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Genuine Police Box sign?

Started by whitestar2010, Nov 10, 2006, 08:22 pm

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TG

Nov 21, 2006, 10:06 pm #30 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:57 pm by scarfwearer
Quote from: rassilonsrod board=general thread=1163190176 post=1164126178
btw, you do realise that in this case Vulcan refers to Power of the Daleks, right? :)


Oops - I should have known that  :-[
Anyway, I've googled it and what a wonderful episode!
And a great place to live - apart from the bubbling pools of mercury perhaps.

Sorry for inferring that you might have pointed ears Marc  ;)

simon

Nov 22, 2006, 07:56 am #31 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:57 pm by scarfwearer
Unfortunately my sign people need the signs in a different format to how I did mine so I need to redo them as vector graphics (I thought I had already but apparently not).

Rassilons Rod

Nov 22, 2006, 08:21 am #32 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:57 pm by scarfwearer
Quote from: timegirl board=general thread=1163190176 post=1164146809


Oops - I should have known that  :-[
Anyway, I've googled it and what a wonderful episode!
And a great place to live - apart from the bubbling pools of mercury perhaps.

Sorry for inferring that you might have pointed ears Marc  ;)


Thats quite alright, just be glad you didn't make that mistake with Dale ;) (He was quite miffed when I made a comment about ketracel white at halloween (he was wearing his awesome 80's Cyberman suit :))

-Marc
In the cities in the streets there's a tension you can feel,
The breaking strain is fast approaching, guns and riots.
Politicians gamble and lie to save their skins,
And the press get fed the scapegoats,
Public Enema Number One.

mantamatt

Nov 22, 2006, 10:25 am #33 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:58 pm by scarfwearer
Hi Whitestar69

I would say your measurements would be fine. The Crich sign and  Barnet boxes have different dimensions in key areas from what I've seen. Barnet had a longer and slightly thinner signbox by the look of things. I don't know that anyone has measured Crich yet to see if it matches the plans closely, I haven't seen any measurements reproduced here. But I would guess that 'F' on your diagram is about 6", I think it's wider than Barnet.

The sign on Crich stretches to the  midpoint of the sign post so you should be able to determine 'E' from looking at the plans assuming Crich is close to the plans (I haven't got the necessary plans in front of me) and knowing the length 'C' (see below) can determine the length of 'A'. On Barnet these lengths are longer because the signbox stretches further across the signpost, almost to the edge.

I would say that the only area to worry about is the sign slot, which you make as large as (or very slightly larger) than your sign. So 'C' and 'B' are the dimensions of your sign. About 1-1.5 inches back from the front of the slot there is a slightly smaller slot that is narrower than the sign's area. You would then mount your sign from the front. I wouldn't worry about the sloping lower edge on this piccie:

signboxside.jpg


Finally you need to put a rectangular mount of some kind in front of the sign which prevents the sign falling out. There seems to be different ways of doing this, with chamfer or without chamfer. Crich and Barnet seemed to have a simple rectangular frame. I would guess that the width/thickness of this frame ('I' on your diagram) is about 1cm / 1/2 inch something like that.
MVC-870S.jpg
Credit : Mr KingBee

This one is chamfered, slightly neater and seems to allow for a large sign area.
tellthepolice-al.jpg
Credit : Demat

As with most things to do with Police boxes, there was a lot of variance in style! But looking at your sign I would say the Crich style mount would suit your sign better.

Reading this post back it's a bit confused. Hope it makes sense to you and is of some help. I would also advie looking at Spica's post on 
this thread


Matt

ironageman

Nov 22, 2006, 05:01 pm #34 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:58 pm by scarfwearer
I wonder which type the Peckham box was...?
(Starts optimistically browsing the Frith collection...)
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

whitestar2010

Nov 22, 2006, 06:30 pm #35 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:58 pm by scarfwearer
Thanks for the info mantawrays - very very helpful indeed :D

Having looked at some front on views of the Barnet and Crich boxes I can see what you mean about the sign boxes being thinner and wider than the Crich ones, something I hadn't noticed before. Ironageman's measurement for A is 9" so If I go for the Crich look as I was intending I guess I need to make that distance somewhat smaller. I'd agree that 6" for the depth looks about right on the Crich box - I only wish I'd taken a tape that time I went to see it! :(

I think a good idea would be to make a mock up of the sizes on a piece of paper overlayed onto my sign. If I then photograph it I can overlay the image onto a picture of the Crich box and work out the sizes from that. I'll give it ago and see how it looks.

As for the sign frame I think I'll go for the square moulding, but I will need to find a way to fix that to the sign box without glueing so that I can easily remove the glass again without any damage - I wonder how the frame is fixed on the Crich box??

Ironageman - the name of the road the box stood on was Cheltenham Road - if you can find an image that would be amazing - but its a long shot I know!!  I did ask the seller if he knew what type of box the sign came from but sadly I didn't get a reply.

ironageman

Nov 23, 2006, 05:51 pm #36 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:59 pm by scarfwearer
I don't think that I can add much to Mantawrays' thorough analysis of the Sign Box Thing. I'd just mention that F was actually 5 1/2 " (not 5") on the Barnet box (and indeed appears chunkier on the Crich one) but the Trench plans could be correct too as the sign box tapered - thus:
signboxedge.jpg
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

ironageman

Nov 27, 2006, 05:26 pm #37 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:59 pm by scarfwearer
Another thought. If the height of the sign is 4" then the space for it must be somewhat larger. By the lowness and wonkiness of the sign in some pictures, I'd guess that the space is more like 4 1/2 " on the Barnet-type box. Thus:
crosssectionone.jpg
But the curious shine to the sign on the Barnet box makes me think that it's behind a sheet of glass (and that damp got between the clear glass and the sign). Thus:
crosssection2.jpg
(Notice that I can't decide on the likely cross-section for the metal sign frame. 1/4 x 1/2? 1/4 x 3/4?)
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

andyblues

Sep 11, 2017, 10:42 pm #38 Last Edit: Sep 11, 2017, 10:43 pm by andyblues
Hi all, I know this is an old post but have recently bought  4 x Genuine Police Public Call Box glass signs. I used the ressearch from this post to check they were genuine. The old boy I bought them from has had them since the early 70s since purchasing a workshop in north London. They were in a premises he bought and covered in dust. They stayed there for some years until he cleaned them up in the early 80s and he put them in his loft. They have recently been discover by his grandson who was looking for items to sell to help with a garage conversion. I will be using them in the renovation of my TPE Movie Box as I have recently moved. I will add the details of my progress as well as my recent (correct Police Box size) fresnel lamp and housing to a new build diary soon. A new base made from timber is nearly complete as I couldn't move my cast concrete one from my previous house. I purchased Matt Sanders old rejected signs (which will be up for sale soon) before I found these signs, and I have to thank him for all the information he has given me recently. My old girl will not be to his detail but will be the best I can do with my time and budget without rebuilding the whole thing. IMG_2139.PNG

Mark

You lucky sod.

Its pretty impressive to own one of these let alone four!

Thanks for sharing, look forward the seeing your build diary.

Teppic

Sep 12, 2017, 08:55 am #40 Last Edit: Sep 12, 2017, 08:56 am by teppic
lucky lucky.png
YOU LUCKY, LUCKY B*****D!  ;D

expendable

Sep 12, 2017, 08:08 pm #41 Last Edit: Sep 12, 2017, 08:10 pm by expendable
Do us a favor, please? Measure the sign, the letters and the spaces between letters? It would be a big help for those of us who won't be as lucky!

deck5

Those are Mark 3 signs, from the looks of them.  There's a vector version of them in the reference section here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=305.0

starcross

Quote from: expendable on Sep 12, 2017, 08:08 pm
Do us a favor, please? Measure the sign, the letters and the spaces between letters? It would be a big help for those of us who won't be as lucky!


I've got 600dpi scans with ruler in frame of my original sign posted in this album on my Flickr.
That should help you out. It should be in the sign reference section here too.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/etas/albums/72157623389589381

My Sign from one of the Mark 5s that was sold by Bygone Reclamation in Canterbury in 2010.
They sold one of the boxes to someone, but never managed to find what happened to the second box.

galacticprobe

Sep 17, 2017, 06:03 am #44 Last Edit: Sep 17, 2017, 06:18 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: starcross on Sep 16, 2017, 05:02 pm
I've got 600dpi scans with ruler in frame of my original sign posted in this album on my Flickr.
That should help you out. It should be in the sign reference section here too.


Starcross, could you please post a link to your signs in the Sign Reference Section? I've looked all through things and can't find it. (Granted, there's a lot of info in there and I could have missed it.)

For expendable, there are actual, official plans for real Police Boxes in several threads here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?board=128.0. Some of those might also be of help to you (like these:)

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=4476.0

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"