Other Dave's Tom Baker Console

[Other Dave]

Whoa. Way too much time has passed since my last update.  I have been very busy with this build and, yes ANOTHER build!  Which I will tell you about later.   So where did I leave off?

Okay, so the next task is a lot of work and not very fun:  Putting the time rotor cover together.   I bought an acrylic disk for the top and a piece of 0.0625" acrylic for the sides.  The last time I did this I had a very hard time getting the side panel to curve around.  This time I think I found a good idea.

I made a tube out of cardboard and then tapped the acrylic to it.  It's a little hard to see in this photo.



Then using a heat gun, I slowly rolled it around the tube.  At first, I didn't think it was doing anything, but as I was rolling, I realized that it must be working.  I worked the heat gun back and forth trying to keep it evenly heated - then rolled it a little more and resumed.



The idea here is to pre-bend the plastic (even a little) so I'm not fighting with it so much.

Here is the plastic all around my tube structure - ready to put on the lid.


Then using Gorilla tape, I went all around the perimeter making it nice and tight - and then glued it using acrylic solvent glue. Where the seam was, I did not glue it yet.



At this point the lid is on, but the side seam has not been glued.  This is what was so hard the last time I did this - I had glued the side first and then the lid. As a result, they didn't match up perfectly and were some gaps.

I applied the glue very quickly because it dries up in just seconds.  Then loaded up a bunch of weights (literally!) to keep the seam nice and flat.  

No matter how hard I try, the seem looks like a mess. Oh well.



Later, I cut and glued a ring of acrylic at the bottom to give it a lot more stability.



Meanwhile back on the panels:

I've been making a lot of progress on the panels, and unfortunately I haven't kept up with pictures very much.  
One little change though:  I replaced all the rocker switches with "momentary" rocker switches.  That way, you can push the switch, and when you let go, it returns back to the original position!



More to come! Stay tuned!

- Other Dave

[fivefingeredstyre]

OK, that method for making the cylinder is pretty ingenious...

[davidnagel]

Fabulous!

[galacticprobe]

Your column cover looks perfect, Other Dave. Remember, this version of the console still had a two visible seams on its cover (though I can't remember which seam joins came first: the metal strips, or the acrylic strips). In either case, the screws holding the seams of the two cover halves together were visible, so yours is already one, maybe two steps ahead of the original prop.

Dino.