Our Matt Smith era Tardis

[Davros Skaro]

Contrary to belief, you can cut plexiglass with a saw if you use a very fine toothed blade like this one and take your time and feed it slowly.

I worked for a company many years ago & we use to use tungsten tip blades which use to be a smite wider than the blade & this stopped the rubbing that you seem to have got, gave a finer cut too. We'd clean up with a millsaw file (the real fine ones) hold it square to the sheet & draw it along the edge to clean up (+) sort of look if you can understand me.

This is looking real good, love it.

Chris.

P.S. Looks like your building your house at the same time, hope you can get your TARDIS & saw bench out after?

[macgyvers workshop]

Hello Chris! Yes we are building our house. The Tardis was an untimely diversion (I really need to stop making time related puns!)
We have a drain sump that collects any groundwater from around the foundation of the house (We have a very high water table), and I have a pump in there that sends the water down grade to a drainage ditch at a lower point on the property (we have 14 acres). We decided long ago that we would build a Tardis over it to protect it instead of something lame like a wishing well, but intended to build it after we finished the house. We are now at the point of getting our "Rough in" inspection on the house building project, the state electrical inspector said that since I will have electricity run to that sump, the outbuilding had to be in place, so the Tardis had to be built sooner than expected.

The blade in the pic is a very basic 108 tooth plywood blade *(We are on a budget after all). I do have a good carbide tipped blade, but its too coarse for acrylic. The rubbing is an unfortunate side effect, but the cut edge on the acrylic is still pretty sharp despite the rubbing, and as long as I keep my feed speed down, it doesn't melt anything

Also the Tardis comes apart in 5 sections, 3 sides, the roof, and the header over the doors. We can load each section on an appliance dolly and roll it out to its final destination (Oh make the puns stop!)
The saw table is one of my better creations. It has both a table saw and a compound miter saw on a rolling table that will fit through a standard door. The house has a double French door at the back so we are all good!

[Davros Skaro]

Hi! :-)
So you've got to get your TARDIS done quickly, as well as do the house, to cover the sump, WOW certainly got your hands full. Not easy when on a tight budget, I sympathize with you. (We built ours through a government loan being on a pension & paying that off for what we had to pay in rent on a unit). So without the "sump pump" your house would flood & its on the highest part, that's a high water level. You'll have to get some water tanks later & pump into them at least you won't have to pay for water, that's if it's drinkable.

Well your doing a great job there on your TARDIS, I love it, wishing you all the best with it & your house, look forward to seeing your progress. :-)

The blade in the pic is a very basic 108 tooth plywood blade *(We are on a budget after all). I do have a good carbide tipped blade, but its too coarse for acrylic. The rubbing is an unfortunate side effect, but the cut edge on the acrylic is still pretty sharp despite the rubbing, and as long as I keep my feed speed down, it doesn't melt anything

Yes the blades are expensive, also this video clip might help with the sharp edges,

Chris.

[macgyvers workshop]

Thats cool! Working with the big thick pieces of acrylic is a whole other art than just my cutting of window panels. It amazes me how they do that!
We too have a construction loan so we are committed to a time line of when to be done. Hence my comments about having to build the Tardis sooner than expected. We were hoping for it to be a project after the house was done, but cest' la vie!
Thanks for the compliments! Myself and Tammy have worked very hard on this house/Tardis project. We are doing everything ourselves which blows most peoples minds as they always use a contractor. I wanted our house to be built right, with no shortcuts.

[galacticprobe]

After reading everything posted so far - building your own house, a TARDIS, your acreage, your tools and skills - I've just got to throw out a little something to express how I feel about all you're doing...

You really are a Macgyver! Keep posting those photos! They're all Smurferific! (I've run out of superlatives long ago, so I do resort to the ridiculous when I can't find words to describe something. I'm just an oddball like that.)

Dino.

[macgyvers workshop]

You are too kind! Thanks!

[macgyvers workshop]

We are ready to set the Tardis up outside!



Here we have the Tardis broken down into its sections so we can move it outside.



The side walls have slots in them so they can mate with the back wall section.



The back wall literally slots into the side wall.



By the end of the afternoon, we have it set up outside. We just have to add the call box signs.

[macgyvers workshop]

What a long day! We worked hard to get the Tardis moved outside. Here is a video I posted to my YouTube channel  

https://youtu.be/r-T_UPrUY1k

[Davros Skaro]

WOW What a great job you have done there, it looks brilliant. Glad to see it standing up. Hope you have it fixed down so it doesn't blow away or someone decides to go for a trip in it!  

Chris.

Edit* I should have watch the video first, you certainly made sure it wasn't going to move, great job. 

[Bob's your Uncle]

Great video, Mac.
That's the biggest TARDIS I've ever seen!

Nice job.
Greg.

[Volpone]

Good choice on the roof.  It looks to be closer to an actual Police Box than most of the BBC props, with a lot steeper slope to the roof.  If I were doing it again, I would make my roof steeper too.  (In my defense, I didn't realize at the time that the Met Boxes had such steep roofs, compared to the BBC props.) 

And why is the title page of "MacGyver's Workshop" a couple wrenches!?  Duct tape and a Swiss Army Knife! 

[Davros Skaro]

Good choice on the roof.  It looks to be closer to an actual Police Box than most of the BBC props, with a lot steeper slope to the roof.  If I were doing it again, I would make my roof steeper too.  (In my defense, I didn't realize at the time that the Met Boxes had such steep roofs, compared to the BBC props.) 

This would probably to get rid of the snow & rain so it didn't sit there & suddenly fall on some unsuspecting plod when he went to use it. LMSO

Chris.

[Volpone]

OK, now that I finished the video, the roof isn't as steep as I thought.  Is it a little steeper?  I'm not sure now. 

And the blue.  Isn't blue a bugger?  In the overcast shots I was like "No, they didn't get the Matt Smith blue right.  Oh well."  then in the final sunny shots, it is bang-on perfect. 

[macgyvers workshop]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

I have to admit though, Brenk9Carter's Tardis is bigger than mine LOL! His is on a 5ft square base, whereas mine is on a 4ft square base.

As for the roof, I know the actual prop may not have as much slope, but I have to think of durability with it being outside in the elements so an extra bit of slope is helpful to get the water off the roof as quickly as possible.

As for the Blue! pssssh! That Tardis has looked to me to be a 100 different shades of blue. I never realized that ambient lighting could mess with ones perception of color so much. I defer to one of the guys on here that said just get it close and don't worry over it. It's going to weather in the sun and change again so who knows LOL!

As for my logo, I was using a companies app to design my logo as I wanted to have some T shirts that I could mail out to my subscribers on the channel. My workshop is primarily car repairs, but we have branched out quite a bit since the beginning.

[Scarfwearer]

A stud-framed Tardis! Well I've never seen that before. Seems entirely appropriate though.

It looks like you're really living the dream out there - building your own house far from the madding crowd. I've done a fair amount of framing and hanging sheet rock, but never more than a room. The hard part always seems to be getting it squared up. The whole house looks wonderful! I hope you're putting in wide doors for the daleks when they move in.... (33" wide at the base)

THANK YOU! to whomever posted the calculator!

You're welcome.

Crispin