So, I've been looking and reading, printing a million plans out, looking some more and actually not getting anywhere, so yesterday I thought it was time for a trip to the local Timberyard to actually get something started.

My thoughts on use for this Tardis started originally just to give my kid a new playhouse as he loves Doctor Who, which wouldn't suffer the same problem of the usual plastic kids houses and be too small a month after buying.
So big, tall, Tardis + small child = plenty of use. Or at least that's my thinking on this.   

However, since friends have found out what I'm planning, then it seems the Tardis will now also need to have some sort of small console in there so it can house a laptop, speakers hidden in the roof so that when we have a party it becomes the music system for the garden, which actually seems like a great idea the more I think about it.
It also needs to end up on wheels, so we can bring it down to the front of the garden.
Oh, and our 2014 Halloween party is now going to be Doctor Who themed! 

I will be a bit erratic getting things done over the next few weeks due to already being away and the official queen fan club convention coming up (the band, not the royal one), so if I don't update then it's probably because I've not had a chance to do anything.

I'm going to list my days only as I've done something, pointless having a dairy that gets to day 26 and all I've done is my real work.

So, here goes, day 1 will be another post after this, please feel free to comment on my progress, shout "don't do it", hold your head in despair at my attempts or just laugh as you read the diary and watch as it all goes wrong.....  (but then hopefully bounces back into some sort of Tardis)!

Cheers

Rob

PS When I told one person they did actually say "but you're not going to be making a real one are you", erm, no. It's not going to travel through space and time, up and down the garden with a bit of effort maybe, but that's going to be able the best I can manage.

Day 1 - sort of.

So, bit of a cheat here as I went out yesterday and ordered some wood. probably not enough but something to get me started.
Today was spent clearing the Tardis "spot" in the garden and having a look to see what tools I actually have to do this.

Spot cleared at the end of the garden.
The clock will have go elsewhere, so ironic really that I'm building a time machine which needs me to move time myself.



After much rummaging around in the shed, I have found a selection of tools which I think will be useful.



OK, so I have to point out the first few things I have noticed
a) my job is I.T. related so "tools" normally just means "screwdriver" to me
b) the circular saw has been in the shed so long the blade has rusted, similar to the jigsaw (which I'd forgotten I even owned) so a trip to B&Q is required to get new blades.
c) I seem to have a lot of saws compared to other tools.

No real reason for the latter other than buy one get one free offers! I'm not very technical when it comes to this kind of thing and don't go for the saw A is for hardwood, saw B is for small cuts. No, in my eyes, a saw is a saw, if I want to cut the wood and the first one I pick up does it, then great, I'll use that.

A couple of woodsaw horse bench things have been ordered on eBay yesterday, as if nothing else I can make a bench for the next boot sale I do with them, to sell firewood and old tools if this goes completely wrong.  

I also re-looked at what I was wandering around with at the timber yard, and for the 50 plans I printed out, studied and really didn't understand if I'm truthful, I can safely say the scrap of paper I now own, could never been mistaken as a plan!



I have no idea what will turn up from the timberyard tomorrow as I really don't know what on earth I was drawing!

So, what have I learned from my 1st day, well, firstly, I am no good at trying to plan things, I'm more of a just do it kind of person and wing it as I go along. Secondly, my toolkit is going to need to get a lot bigger. Thirdly, don't try and make up a plan when you actually get to the timberyard as what you picture in your head may not appear on the paper in front of you!
Lastly, my ambitions are obviously much better than my attention to detail, as I even managed to butter the bread before sticking it in the toaster at lunchtime where I was thinking about the Tardis!

And there we have it, Day 1 of what is deemed to become a comedy of errors.

Hmm, so I've had a delivery of what I actually ordered and then remembered what I'd been thinking at the time.

Because this is also going to be an entertainment system for the garden, then I am using OSB to make an inner wall, then will do all the fancy Tardis looking bits in standard ply on the outside, solving 2 problems of hiding cabling, speakers and such, as effectively there will be a cavity and OSB being a sponge if I don't coat it properly, then it'll be protected a bit more by the standard ply.
Obviously I will be using outdoor paints, sealants, etc. anyway, but there's not going to be too much on show if all goes to plan.

So, what actually turned up?
3 sheets of 18mm OSB for the floor & roof
4 sheets of 9mm OSB for the walls
10 (LONG!) lengths of 2 x 4 pre-treated timber to make the base and side supports.
1 pack of trim to round off the edges if I feel really adventurous. (this was actually really cheap clearance stuff and I can always use it for something else)
1 x tin felt adhesive
10m roll roofing felt
450 x 7mm screws
200 x 3mm screws

Now I will just say, one thing I should have thought about, well, two actually, is that when you measure something that's laying down and think, great I'll get 3 lengths out of that, is going to be a lot longer than you remember when you try to pick it up to put in the garden.  



As you can see, I've only stood one of the 2 x 4 lengths up to show the size, buy needless to say I felt like I should have been in the Scottish Highlands in some caber tossing event trying to get these through the gate one at a time!

Also, the weight of 18mm OSB/Ply is heavy, REALLY heavy, when the sheets are over 8 foot high!  

Still, you live and learn. Time to get the saw out and cut some lengths down so I can get it all in the shed....
 

In between real world work I managed to do a bit of cutting, but as i hadn't got around to replacing the blades on the electric saw, it's all being done by hand at the moment.

Still, probably a bit of luck as the first thing i noticed after cutting the first four pieces was my maths was way out....



I had thought, make the four base sides pieces 52" long and then that would give me a square 52 x 52 x 52 x 52. But of course, it doesn't as i hadn't taken into account the fact I actually need to join them together.

So, a quick couple of changes to my calculations and some of new bits the right length (56") and we're off again.
And suddenly a shape!


Next was a go at making the corner columns, as if nothing else, then it makes it look like I'm heading in the right direction.
I remeasured the long 2x4's that turned up and found they were actually 4810mm long, even i can get this one, cut slap in the middle of 4 and all of a sudden there are the first pair



I also had a thought on joining them without screwing together initially, had a rummage in a box in the garage and found some woodwork bits, probably left over from some DIY unit that had "spares", but handy for this anyway, as I can stick them together and pull apart until I'm ready for permanent fixings.



A few more goes with the trusty hand saw and all 8 pieces for the corners are cut. A small off-cut to put in the middle as a support and that'll do for today (especially as i suddenly realized i haven't got all the material for a fancy dress costume I need for next week ,so off to the local needlework shop!)



And there we have the end of Day 2, which will be the last working day on this until next week so it's all been laid flat and stuck in the shed.

I'm actually borrowing bits of ideas from builds such as The 10 Day Tardis, the YouTube video for I Built A Tardis and plenty of others, so thanks to everyone for sharing.
OK, so I know I'm not going for scale or precise measurements like some of the proper builds out there, but then I can't really follow plans so hopefully it'll still look the part and I can tweak the sizes before final assembly. maybe. 

To be continued....

Well, in a rare day of sunshine here in the UK I thought I'd make the most of it and quickly prime the bits of wood I'd cut as base and struts.
I originally planned to use any old colour as the primer ,then thought maybe it should be blue so i don't need to go over it so much when i come to the real painting, but then looked and the price and whoa! Time for a rethink... 



So, the big brands are expensive, but having a quick look around the DIY store and 2 x 2.5l tins of value white external wood primer + a 1l tin of blue external wood paint (all water based), one stick and voila, a cheaper alternative and still a blue primer/undercoat. OK, so it's sky blue when dried, but hey, that's got to be better then white...hasn't it? 



Oh and OK, I know those of you out there who actually know about all this sort of DIY/Painting malarkey will spot that i have a cement brush (shh),


but it was a case of £1 for that or 5 times the price for a proper wood brush.
I'm sure someone out there will probably know the difference, but as far as I can tell, brush in pot, paint on brush, paint on wood is pretty much all I was expecting to happen and as they say, it did exactly what it said on the tin (or packet in the case of the brush!) 

A coat on a side, wait to dry, turn it over, next side and so on until I ran out of sunlight and it stopped drying quickly, gave a decent result in having something i can fix together.




So, if it hadn't of been for real work getting in the way, I might have got a bit more done (oh and I also had to make a frame today for a 3ft halloween decoration that turned up, but at least that was in between painting some Tardis wood!)

Working Day 3 ends with all the bits for the square base primed, the 8 pieces for the corner posts half done, two blue slabs to hide from the missus where the plastic split and one blue foot where i stood in the spilled paint! All in all quite a productive day I feel. 

Not sure if day 4 will really be tomorrow, but fingers crossed I might at least get the posts finished with their first coat.

Oh, and that stupid idea I had of using the little wood dowel bits has been scrubbed as it was far too much like hard work, paint then screw together will be the way to go. 

Well, day 4 did actually come straight away, as in an unusual event for the UK, we actually had sunshine two days in a row!

Quite busy with the real job, so just made the most of the sun and slapped a bit more undercoat on some of the cut pieces.

Mind you, it was drying reasonable quickly in the heat which was a bit of luck as probably only got two hours to do anything in total.



Oh, and still found time to stand in wet paint again! Doh.

Wow, Day 5 so soon!
3 days in one week of sunshine, dare I say it but we seem to have skipped Spring and this can only be termed as Summer here in the UK!

So, back out with the wood again to make the most of it.

Laid out in a base shape, at least it looks like I'm actually doing something now.

In the meantime, I thought I'd paint a side, as it's a big bit and will look productive if nothing else

Halfway through and it starts to dawn on me how much painting is actually involved. The 2x4 bits of wood were easy compared to this. 


Wow, a whole blue side (OK so it's undercoat and needs to be painted again and again...)
One thing to note for today, ignore what they say on the side of a tin about how far it'll go. 
This has done 8 struts, a selection of base pieces and one side, if I'm lucky I might get another one or at a push two, but I'm going to more paint soon... LOTS more paint!



Still, that was off drying so back to some assembly work.
I was obviously making a meal of it as my 3 year old decided it was time to step in and lend a hand, which is when I realised I'd not cut enough pieces for the base. 
I'm sure I'd laid them all out before, but I guess not, oh well, back out with the saw to make a couple more bits.

They're not screwed in place yet hence the wonky donkey look, so tomorrows job is to paint those, fit in place, screw together, start filling the gaps and then at least we'll have the full base shape.


And if nothing else we can play noughts and crosses with it! 

So, lessons for today....
1) More paint is needed as an 8' x 4' piece of wood takes a lot more than I thought.
2) I should have a go left handed, otherwise I'll end up with a right arm like Popeye and the left like Olive Oil by the time I've finished this project.
3) My 3 year old is better at measuring than I am
4) There's not enough hours in a day when you get on a roll!

Oh and I haven't bought a new blade for the electric saw yet, so still being done by hand at the moment... can I do the entire Tardis by hand I wonder?....

Anyway, fingers crossed the weather stays good and I'll get a bit more done this weekend. 

PS sorry if I'm boring anyone with the waffle, but I've never done a diary for something before, let alone build a Tardis!

Well, as is always typical with the British weather, day 6 started with rain showers, followed by more showers.

Luckily I hadn't got the wood out first thing, so decided to go out and hunt for a light instead.

After looking in numerous shops, I ended up with an electric outdoor light and a tin of spray paint, which hopefully will look the part when painted blue (and won't be getting much in the way of alterations other than removing the chain and using the power cord to the inside of the tardis. somehow).



So like I say, British weather, you just can't predict it, 5pm and suddenly it's sunny and hot!
Strange day, but a chance to get a couple bits done, starting with a very eager 3 year old who has been on all day about doing some work!
So his job for now was to have a go with the filler along all the joins, not a bad job for his age and a real back saver for me not having to bend down that far! 





In the meantime, I started cutting the wood for the base. It'll have to be in 2 pieces due to the size of the sheets that were delivered, but once again out with the trusty handsaw to cut an 8ft piece to size!


Pretty straight if I do say so myself!



Although need to make the other side tomorrow (if the weather holds), so that might be a bit more of a challenge!
Enough for today, better shove it all back in the shed just in case the rain returns!

This ended up being a long but pretty productive day.
Sun was out early, so in the garden by 8am and out with the wood yet again.
Today's jobs: Painting, Filling, Sawing, Swearing. Well OK, maybe the last one wasn't planned, but you'll soon see why I added it!

First off, my helper needed to be involved and do something for today, so safest option, get the base out...



and let him fill over the holes where the screws are put in.  



and he didn't do a bad job finding them all either!  



While he's busy I can do some painting without fear of small feet running paint around the house or garden.  



I think I've probably had all I can out of the first tin of paint now, 8 pieces of post, all the base frame, one side of a wall, one side of the floor.
So I mixed up the second tin of white primer with some blue to carry on, then suddenly realised I don't actually need to bother with blue on the inside of the Tardis as an undercoat, so that'll be a trip to the DIY store this week for another white tin, then swap them around depending which side I need to paint. Probably saves about £5 a tin, so every little helps!

My helper was off to his grandparents for the weekend so once he'd gone I thought I'd do some more sawing.
I hadn't really been paying attention too much when he'd asked for me to move the base earlier in the day, until I went to go and lay it down again and see what he'd park in it's space....



darn those daleks get everywhere!  

Anyway, I needed to cut the rest of the base



so carefully measured it, 142cm x 49cm, dragged one of the 8 foot sheets out of the shed to cut it and spotted I had bought 3 of the 18mm thick sheets for some reason.
As I was happily sawing away I started to wonder why I would have bought 3 of them. One for the base, one for the roof, what on earth was I planning to do with the third?

And then I found out....



Insert expletives now.  

Yep, the final sheet was obviously ready for me completing making a hash of something.
Now bear in mind I'm still cutting all this with a handsaw, so having to do this twice is not ideal!
I'd measured the width, but didn't measure the length as I (wrongly) thought I remembered cutting from top to bottom on the last one.
Well, in fact I did, but had the wood the other way around.
As I have the short term memory of a goldfish it came as no suprise to my wife who had come out to see what all the swearing was about and just walked back indoors shaking her head (and probably silent laughing at the total plumb I'd been..again).  

Still, a short while later, the base piece is cut to the right length



It's getting late now and I don't want to be doing any more sawing, so I decided to screw a couple of the side poles together.


How many screws to use is the question? what happens if I don't do enough? can I do too many?  
I'll go with the final question and say no, can't do too many and stick about 20 in each one (about 1 every 6 inches), that's certainly not coming apart!

The £7 pair of clamps from eBay are well worth the money, as I even got a second one put together.

And here we go, final picture from day 7 and suddenly I can see it's heading in the right direction


So they're not fixed yet, just standing in place, the floor needs the second half painting and then fixing, but at least I can sort of stand it in the right place at least.

There you have it, another day gone, enough done to look like I'm getting somewhere and by the time I'd put it all back in the shed again, I felt like my arms had stretched so much I could touch my toes without even bending over!

Day 8 will be some point after I can lift something heavier than a laptop again!  

Well, not exactly a day, more a few hours as the weather today has been, well, pants really.

Just to make sure it wasn't a total loss I thought I'd have a quick go at spraying up the light.

Only held together with 3 screws and four bolts, so nice and easy... except I had to find the worlds smallest spanner to actually remove the nuts (that's the ones holding the light together and not a case of I was out mugging a squirrel or anything like that) 





A pair of wire cutters and the spanner used to prise open the chain and remove it from the top of the light, but still attached by the cable for now as I might still use that inside the roof to wire it up.

A few attacks with the spray can and it's now blue.


Oh, and erm, so is the floor in the shed now, but hey, concrete is a boring colour anyway. 

Now, I have to admit, you'd think taking 3 screws and four nuts out of the lamp, sticking them in a bag would be simple, easy and able to be put back together quickly.
Well, apparently not when I'm involved! I managed to put the bits in a bag with a hole in it and currently need to hunt around the garage for one screw and a nut.
Some would say the nut was the one taking it apart in the first place!

But, hey, found a couple of temporary bits until I can find the real ones and hey presto a blue lamp!



So, there you have it, only managed a bit here and there around work and the weather today, but at least something got done. 

Oh, I also ordered some castors to put underneath when I do the base, 6 of them with brakes, £5 each and can take up to 200KG per wheel, hopefully I've guessed the weight correctly!

So, that's it for Day 8, fingers crossed we actually get some decent weather again come the weekend and I can crack on again.
Is it just me or did everyone who did a build just want to keep going once they started?

to be continued...

Once again, the British weather does its best to hold up progress on the Tardis, but eventually it dried up enough to get a few bits out and do something.

It was overcast still so I didn't really want to start painting and then have to stop, so it was out with the two remaining long poles so my helper could fix them together.
Mini cordless screwdriver has been handy for this as its small enough for him to hold but powerful enough to do the job.



And off he went..



well, OK, I'll admit I did start them all off and just got him to finish them, but he is still only 3 so I'll give him until his birthday before expecting a full build himself.   

So, all 4 are done, now bear in mind these are still not fixed, so I just balanced them and quickly took a photo...


But I can see the shape (and it's all straight in my head) 

And then came the rain, so everything back in the shed quickly before it got wet. What a lovely springtime. Not.

Oh and I mentioned before about I bought some casters, so first thought was a fully flat floor at the bottom and bolt them to that



But then I thought that's probably overkill.

So actually thinking about it a bit more (standing in the shed while it rained mainly), I will simply screw a piece of 2x4 from 3 sides in the corner (this will be flipped on it's side meaning the side supports will sit 2 inches into the floor)



and then fix the casters to that.



You'll notice I got ones with Brakes, probably a good idea so it doesn't end up transporting itself down into the conservatory one night!

So the rain didn't stop, it was getting late and my helper would much rather go and watch Mickey Mouse than do any more work, so i guess that's all for day 9.

Come on weather, I'm nearly into double figures now and only really had one proper full day of it!   

Oh well, maybe the sun will come out tomorrow.....

So after a couple of weeks where it's been nice weather and I haven't had the time to do anything, or had the time but it was like winter again, I've finally had a day where the right two things come together and we have day 10! whoo!

No helper this time so I could actually just crack on (in between work stuff, obviously)

First job, paint another couple of sides while the sun is out



I actually remembered to do them white this time as they'll end up being the inside walls on one side.
Its actually hot today so the paint is drying as fast as I'm putting it on, handy really as always limited for time!

While they were drying I fixed the floor down temporarily so that i could see how things would sit


So one thing I did find out today when it came to putting this away is how heavy it suddenly is!  
I'll be glad to get the floor finished and the wheels on this as I don't want to be lugging it around much longer.  



Anyway, back to what I was doing.

So having looked at some other builds, the pole through the floor seems the best option for me.
So using a couple of offcuts I positioned them at each corner and sprayed around them so I know what to cut out.


So then I'm thinking that's great, but when i unscrew the floor to cut that out, how will I know where the edge is?
Being a total idiot, I sprayed one corner to fill in the white area thinking that would work and as soon as I had, I realised I couldn't see the shape anymore.
What a fool!  

Oh and ignore the unpainted bit, that's for later.


So, plan B, needed to mark the edge and trying to think what to use and then suddenly remembered seeing the kids chalk board when moving everything around recently, so a quick dash indoors and there we have chalky shapes!



Now comes the thinking for the posts and wheels, so cutting a few small pieces to go into each corner first


Paint those with the undercoat, white will do as they won't be seen anyway, and once I've done both sides they will be screwed in place like so


The thinking is that when the corners drop down, they will sit on the screwed in bit, meaning it has the 18mm of floor plus 2 inches through that as added support, plus obviously be screwed to the sides itself. You've then got the wheels underneath supporting the whole thing and each one can take over 200KG, so should mean it's all hunky dory and can be moved when we have a party.

I've actually realised it will never fit through the back gate though, so that'll be a job for another day way off in the future...

Lastly I thought I'd better make sure the sides would actually fit when the poles go into place, otherwise that's even more cutting (and you guessed it, I've still not sorted the electric one, so using the hand saw again!)



Two "sides" will actually end up with doors, as planning to do it so most of the time, just the front opens, but when we have a party, it'll get wheeled in front of the garage door and the back can be opened up so you can walk through and play on the pinball machines in the Tardis games room.  

Oh, a friend asked me about the height which even though I'd said about 10 foot when the light is on, he still couldn't really grasp how big, so i thought it was time to take a pic holding a side.... and then I realised how big this thing will be as well!  



Still, at least it'll never get stolen!  

So, that's the end for today, just a tidy up and then maybe more tomorrow.
Lessons learned from today:

1) It's really heavy with the floor on!
2) I need to hurry up and get the wheels on as it's really heavy with the floor on!  
3) It's going to be really big
4) By painting the sides white we now have a selection of blue and white stones in the garden.
5) Not sure if I mentioned it, but this is getting really heavy.  

stay tuned for the next episode in How to Not Build a Tardis.....

OK, so not so much of an 11th Day, more an 11th Hour as it was just do something briefly after dinner one night so the old girl doesn't feel abandoned.

First off, lug it out of the shed with a lot of effort as I still have the floor attached!

One thing I noticed, was it doesn't matter how careful I thought I was cutting, but somewhere it ended up not fully square, I think that's probably down to the two pieces I cut as a floor, so I ended up with a bit of an overlap on one side.



You might just be able to see the top right where it sticks up about an inch too far and then gets lower as it goes across.  
No problem, out with the trusty hand saw, and a bit of sideways cutting to level it off.



I say no problem, but in truth, holding it stable with one hand while sawing a 1inch strip sideways along a 4ft piece of wood made my arm feel like it was going to fall off!  

Next thing to do, was take the floor off ready for when I cut out the holes for poles, which if I'm honest is quite a daunting prospect, as if I muck that up, then I would have to cut a new floor.  



And then I decided not to attempt that today, probably the one thing I won't want to rush.

Just enough time for a last couple of bits as I put everything away, a coat of paint on the other side of the wheel support pieces



And a lick of paint along the edge where I'd cut the floor to size.



As I was cutting it, I realised one of the bottom pieces was cut slightly shorter, but at least now I've made the floor match it won't notice when finally fixed and painted.

So that was it for this day, but at least something got done as not sure when the next day will be, June has been forecast for rain (and it's Wimbledon coming up which means they are probably right!)
Oh, well, suncream back in the cupboard for another month probably....

Day 12 was actually a work day, so it was a case of trying to fit something in around the real world stuff.
For the past few days I'd been thinking it was time to cut some holes, so it will be the base and floor to work on for today.

I don't actually own a small saw for this bit, so I've had to break out Trusty Rusty and use the electric jigsaw.



Not that I've not used this very often, but I have no idea how the bit with the metal lump is supposed to attach (or why), then again it took me 10 mins to remember how to fit a blade.
I was positive I bought some new blades for this, but no idea where they are now, so maybe that was just in another dimension?...

Anyway, I then had to think how was I going to actually cut the hole, I can't just stick the jigsaw through the floor I guess, so how else does will it work? Ah Ha! Time for some dot to dot work and drilling with my one proper wood bit.



I'm sure there's a proper way to do this, buy hey, it kind of works.





It's a bit rough around the edges (OK, very rough) but once it's fixed in place, then I can tidy up along the edge of the base.

3 more drilled and cut out and a quick bit of temporary fixing down...



And finally another attack of one corner with Trusty Rusty...



And the test pieces are a tight fit, which is actually a good thing in this case! 

A quick splash of paint on that corner to see how it will look



And then the clouds appeared and the first few spots of rain 

That's the end of that day then, quickly gather up the electric tools to put away (doesn't exactly take long when I only have 2 of them!)
Grab the wood and get it back in the shed and as usual managing to hold the one bit of wet paint in the process. 

But that's all for this day, fingers crossed for a whole day of sunshine at some point this summer.

To be continued...

Really enjoyed reading about your build and the progress you have made so far.
Keep it up!

Also, could you give anymore details on the lamp as I am trying to source one for our build.