Southern Fried TARDIS

[Elvis Gump]

It begins...

Some old reclaimed wood 2x4s, finally cut, glued and biscuited the parts for all four sides the base out and couldn't resist clamping some of the boards for the columns together and standing them up temporarily. Working on the base today gluing it up, adding cross-members and all.

[galacticprobe]

If the rest of your TARDIS turns out as nice as that base has, be careful... be very careful. I have relatives in Florida. I may visit them, and then when you least expect it, we may band together like we did when we were kids and spirit that TARDIS back to my house! (The Doctor stole his, after all. )

So... expect the unexpected, when you least expect it!

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

The base was HARD. All the lumber I used had problems, I really need a planer. The base was made by gluing and gluing/clamping 2 2x4" pieces together, a few passes through the table saw to square them best I could, cutting them to 60" with 45º miters on each end. Then I milled the 24.5º angle to four more, glued them down, shot some brads in to hold them in place and carefully cut them to match the bottom pieces on the table saw. I couldn't cut them in one shot as a single piece because my miter saw is only 10". I saw this problem already with Philip Wise's epic RPF TARDIS build and I think he couldn't do it in one go either and he had a 12" miter saw. I'm trying to duplicate his method as best I can with my modest little shop. I didn't really take any pictures of this, I got the lumber and just went at it with low expectations that it would work as well as it did.

The hardest thing after biscuiting the corner joints was trying to get it all glued up together by myself. I used tie-down straps to pull the corners tight. I'm actually building two TARDISs, one full size and one smaller, half-scale. That's it's base, also made of reclaimed lumber. I've got a load of stuff, some rescued, some from 'cull packs' of stuff from a big-box store. So far zero dollars on lumber in this, about $120 on cull stuff that was originally a LOT more.



I've been building a frame for a better table all morning for a 4x8 sheet of plywood so I can lay out the corner posts and it's easily 100º today like yesterday with 100% humidity so it's exhausting just to be out in the workshop even with fans going like a hurricane. I need to sweep and vacuum badly as you can see.



I'm going to wait a bit before I start sourcing a light for the top to see how I do...

[galacticprobe]

Elvis, I think your workshop/garage is bigger than my house!

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

Must be a pretty small house! I think it's like 35x45 ft over all. It was a detached 3-car garage building my father built, first just posts and a roof, later a poured concrete slab and metal siding. It gets cramped really quick with two table saws, a miter saw stand and work table, not to mention the 5 foot square TARDIS base laid out on the floor.

I didn't get anywhere as much done yesterday or today because I had a friend over who was painting a bookshelf with his girlfriend and I had to banish them to the ramp in front because they couldn't do that with me flying sawdust. The heat has been sapping, but we are about to get some unseasonal record cold spell in July so I'm looking forward to that starting tomorrow.

I got the first column pieces all cut to length and width tonight, now to biscuit them together tomorrow and try to clamp it up. The boards look to have warped a bit since I bought them, so this should be interesting. No pictures until tomorrow in the PM.

The worst I can do is screw it up and have to start over. I'm trying to look at it as 'learn from the f*ckups' and don't stress, just do it till it comes out right. I've got till Wednesday to make progress as this is functioning as my mini-vacation from work which I badly needed or go crazy. Also I've been procrastinating doing this as long as I could, now I have enough toys to get this done. Just need a table for the router and I'll be golden.

[russellsuthern]

Looking great! Much more detailed than mine
I'm loving the fact that you are using reclaimed wood.
Most of my wood is from free sources. Half the fun is trying to find the right bits!
So much good wood just gets skipped, it's such a shame...
Good luck with the rest of your build!

Russell

[galacticprobe]

Must be a pretty small house! I think it's like 35x45 ft over all.

Have you measured my house!? You have no idea how close to those measurements my house is on the inside. It's only about five feet longer (at fifty feet), but it is eleven feet narrower (at 24 feet). So you've got 1,575 square feet of space; my house has 1,200 even - and that's not taking into account space used up by the walls. (Your workshop is bigger than my house! No wonder I can't get anything to fit right, even after fudging measurements. Arrgh.)

And on that note, your TARDIS's base - aside from looking great so far - is the same size as my bathroom. (I'm sure everyone needed to know that. )

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

Got a little farther today, though not as much as I hoped. Didn't get started till after noon as most of the morning was spent helping my friend put some doors on a bookshelf. I'd never used those 'hidden' style hinges before and though these were the surface mount kind it was a pain to get them to close with an equal gap. Ugh.

I first cut some posts to length (92") and dry clamped them up to see if I even had a minimum amount of clamps I was satisfied with, which I wasn't, so there was a run to town for some more. Lowe's had 2-6" clamps and 2-12" clamps in a multi-pack for $24.98 so that brings my total of clamps up to a lot. Still not enough. There's no such thing as enough clamps.



I trimmed the boards down to 5" wide and cut biscuits slots to glue and clamp the posts together. I don't know if I can remember seeing anyone use a biscuit joiner here, but doing it this way instead of nails or screws means I can use a pattern routing bit to cut the slight inset for the sign boxes without fear of hitting a nail later. I'm using #20 biscuits, though they come in 2 smaller sizes, this is about the only ones I use since most stuff I work with is a least 1"x lumber.

If you've never used one or don't own one, I recommend a biscuit cutter or as it's also called a 'plate-joiner' because it's my favorite tool in my shop for putting wood together.





Since some of the boards were a bit warped from being stored so long, I just glued up two sides at a time so I could max out the clamps and really squeeze the glued joint tight. This is obviously slower than using a brad or finish nailer, but there's no gap whatsoever when it's done.





Basically tomorrow I expect the rest of the posts to take up a lot of the day, but it's supposed to cool down to the low 80s or high 70s with the polar vortex, so unless the day turns into "The Day After Tomorrow" I should have time while glue dries to finish the base and get it ready to accept the posts. After that it's all downhill right? Just walls, doors, sign boxes, roof and done...

[Elvis Gump]

Decided before I turned out the lights to glue up the two halves to make a completed post. It sang like a wooden ship in the wind tightening down the halves, but it is SQUARE, which is all that matters to me

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[Elvis Gump]

First post out of clamps and erect, cutting all the other post pieces now. Couldn't resist standing it up and raising it on some spare block to almost proper height. One tiny mistake, cut the boards to 5" even, forgetting to subtract the 3/8" to make the final posts 5" square. So now 92" high by 5-3/8" square. It's have a slightly squatter look I guess, but then it will narrow the doors and walls by nearly 1/2" overall and make the squares and windows that less square-ish in the end. Maybe it will be a visually better happy accident?



Hopefully four posts and the base done by tomorrow. Got such a late start today and regret it...

[Elvis Gump]

After I got the first column finished, I cut the rest of the boards to size in one mass go at it.



Then more cutting biscuit holes. I was generous, nine per edge for a total of 36 per column. For four columns that would be, uh, carry the uh, well, it's a lotta friggin' biscuit cuts. Then the clamping. And more clamping. Two boards, then the other two boards and then clamp the halves together and manhandle them into a column. Lotta drying time. with 20 clamps only enough to do the three steps one at a time.



Finally three and a half columns with the fourth about to go in place and call it a day. Stood up the three finished and one half just to look at it. Only one raised to height as I haven't started the bottom parts that will fit into the base once supports and the floor is skinned with plywood. But the sucker already feels HUGE. And there's still the roof...



Is it wrong to start to feel a little giddy?

[mr mcgoo]

Hehe, I remember the feeling. After having it up for a while, say with just the posts and base you kind of get used to the size. Then everytime you put a knew piece on top you get that giddy feeling again. Enjoy the giddy feeling, except when you have to climb the ladder to throw the lamp on the top. Then its just annoying to get it up there.

[Elvis Gump]

Finally another day off work so I could get back to this. Mostly sanding. Or should I say SANDING. Like an idiot it took me about an hour to remember I have some really good ear-protectors that I wasn't using. Plugged in the MP3 player, ear-buds in, protectors over that and time went by much better. There is however no lonelier task than sanding. Still when I had four fully sanded smooth posts it was worth it.

Had to take a vacuum bath just to get enough crud off to come back in the house to get a cold drink and some air-conditioning. Thought I'd sit down a moment and scan the board. It was hellishly hot after several days of moderate temps when I was at work wishing I could be TARDIS building. It's been great fun to be back at it today.

Laying out the floor tomorrow since I have help coming over to hold the other end of floor supports while I get that done. Going to try to get the plug-in bits for the end of the posts and their supports started before I call it a night. Will try to remember to take some pictures.

[Elvis Gump]

It was another lone day off from work, boiling hot and my A/C in my house died again, so it's no refuge. I tried to make a progress on the TARDIS today but it was slow going. Got the plugs for the ends of the posts started and fresh lumber for the floor supports on the base, but ran out of energy to get the floor supports cut and done, so just a small update.

Plugs cut and assembled, but not yet sanded, routed or installed. Working on a DIY router table insert for my table saw to do that. Hopefully up early tomorrow to get that done before work.


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I discovered some pics I missed on my camera card from last week when I was inserting the biscuits before I clamped the halves together for the posts. The insert plugs are made the same way, though there's only 2 per edge versus the 9 per edge I used on the posts.





I have seriously gone through some glue and biscuits so far building this thing. I started on my third bottle of glue tonight with the inserts and I used 32 biscuits on the inserts and 144 on the four posts. There's also 40 more in the base used to form the 2x4s into larger dimensions to create each side. And a lot of glue. And I'm nowhere near finished. DeWalt is going to love me before I'm done the way I'm going through biscuits, but damn they make great joints.

Also, not related but I picked up a discount DeWalt drill and reciprocating saw, though the latter I hope I don't have occasion to use since it's mostly a demolition tool, but it was one of those too good to pass up deals.  Probably no further serious work until Friday when I have a day off again...

[Elvis Gump]

Something I liked about Phiip Wise's build over on the RPF was that he came up with his "New Wookie Workshop" logo, a riff on Norm Abrams' "New Yankee Workshop".

I had tinkered with this a years ago, but never worked on the Tom Baker head I wanted to put on it. I could never find a really good clear profile image of him. In fact I still haven't - this is crazily enough from one of those action-figure doll heads. I thought I would share it because it was something I could do when I got in from work too late to bother my neighbors with the sound of saws emanating from my shop. Anyone who wishes to use it, improve on it I can provide the monstrously large Photoshop file.

I think I'm still going to have to print out the head and scarf and trace and draw the hatch marks in by hand then rescan it in and do it that way as no Photoshop filter combos I use seem to get that cross-hatch/woodcut look of the original. Consider it a work in progress. I think it would make a nice screen-printed plaque for my finished TARDIS, maybe on the inner side of a door....