Control TARDIS's electronics), light box with NST POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX sign, PULL TO OPEN telephone door and ERA lock (I think that was the one used on the NST).

I've been building it since January and I've taken plenty of pictures, of which I'll post some here, so you can get an idea of the process of the build. I would like to thank my wife for her patience and to everyone that has posted on this website - as a resource for creating a TARDIS this site is invaluable and it is nice to see that everyone is really supportive of people undertaking builds and the resulting TARDISes are incredibly well done and I've really enjoyed looking at the photos of other people's creations.

Anyway, back to George's bedroom TARDIS door. Given this has been an inside build this has meant that I've not had to source top quality materials, so that has saved time and money. I was able simply to use B&Q to obtain most of the wood (though for the backs of the doors I did use a local timber merchant, who weren't as exact with their cutting measurements as I'd have liked).

It's also meant that my construction could be rather crude. I've simply used No More Nails to attach the frame to the plywood and then painted over the top. In fact I didn't even create a frame, simply cut the wood to size and stuck it to the frame and filled in any noticeable gaps, of which there were very few.

The hardest part of the build was the light box as was devising a way to attach it to the door frame. In the end I opted for 2 keyhole slots at the top of the light box with the screws attaching into the door frame.

The other tricky part ended up being actually hanging the doors to the existing frame - this involved moving the existing hinges, as the TARDIS doors were deeper than the original door, as well as having to plane off wood from the door frame and general rejigging. I got there in the end and following a bit of touching up, the front aspect of the doors is finished.

I hope you like the effect - George is happy, so that's the main thing, and I'm pretty chuffed with them too. I will be posting photos of the backs of the doors once they are tidied up and the phone is on which I hope will be in the next couple of weeks. I'm hosting a Doctor Who get together of some of my friends in a couple of weeks, so that is the deadline really. I'd like to get a celeb to formally open the doors (so to speak) (Matt Smith would be good - anyone know if he's up for it?). I saw Sylvester McCoy helping to paint a TARDIS (I think it was Nesshane's TARDIS), so he might be game.

Anyway, enjoy George's bedroom TARDIS door and thanks for reading my post. I look forward to reading what everyone thinks and if anyone else is planning a bedroom door, I might be able to give a few tips.

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Starting point.
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This is after routering.
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Nearly there - note the lack of handles and lantern
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Done.
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Happy Boy!
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Front Doors Finished!!!


clutters

Aug 22, 2009, 01:44 am #1 Last Edit: Jan 15, 2010, 11:24 pm by scarfwearer
Great pictures - perhaps need to be resized down a bit though?

Doctor Iz

Mar 23, 2009, 01:23 am #2 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:38 am by scarfwearer
Whaaawhooo.... Awesome set up!  A budding young DOCTOR WHO to boot!
I love the idea, my wife doesn't, but I may have to try this out myself. 
Nice work. :)
(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h310/jonizdo/Logos/DRIZ_rev20080226copy-2.jpg)

flipperth

Mar 23, 2009, 06:41 am #3 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:38 am by scarfwearer
Thanks for your post.  The only way I got to do it was to make as little impact as possible to the door frame. That way it can always be put back to normal easily. Well done with your TARDIS by the way. It looks amazing. 

atomicgraph

Mar 23, 2009, 11:01 am #4 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:42 am by scarfwearer
hey that turned out pretty cool. fun idea for a room. good job

flipperth

Mar 23, 2009, 11:31 am #5 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:42 am by scarfwearer
Thanks - just got think of what to do for my daughter's room - the Rani's TARDIS perhaps?

davidnagel

Mar 24, 2009, 03:26 pm #6 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:43 am by scarfwearer
HAHA Fantastic! It looks lovely

And much better than my attempt way back when... I was younger... and while I don't want to steal your thread, here is mine from the early 00s

Closed on landing

tardisdoor4.jpg

Open on landing

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Potential interior :) yes, the roundelled doors are the otherside of the doors

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And fitted correctly...

room2.jpg

!!!Thread stealing now over!!!
Regards
David

flipperth

Mar 24, 2009, 04:34 pm #7 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:43 am by scarfwearer
Steal away! I think that looks fantastic. I like what you've done with the back of the doors. Just one thing, how did you get out?

George's doors are based on the New Series TARDIS so the backs are panelled as per the front and painted white, so it's relatively straightforward (photos available soon).

What I did with my sign box was to reduce the height of the doors in the door frame to 10cm from the frame and in the gap put the sign box, so that the light from inside the room lights up the POLICE BOX sign.

Thanks for your post.

avadh

Mar 24, 2009, 07:56 pm #8 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:43 am by scarfwearer
Lovely bedroom tardises.

flipperth

Mar 24, 2009, 08:19 pm #9 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:44 am by scarfwearer
Thanks for your post; George is loving his doors.

Some progress on the phone...

I've found a bell box on eBay, which I'm going to add to using bits of a modern replica candlestick phone.

This is the bell box I got from eBay

eBayTARDISphone.jpg

It's a pretty good match to the NST phone

tardis2005-phone.jpg 1e5k0i.jpg

and this is the replica candlestick phone from which I'm going to use the mouthpiece and receiver to add to the front and side of the bell box

SNW05-CR.jpg


Doctor Iz

Mar 25, 2009, 01:32 am #10 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:44 am by scarfwearer
a mighty fine find there mate! 
I would have loved a dad like you!!!
Your kids will remember this for their life times... kudos to you!
(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h310/jonizdo/Logos/DRIZ_rev20080226copy-2.jpg)

Rox

Mar 25, 2009, 08:58 am #11 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:44 am by scarfwearer
The bell box is fantastic - may I give some tips?

The two dials, as far as I can tell are almost identical to brass effect guitar hat knobs:

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Ebay item no:   270324770088

I found that for the earpiece (which doesn't seem to be a telephone earpiece at all) I used a small, retractable brass telescope, which did the job.

Here's a pic:

Tphone.jpg

I made my bell box too big - so if you spot another one of the small ones like yours on eBay, please let me know.  :)

Also, the mouthpiece changes depending on the season.  The one on the pics above look like an eggcup shape (I bought a brass eggcup and modded it) and the second type like this:

tinkle.jpg
My pilot's license? That's out back in the Cessna. Or perhaps you're referring to my license to kill. Revoked. Trouble at the Kazakhstan border.

I could give you the details but then I'd have to kill you, which I can't do because my license to kill has been revoked.

flipperth

Mar 25, 2009, 10:38 am #12 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:45 am by scarfwearer
Hi Rox - thanks for your post.

Thanks for the tip re the dials - they look fantastic. I like the idea of using a telescope. The eggcup's a good idea too. I was thinking about getting a brass candlestick and using the top part of that (i.e. where the candle goes in), but I haven't found a good match yet.

It's funny you should mention about eBay and the bell box, as I also bought this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270359613628&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123

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as well as the other one I got. As you can see I bought it for £20.50. It's not as good as the other one (i.e. it will need a new coat of varnish), but if you want it it's yours for £20.50.



flipperth

Mar 25, 2009, 10:39 am #13 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:45 am by scarfwearer
Thanks for your post Doctor IZ - I'd have loved a TARDIS bedroom door when I was little, so I'm living a childhood dream now through George!

Rox

Mar 25, 2009, 03:21 pm #14 Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 08:45 am by scarfwearer
I have plenty of varnish!  ;D  Will PM you.  :)

Also I'm sure I bought a pair of the eggcups if you'd like the other one..?  (I'll have to find it first)

I had the same thought, trying to find a candlestick the right shape for the earpiece, but as yet, no luck.  Will let you know if I find anything.

Also, if you buy a couple of long head potentiometers, you can fit those on the inside of the box for the knobs to fit onto, so they can be turned.  :)
My pilot's license? That's out back in the Cessna. Or perhaps you're referring to my license to kill. Revoked. Trouble at the Kazakhstan border.

I could give you the details but then I'd have to kill you, which I can't do because my license to kill has been revoked.