TARDIS Office Door

[Senseidale]

PM sent
I take it that the door you have replaced, with your Tardis doors,  is a standard uk door opening ?
how much scaling down if any did you have to do,
I have been telling the master, missy the wife how great this will look going in to the kids play room, and wait for it she said she will think about it, only if the door can be replaced at a later date IE when the kids grow up or I grow up and that is never going to happen   
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[phillbarron]

I assume it's standard size too ... but have never measured any other door so can't be certain:

The original door was: 2020 x 823 x 40 (in mm!). I started with Bill Rudloff's plans for the Eccleston/Tennant box and then scaled them to 88% of the height and 72% of the width.

I posted (blurry) photos of all my hastily scribbled plans on a comment on the first page of this build - just moved them to an update so they're easier to find.

The beauty of my build (and the selling point to my wife) is it's easily removable. Only the posts are glued to the frame. The roof is glued to a piece of ply which is wedged into the transom light. The only 'permanent' fixings are the hinge mortises and six screws holding the top sign in place - all of which are easily fillable and paint-over-able.

I reckon I could remove the door and return it to its original state in an afternoon and new doors are 2 for £40 at the moment so it's in no way a permanent change.

And when I say I could remove it, I mean my wife will be able to ... over my dead body.  

Phill

[galacticprobe]

Actually, Dino - if I can get them to the US cheaply, I'll happily send you a couple too.

Thank you so much for the offer, Phill! I've still got lots of measurements to take, and then sketches to see how large the windows will be. (I have a feeling they're going to be a little on the tall and thin side.) So it will be a bit yet before I'll know how much I'll need - shouldn't be too much, though, as I'll only be working with two windows, but since I'll be going for the Brachacki look I'll be pebbling all of the panes, so I've got some calculating to do before I ask you to send anything. I don't want you to put out any unnecessary postage, or sending me more than I need; I'd feel like I was robbing your or someone else who currently needs some, when I've still got a ways to go. But I will certainly PM you once I'm ready! And thank you once again for that kind offer!

Dino.

[Senseidale]

Thanks for the update your measurements, I have had a quick play with my tape measure, I do not have much room at the top to play with, I will draw up some plans and present them to the gaffer over the weekend  (with a bottle of wine ) I think the Newbery prop will look good
regards Dale

edit
I have got permission to go ahead with the Tardis door but only if it is to my boys bedroom, looking forward to cracking on with it.

[phillbarron]

I've been a bit sidetracked by half-term, child care and life in general but have managed to squeeze in a few hours here and there. The last thing I did before half-term hit was to paint the interior:



And apart from taking a couple of glee-filled glamour shots:





That's been pretty much it until yesterday when I finally managed to attach the interior window frames and (properly) cut and install the faux-pebbled glass sections.

One thing's been annoying me over the last few weeks, the interior of the transom light. It just looks wrong ... so I added a few roundrels:



After all, what's a TARDIS without a few roundrels?



Still not sure if that's enough or not. I've half a mind to paint them like the stained glass roundrels from the season 14 console room ... and the half wants to just leave them as they are. Pretty certain that debate will wage for a while yet.

I still haven't come up with a decent solution for the light and I still need to add the lights and sounds. Part of the light and sound issue was not being a 100% certain how I'm going to control them or where from.

I think I've figured it out.

I bought the desk specifically because it reminded me of the season 14 console:





So why not push that resemblance? I've decided to sacrifice a few of the dividers to make a mini-console. To that end I've cut put a few bits of scrap ply to make panels:



And stained them a similar colour, not exactly the same - I want a slight contrast:



I've also made the demat lever which will fit over the hole on the top left panel. That's just three bits of MDF cut in a curve with a triangle chopped out of the middle one and then sandwiched together. When I've finished that one will control the sound chip from a flight control TARDIS.

The game now is to scavenge as many knobs, switches and lights as I can and see what kind of panels I can make for next to nothing.

The game's afoot!

[Bob's your Uncle]

I love the roundrels! I'm trying to think up an interesting way to incorporate then into my TARDIS.

Greg

[galacticprobe]

Good grief, I love this! I'm torn on those roundels as well. They look great white, and fit in with the wall quite nicely. On the other hand, those stained glass roundels from the Season 14 console room have some nice patterns to them (there's a thread on them in here somewhere), but the down side is they'd have to be either painted in gaudy bright colors to make them look like they're lit from behind (like the originals), or you'd have to find some way of actually lighting them from behind to get their stained glass colors to shine. Tough call either way. (I don't envy you having to make that decision, however I do ENVY! your doorway!)

Dino.

[phillbarron]

I'm not really making a huge amount of progress on this, but here's an incremental update. Digging around in the shed I found a couple of gauges, one on an old car-tyre inflater and the other on a car air-con regasser. A bit of dismantling and combining with the lens from an old torch produced this:



The aerial extension pack came from the Pound Shop - £2 (for two, obviously!) gives me six connectors and two bags of cable clips. I needed the clips anyway for my phone cable, the connectors are a bonus. Dismantled and sprayed black and gold, they look like this:



The gold end combined with a faceted bead:



... makes a row of nifty panel indicators:



The black ends with a stripe of white tape added make half-decent knobs:



The knobs I've yet to attach, but here's where I am so far:



The panel indicators will have a mixture of static and flashing LEDs behind them. The ammeter on the right came from eBay (99p!), the two knobs below came from an old barbecue.

And that's kind of it for now. Still need to wire up the electronics, make the demat lever and attach the black knobs. I want to put a row of five toggle switches on the lower right panel and I'll still have a little space left on each of the upper panels for ... something.

No idea what just yet.

As always, apologies for the crappy photos - still using the selfie cam on my phone.

[galacticprobe]

Dude... Phill, seriously... You're selling yourself short here! That's some serious progress! Those are some very innovative and inventive ideas you've used on those panels. And those photos? Brilliant! (Just how much "rotgut" moonshine did you get into that made you think those photos were "crappy"? There's nothing wrong with them! As I said: Brilliant!

Dino.

[phillbarron]

Why thank you, sir.

The crappiness is more to do with photo quality than framing or composition. My phone's forward facing camera is awful compared to the rear camera ... and I'm really missing having the semi-3D photos the rear camera's capable of!

I had expected to be finished by now too, but work keeps getting in the way.

And someone gave me an electronic drum kit. That keeps getting in the way too!

[Bob's your Uncle]

I agree with Dino. I wish that I had the time to do the same to my desk.

I've had the same drum set since I was 10. My playing hasn't improved much either. 


Greg

[phillbarron]

I'm choosing to believe you're only 11 and a virtuoso in the making!

[Volpone]

It will please me if one of the knobs is labeled "Polarity."  Handwritten on a piece of tape or otherwise. 

[phillbarron]

How about I call one "polarity" and the other "neutron flow"?

[Volpone]

There you go! "Neutron Flow" with a + on one side and a - on the other.