Goldendale's First TARDIS

[galacticprobe]

Wow! You really want her to meet her sister's "indestructible" attributes, don't you? And with regards to this...

  1. I told you that my garage floor is sloped. I meant that it's sloped INTO the garage. Every time it rains, it gets wet. Nothing of value can be on the floor, including the TARDIS.

Where I grew up in the South Bronx, New York, we had houses there with driveways that sloped down into the garage at angles as steep as 20 or so degrees! The houses were at "ground" level, and the garages were under the houses, so the drives had to go down hill. Some were so steep that when they got snowed on or iced over, of you slipped and fell down one, it took effort - or help from friends - to climb out of it; and because most were about 30 or so feet long, you'd built up some serious speed by the time you got to the bottom and collided with the door! When it rained, the drain just outside the door was supposed to, well, drain the water away. But now and them a drain would clog, and in a downpour the garage could find itself under a foot or more of water! The same would happen when the snow started melting and the drain was still clogged under the snow and ice - which melts from the top down. (You don't want to know what happened to them when we had a hurricane blow through!)

Dino.

[Volpone]

TARDISes ain't cheap.  You go into it thinking "Oh, I'll build one for $60-70."  Then you find out what wood costs.  Shoot, the paint alone will set you back $20-30.  Then there's the size.  You draw the effing plans up that say it is going to be 10' tall, you can even build the bugger, but it isn't until it is time to put it somewhere that you really go "Wow.  That's big.  There's no way the neighbors are going to miss that."  Have fun. 
 

[Bob's your Uncle]

Where I grew up in the South Bronx, New York, we had houses there with driveways that sloped down into the garage at angles as steep as 20 or so degrees!

[/quote]


I am a former garage door installer and repairman. I can only imagine how many doors were damaged. That sounds like a good place to be in business.  


Greg

Edit: Sorry, I haven't figured out how to use the "quote" button, yet.

[Bob's your Uncle]

" but it isn't until it is time to put it somewhere that you really go "Wow.  That's big. "

I'm looking forward to that day.

Unfortunately, this TARDIS is in it's permanent home, at least until springtime when I can get a foundation built for her. I'll get as much built in the shop as I can, but a lot will have to wait until after it's moved. I'm hoping that the wife can hold up her end when moving day comes, this IS for her, after all. 


Greg

[galacticprobe]

You'll probably need some sort of forklift or one of those hand-forklift trollies to move her - unless you've got that Demat Circuit working... either that or several stout lads to lend a hand. From what I've heard, most TARDISes, the "fixed-together to live outside" ones, can weigh close to 800 lbs! I think 750 lbs is the average, but still, if you've got eight people carrying her, each one will be pulling close to 100 lbs! (So you might want to have plenty of foamy liquid refreshment on hand for the movers. )

Depending on the terrain between your garage and her permanent living place, that hand-trolly fork might by hard to pull, unless it's motorized. (Volpone mentioned how large the Old Girl is - which is fracking huge! I've seen a replica in person. But I think he forgot to mention just how heavy she can get.)

Dino.

[Bob's your Uncle]

My plan is to build all of the pieces in the shop, test fit everything, then disassemble it all, rebuild it on the foundation and bob's your uncle.  

The biggest piece will be the part I'm building now. I'm not sure if I'll attach the roof in the shop or outside. I'll have to see how much it weighs, like you said. I think that my wife and I will be able to move it, given enough frosty cold adult beverages.  


Greg

[Bob's your Uncle]

Well, all four posts are attached to the base.



Time for the door headers. I used some scrap 2 x 4's (so no increase to the T.T.I.) to make a 44" square box that measures 3" tall.



I had to notch the corners because of the 2 x 2 boards that I used in the corner posts.



This was glued and screwed into the corner posts at 74.5" above the top of the base.
This piece will be just above the door panels and it will not only hold the four corners together, it will support the "police Box" sign directly above it. The outside face of this piece is where the three small steps above the door will be attached.





After the door header comes the four door astragals. These are the verticals pieces between the doors. They're attached to inside of the base and the outside of the header. The door panels will be attached to the inside of these and the headers above (somehow, anyway....at least that's the plan, things could always change  





After the astragals, it's back to the base. I added another layer of 1" thick cedar deck boards around the base to fill in between the corner post and the astragal. Add more Gorilla glue and screws and this thing is getting stronger (and heavier) by the minute.



The last part of the base is another 2 x 4 layer around the inside. This is the piece that the door panels will sit on.
I had to notch the corners to accommodate those stupid 2 x 2's in the corners, they sure created a lot of extra work. If there's ever a next time, I'm going to redesign the corners.  



And that's it, except for a little sanding and hole filling, Phase I - "The Mainframe" is complete. Coming in at $263.15, I'm going to be a lot lower than my original estimate. Phase II - "The Police Box Signs" will be next, then the roof.



Is it perfect?
Not by a long shot.

Is it within the tolerance range set forth by the "2015 'Bob's Your Uncle' TARDIS Building Guide"?  
Barely.

Can I live with it?
Yeah.

[Volpone]

This is shaping up to be a fairly complex build.  But when you're done, I'll bet enraged miners could drop it down a mineshaft or it could fall off a mountain or be submerged at high tide and suffer no ill effects. 

[galacticprobe]

I was just thinking the same thing! As I said a few posts back, this Old Girl is going to live up to her role model: "Jo, the TARDIS may have its faults, but it is indestructible." -3rd Doctor, "The Curse of Peladon".

Dino.

[Bob's your Uncle]

Hello again.
After some trial and error, I think that I've come up with a design that will work for the "Police Box" signs.

The first step was calculating some ratio's between the size of the Crich Police Box and the size of my replica. Disregard the adult beverage in the photo, it had no influence in the construction of this TARDIS.



27.548386 inches. Yeah, that ought to be close enough.

Next came another shopping trip to The Home Depot. The shopping list included......
8- 1/2" x 3-1/2" x 72" cedar fence boards,
1- 3/4" x 5-1/2" x 96" clear cedar,
1- 1" x 3-1/2" x 96" cedar deck board.

A grand total of $36.52, for a Total TARDIS Investment of $299.67.
Here's what it looks like after it's all cut up into pieces, ready for Gorilla Glue.

[Bob's your Uncle]

The clear cedar was cut into strips that measure 3/4'' x 1'' x 42''.
The 1/2'' cedar fence boards were cut to 37-3/4'' with a notch cut into each end to fit inside the corner posts.



The two pieces were glued and nailed together to create the top and bottom of the ''Police Box'' sign.



The top and bottom pieces are connected together on each end with a 1'' piece of cedar 7'' long x 4-1/4'' tall.



Next I bought some 3/8'' x 3/8'' pine dowels. 
(Are they called dowels if they're square?)

Notice the color coding on the end of each piece.
TARDIS Blue!!
Coincidence or omen? you decide.



These cost .98 cents each, bringing the Total TARDIS Investment up to $307.51.

I trimmed these down to fit inside the sign box. This gives it the look of the glass frame on the original Crich police box. Not an exact match size-wise, but close enough.
A question for anyone that might know....Are these frames on the real box made out of metal like the lower window frames? Were they ever painted white to match the other windows?




A view from the outside.



And from the inside, with some scrape 2 x 4's for the sides. The glass will be cut to fit against this surface.



Four finished boxes.

[galacticprobe]

Wow! The Old Girl is really coming together nicely. You've done a great job on those sign boxes. (You've done a great job on everything so far!) I can't wait to see her assembled and painted blue!

Dino.

[Bob's your Uncle]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to the blue paint too. Can't wait.

[Bob's your Uncle]

Time to attach the sign boxes to the main frame.

Not much to say, other than lots of Gorilla Glue and finish nails.

[Bob's your Uncle]

Here's a photo of The Old Girl laying on her side so that I could scrape all of the dried Gorilla Glue off of the floor. At this point I can still move it around by myself. We'll see what happens when the roof starts to take shape.

With all of the glue, screws and nails, this has become one very sturdy structure.