Southern Fried TARDIS

[Elvis Gump]

Worse is right now I have small windows of time where its warm enough to do anything, right now I get home from work at 11:30pm and the temp is in the 30s, so no gluing until about 12 hrs on now right before I take off for work again...

[Bob's your Uncle]

Wouldn't it be great if we could just stay home and build TARDISes all day? 

[greggnowling]

This looks great.  Seems that you and I have taken pretty much the exact same approach to building our Tardises.   

I had a lot of issues with the panels warping after assembly, so hopefully you don't have that as an issue.   If you get stuck on anything, let me know, I'm happy to help.

Gregg

[Elvis Gump]

Thanks Gregg. Hell, panels - sheets of 4' x 8' 1/4 plywood warping before I even get around to cutting them! The humidity down South here swings more than monkeys in the jungle.
I've been working on sign boxes on my day off, no pics as the cold came up too quick as the sun went down. Lots of checking for square, cursing, turning up the music louder to drown out the cursing, etc.
One thing after the tedium of gluing, sanding, routing, vacuuming, and all that - well I know now why Time Lords grow TARDISes, because building them is a pain in the ass!
More pain tomorrow, maybe even pictures...

[Elvis Gump]

Finally have two sign box carcasses with reinforced ends and backs. To avoid having to notch the backs later for hinges like Phil Wise did on the plans I'm following I used a 3/8" rabbiting bit to inset them flush. The first try was wonky using the bit with my Skil router, so I switched over to my modded DeWalt trim router with an overlarge plexi base plate. This allowed the router and bit to stay rock-solid perpendicular on the cut.

[Elvis Gump]

Word of advice, those big sets of Skil router bits are crap. The 3/8" rabbiting router bit after rabbiting the fourth box back for an inset 5-1/2" by 40" on each box is dull as a rock. And that's on PINE! But I toughed it out, cut some dodgy old scrap 1/2" plywood for backs and now it's on to making the fronts to hold the signs and the hinge mortises to attach these puppies.

It sucks to have to stop and go to work...

[Elvis Gump]

Well, finally have my Gardman-style garden lantern for the top lid for my top lamp.

Sourced here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EBT7A0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00
They still had two left as of this posting for $25.20 It looks really cool in person. I almost hate to cut away the top. But only almost. Anyone have advice for how to cut this thing down and how they attached the top lid to the lower larger part? I'm going to try to wing it when my fresnel lantern gets here.

I'm still trying to source a decent fresnel for the lamp part. I think I've found it but along the way I found these...

These guys appear to still have the Philip Massive New Haven in The Netherlands. At least I think that's what this site is.

Anyone speak Dutch? I wanted one of these initially and despaired that when I finally have gotten close to needing it, they seem to be rarer than hen's teeth.
http://www.lampenonline.com/massive-new-haven-152708610-zwart-goud-wandlamp-buiten

I've found a source stateside that is the mother-lode of all fresnel lamps, but the least expensive is $125. Seriously they seem to have fresnel lamps out the wazzo! Follow the link below to see a cornucopia of fresnel lamps and other ship salvage. It's STAGGERING!
http://www.piecesofship.com/shiplights.htm
Nautical Antiques & Decor out of Galveston Island, Texas. They were very nice and lightening quick to reply to email inquires, so I wanted to give them a shout out.


Visible lens size is approximately 5 1/2" x 7"w  for the red/green and 6 3/4" x 9"w for the non painted.
The bigger mother there may help someone with a classic TARDIS build, and I'll repost all that info I n the Top Lamp section in a bit.

That was a bit steep for my budget, so I'm going with this 6.69" wide one I found on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252309935905

and I'll see how that works. What I like is it seems to have only the four struts like the Smith/Capaldi lamp without having to mod-off a fifth or sixth strut many others have.
If it doesn't I may go with the painted one from Nautical Antiques.

Lastly I want to share this beauty I found. I want it but I can't justify buying it to cut down for a TARDIS, but someone might want it. The seller wants  $101.38 USD for it. Its perfect and beautiful. And in Belgium. Look it it! Just look at it!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/260865325/authentic-nautical-lantern-antique?ref=shop_home_active_6


Finally two contiguous days off in a row Mon-Tues so I hope to get back to the wood working after a months interruption of other projects, favors, freezing weather and rain.

[Elvis Gump]

Dinner break update:
Okay, got the Glow Light and couldn't help myself but parody the shot of the BBC workshop guy that appeared here several years ago showing off the actual Smith TARDIS light.  
Anyone know who that guy is and what the original thread was?

My lantern is on it's way from Mumbai, India - I thought the seller was here in the US, sooo have to wait and if it makes it here in one piece.

I'm more excited that my pull handles are on the way from the UK (thanks & shout-out to Chris!) which I'm probably more excited about. An actual part for my TARDIS from the Land of Doctor Who! Which is probably made in China. But it spent some time in the UK, so that's something. I feel sure since it passed through the hands of chriskingbees some sort of magic rubbed off on it.

Anyhoo, got a bit done even though it was horribly cold yesterday and had to go have a molar capped at the dentist today and forage for groceries, but i found time to made a jig to cut the door hinges into the sign boxes.

I'm not happy with it so I'm going to try to make it a bit smoother. My patterning bit is a dull as hell, so have to get another one as I don't have much confidence in my router bit sharpening skills.

One thing that has proved handy is a countersink bit and a hinge drill bit shown at the bottom most drill in the picture. I wound up with two of each after looking high and low for the first two I purchased. There seems to be a unmeasurable phenomenon that if you can't find where you stored an irreplaceable tool or widget, buy another, bring it into the shop, go make coffee and when you come back the previously lost thing will come out of hiding. Its like they only come out of hiding when you bring them home a partner to play with... Seems to be how I wind up with two or more of everything!

Sadly on reflection it seems, not a lot to show I'm afraid, but there was a lot of unrelated thing to do not the least of which is trying to tidy up this mess that is my shop. Believe it or not it was worse.

My saws have become a catchall table top for the stuff that won't fit on my 4'x8' work table!


And I have a Rockwell jigsaw table and two router tables that desperately need me to build a work bench for them.

Finally though it feels good to have enough tools to complete this thing I hope before the end of May.

Back to the grindstone...

[galacticprobe]

Wow. Talk about workshop envy! (Nice army of drills you have there, ready to defend the place. I can see them as 'Who' monsters, like those little spider mite thingies that wreaked havoc on Platform One in "The End of the World".)

As for this...

Anyone know who that guy is and what the original thread was?

The original post for that image is in here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3362.msg38500#msg38500 (second image down). No name of the man holding the lamp is mentioned; it may have been in another thread, but this one is the original post for the image. (NOTE: That thread is mainly talking about the lamp housing on the Tom Yardley-Jones TARDIS from the Classic Series; this image of the Matt Smith TARDIS model was posted to show the difference in housings.)

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

That's by no means all my drills, though I'm starting to favor my Bosch 18 volt lithium stuff over my older DeWalt 18v NiCad stuff as DeWalt has all but dropped all support for its older 18v line of tools. You can get an adapter to plug in them to use the newer 20v lithium batteries, but the Bosch tools are so much better all around on power and battery life. They are competitive now with DeWalt and Hitachi on price and much better tools.
I managed to pick up the 18v 6-1/2" circular saw and recip saw for $36 each because the versions Lowes had a while back identical to the ones that are currently going for $119 a pop had the defunct Bosch tool box trays with them. So I got more for less, weird as it seems. I've been lucky to snag some insane deals.

I managed to deconstruct the Glow Light lantern top with my Dremel 200 and a lock cutting disk as my last task of the night. There are a couple of spot welded tabs that hold the lid to the main body, though getting the chimney part with the holes in it off the larger part requires some aggressive cutting as its folded around the chimney. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I'll try to post some of the 'finished' result tomorrow.

Anyone still making Police Box signs? That and the phone door sign are all I've got left to acquire. I'm really trying to imagine how I'm going to explain to a local sign maker in redneck Mississippi what they are for. That will be the worst part of the whole build...

[galacticprobe]

I'm really trying to imagine how I'm going to explain to a local sign maker in redneck Mississippi what they are for. That will be the worst part of the whole build...

Maybe not as bad as all that, depending on where in Mississippi you are. Another of our members is in Meridian, MS, so (to quote the Face of Boe) "You Are Not Alone".

Oh... wait... that's you in Meridian. Duh! Well, maybe there are other members in Mississippi that just haven't put their location in their profile so they're not showing up on the TARDIS Map.

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

This is the finished result of cutting up the Glow Light lantern top. It was a bit ugly looking to cut the chimney away, but that won't show later. I'm thinking Bondo or perhaps some light brazing to join the two top parts together, but will ask my brother for advice as he's my welding support.



I have this feeling after spending like $24 on this lamp I'm going to find the exact same thing locally now for like $5 after a few years of keeping an eye peeled for one. Isn't that the way it works?

[Elvis Gump]

There is another TARDIS in Mississippi actually built by a guy I knew in college that is a book swap kiosk outside the library in Mize, MS. We had a falling out years ago (a long story) so I haven't talked to him in years, but it is a nice example of a classic series box.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAGCDvjNd0R/

[galacticprobe]

Nice box, that other one; but it always pains me to hear about a falling out like this, regardless of the reasons. Maybe because I've seen it happen too often and have become sensitized to it. Or maybe just because I wish I could see everyone on the planet get along, all the time, forever. (Utopian, I know, but that's just me. I mean, sure, everyone has their moments - even me - but it's nice to overcome them and then get along again.)

And don't feel bad about that lamp, Elvis; as hard as they are to come by, I seriously doubt that you'll find one for only $5 unless it's at a yard/garage/boot sale and someone just wants to get rid of one.

Dino.

[Elvis Gump]

When I ordered one of the components last week from Amazon I went with the 'others also purchased' thing and added a $2 St Johns emblem on a whim. I didn't check to see if it was particularly accurate, just you know, a whim. Had forgotten about frankly and it came in the mail today. From Thailand.
Seems about the right size... I just can't stop chuckling at the Thailand postmark. It's the most far flung locale originating item ever to arrive in my mailbox.