Re-imagining the 11th Dr. Sonic screwdriver..

Also curiously titled, "If you aren't insane already then this will probably take you there"

How insane do you have to be to do this.

Welcome to the inaugural post for the new sonic screwdriver build. I recently finished my second sonic screwdriver build. The first was a classic Pertwee/Baker build from a design given to me by a friend. The second was a custom build based upon the Teletran design.

The idea was to produce an interpretation of the new sonic as flipped and twirled by Matt Smith the current Doctor. I have tried to retain the idea of the telescoping sonic, but an alternative mechanism to the spring loaded format. Also IU wanted to pull in some of the design cues from the Tennant/Eccleston screwdriver. When in its 'retracted' form the claws engage with the mitter head. The emitter head has been remodelled to hint at the 9/10th doctor emitter. I have abosolutely no idea whether the design will work, what changes will be made during the build process and how long it will take, but the construction has begun.....

So here we are at the start?! of the new build. Well nearly. Some work has already been done. One of the most dificult parts is the construction of the emitter assembly. This has several moving parts. The dish proved to be a nightmare, the first was scrapped when the cutter height was mis-set by yours truely. The second one was destroyed when the y-axis drive started to slip with the cutter losing it's position and gouging a path through the previously machined areas. Third time lucky and for the most part things have gone well with the dish. All that is left is some polishing and sanding to finish it off.

Next was the dish support, another piece with multiple machining processes on both the top and bottom. This has gone much more smoothly for the most part. Apart from the arm support holes. When drilling these the workpiece moved in the chuck resulting in the holes being distorted. A pain indeed but not a total disaster.

At last the dish and support have become one, with a brass collar to align the dish and support, and epoxy glue to permanently join them. After the dish and support were joined the dish provided the sopport for the final machining of the support.

The central column is steel with a 4mm diameter hole drilled and reamed to allow light from an LED to pass through it. This will support the emitter head. Other parts have already been fabricated. The main body, lower end cap and upper cap have been roughly hewn from brass and aluminium.

Here are a few pics to start the ball rolling, some of the general parts and a close up of the emitter head partly made. Oh! look at those carefully made non-round holes. The piece slipped in the chuck when I was drilling them, don't you just hate it when that happens Still in the words of Baldrick, I have a cunning plan!!

Enjoy, hate, loath, eat garlic, whatever floats your boat. Don't be shy leave a comment. Oh and has anyone seen my towel? Last time I saw it a bloke called Arthur asked if he could borrow it for a few minutes.

WHO doesn't like knew Dr.WHO Sonic Screwdrivers!?!?! I'm interested to see how this turns out. I do like the concept image. Good luck!

HOLY CRAP!!!!
Did you hand machine that head part or CNC (Either way amazing job) .
I love it!!!

Thankyou for your comments. A short update before off to work.

The emitter head is mostly CNC, It was made in 4 parts, the dish, the support ring, a central column and the cross connector. There are more parts, some already made and others in the process of being fabricated.

Here are some pics of the mill and parts, including the dish being made. The mill is a manual Peatol/Taig converted by yours truly to CNC and significantly modified.

Cricket is an interesting game played by 22 people. Half of them sitting around drinking tea, waiting for the opportunity to stand around in a field for hours.

Looks like a fantastic take on the design! Nice work.

--Brian

Can't wait to see it all finished.

Just a quick update,

It has been a busy couple of days in the workshop. I have been making the claws for the emitter. These have been made in two parts which will be glued together. Eight drilled and milled parts and my head is fried. Last night seven hours in the shop cutting eight small pockets! I did intend to shorten the time with some modifications but needed to get this done so blasted it off without really thinking about it. Still after about 10 hours seven of the eight are finished. One has to be remade as it broke loose during the profiling process and a chunk got cut out of it, damn...

I have also roughed out the emitter head ready for the green insert. Needs machining of the slots and some detail work. So tonight I am having some down-time. I need to spend a little time on the design as there are some significant changes that are not reflected in the drawing.

There will be some pics at the weekend.

To simulate the effects of a Pan-Galactic gargle Blaster you will need.
1. A gold brick.
2. A slice of lemon.
3. A friend.

Method.
Wrap the lemon around the gold brick, hand it to your friend who will bash you around the head with it, and take you to the accident unit afterwards.

this look like it's going to be a nice piece some lovely machined pieces icant wait to see more, im not a fan of 11's current sonic its just a bit bulky, streamline and smaller would be a way forward

I love the concept! I can't wait to see it finished.

Yes, it's time for another update.

First I would like to thank everyone for their comments, they are always appreciated.

And off we go into another dose of 'My wife thinks I am completely insane and is measuring me for a strait-jacket' The work on the emitter head progresses steadily, with minor and sometimes major setbacks, the latest is the loss of two small pins that temporarily hold the arms in place for fitting purposes a minor problem as I have ordered the rods to make the proper hinges. Another is that the dish is not square to the support. I knew this might be a problem, but it is still mightily disheartening when I think of how much work has already gone into making it, sand I might have to make no.4 I am however hoping that with some re-machining I can straighten things out.

After making the eight arms for the emitter, filing, deburring and some general polishing, I tried a test fit. Well I expected some fettling all of the hinge supports were tight, a good thing as there is material available for adjustments and the arms are quite square, which has made me happy.

I still need to make some small changes to the arms for which I have made a jig. Then, I think, I might have a go at making the emitter crystal next. Then after adjusting the arms I will re-machine the dish. That will just leave polishing of the head assembly and it can then be put up ready for the body.

First off for the body will be the manufacture of the resonance chamber support structure. I had a moment of serendipity a few days ago when I needed a reamer, and lo I found the original chamber for my last screwdriver. I mis-placed this and couldn't find it resulting in making a complete new assembly, it fits nicely into the new sonic and looks cool.
I haven't decided yet whether to make the sliding aluminium frame as a single part from tube or as individual parts. Each option has its pros and cons. I think I will draw up both parts and compare them.

So I think I will wrap up here, and post a few pics for your enjoyment. And a little more musings from the Galaxy of Hitch-hikers.

"What we demand", pausing for dramatic effect, "Is rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty", the two be-robed men shouted. The young computer technician stopped, turned and took a long look at them. " You don't sound like philosophers" he exclaimed. " More like theoretical physicists. Your names aren't Schroedinger and Heisenberg by any chance?"

Goodness me, it has been a while hasn't it. So I think it is high time I posted a new update.

Most of the last week has involved re-machining the disk, so that it lines up with the dish support, after several hours, I am now happy with its position and appearance. All that is left is some polishing, alright, a lot of polishing and sanding!

The work on the dish consumed much of last week, but I set myself the goal of having the claw mechanism working, all of the pins made and everything test assembled to see where adjustments need to be made. So here we are, Sunday afternoon and it's assembled. And even better, the arms move more or less in unison. . There is still a ton of work to do, but one of the hardest parts is now on the shelf waiting for final assembly after gluing, polishing and some fettling of the mechanism.

So where to next? Part of me wants to start on the aluminium extending tube, another wants to move on to the inner support detail. I am leaning in favour of the extending structure to get a large part out of the way, also, although there is a significant amount of machining involved it is all fairly simple work.

Here are some pictures of the emitter head during a test assembly and fully assembled, waiting for the rest of the screwdriver.


More musings from a galactic hitch-hiker:
I understand that the trick to flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing. I have no problems with the first part, but have yet to succeed at the second.

Looking forward to more on this build. hands up, its me! im not a fan of 11th Sonic at all. Its too big IMO and a bit of a mess to be honest, so welcome any adaption to it. Good work so far

Thanks for that, I know what you mean about the 11th Dr. sonic. I sort of like the design but have felt that it could do with a little modification. to be really honest the "blobby" emitter just didn't fit with the overall design. It originally started out as a reproduction of the original, but as the design progressed, I decided to evolve it.

The emitter retracts toward the dish as the claws open. This happens as the body extends. This part of the sonic has caused most of the headaches as the parts have to be quite accurate, something that often eludes me There is still a little work to do as the mechanism sticks occasionally.

I have started the aluminium support struts that support the dish, lots of work, but all mostly simple. Some more pics at the weekend.

very kool design

Very cool design and outstanding machining work, alot of hrs have gone into that design.

Hi all, thanks for the comments, and away we go with another update to my own personal slice of insanity.

Another weekend has passed and not as much accomplished as I had hoped. A couple of setbacks means that I might have a significant amount more work to do than I had hoped on the support column. I will modify the design a little to take into account the mistake and see how things turn out.

Machining the slots in the support was going well, for the first one anyway. I set up the part for the second slot, and that is where things went awry. During the process the Y-axis started to drift causing the slot to be cut 1 mm wider on one side, not a clear explanation but oh well! After re-centring the Y-axis and tracing the fault to the shuttle controller constantly jogging the y-axis causing the backlash compensation to create a drift in the y-axis

There are two slots left to cut, each takes about 3 and a half hours because there is so little to grip on the piece. Once this is done I can move on to the brass guides. I decided to use brass rather than copper as it is harder wearing and stronger. It is also is less prone to tarnishing, although this will still be a problem.

I think I have rambled on enough for now, so I will end here with a couple of pictures.

More rambling thoughts from a Galactic hitch-hiker.
There I was minding my own business when, out of the blue a bowl of petunias lands beside me, Oh no, I thought, not again!

A mid-week update, whatever next.

So hi all Whovians and other interested, dis-interested, bored, enlightened and transcendental beings. I thought I would post an update and a question with pics, oh frabtious joy.

So I completed roughing out of the aluminium support column last night having discovered that the problem with the Y-axis of the mill was more serious than I thought. What I thought was a software/jogging problem turned out to be a stepper driver failure which nearly ruined 15-20 hours of work The temporary solution has been to swap the Y and A axis drivers, recalibrate the Y-axis adjust the backlash and away we go again. So as I said the rough milling has been done, a ton of tidying up and remedial work to be done but it has led to a question.

The question has been posed before and is probably as old as modelling itself. how far to stray from the subject matter can I go? So I am asking (begging!) for opinions.

In the original design of the 11th. Dr. sonic the aluminium support column extended and was braced by copper arms. These copper arms also provided the mechanism by which the claws opened and closed. In my design the copper has been replaced by brass and the arms act as runners for the extension process. The claws open independently of the arms. I am thinking of doing away with the brass/copper arms altogether, and fixing the aluminium support column to the brass collar above the handle. This allows for a clear view of the internal mechanism and allows for a more robust piece. This change is a major step away from the Show prop.

So what do you think? Stay with the original, or embrace evolution.

Hitch-hiking the galaxy in search of the question.
One day I got so fed up with work, I decided to paint it purple and erect an S.E.P. field around it.

Here are some pics for your enjoyment.

Just a quick update. Maybe something more in depth tomorrow plus pics.

Hmmm. not a lot of feedback on the sonic screwdriver changes, perhaps everyone has been sucked into the MFX sonic ridge detailing debate

I thought about the changes, and although fixing the support tube in place appeals to my "That's a stack of work I will not have to do, side." The original plan was to have the sonic extend. Eureka, I thought, then I had a sad moment as I remembered one of my favourite shows was coming to an end. Why not make the support arms transparent? Well I had a rummage, but my stock of transparent Aluminium is completely depleted, and I can never find it anyway So I substituted Acrylic for the brass, and am in the process of making a test piece.

So I will probably see you tomorrow with a proper update.

TTFN.

I like the emitter and the top half. I think the bottom half needs a little something though.

This build looks really great. I would say go with your gut as to customization. You've already moved away from the original design so much.

But what I love about this piece is that even with almost everything changed, it still has the feel of the Doctor's sonic.

best

Anakin Starkiller said:

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This build looks really great. I would say go with your gut as to customization. You've already moved away from the original design so much.

But what I love about this piece is that even with almost everything changed, it still has the feel of the Doctor's sonic.

best

Yeah that's so true, and it's good to see another machinist showing of his workmanship, keep the photo's and build posts coming.

tailgunner30uk said:

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Hmmm. not a lot of feedback on the sonic screwdriver changes, perhaps everyone has been sucked into the MFX sonic ridge detailing debate

Newp. I've been avoiding that thread like the plague after reading some of it. I prefer to enjoy this hobby instead of nit pick and argue about it.

Now this thread, I like, you did a fantastic job going from concept to creation. Your sonic looks stunning! Love it!

That looks awesome.
The top looks like the TARDIS interior from the 1996 film. Probably why I like it (I liked the film)

I would have posted an update on Sunday, but we have been having some problems with the internet for the last couple of weeks. It probably had something to do with my wife, trying to dig through the cable..

I took some pictures, but it is hard to make 4 pieces of transparent plastic look interesting, the 4 support arms are now roughly machined and I have returned to the aluminium support column to complete the main machining.

I will definitely order the materials for the handle this week and start the design work for the pommel.

So see you soon.

greatwazoo42 said:

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Newp. I've been avoiding that thread like the plague after reading some of it. I prefer to enjoy this hobby instead of nit pick and argue about it.

Now this thread, I like, you did a fantastic job going from concept to creation. Your sonic looks stunning! Love it!

How true that is greatwazoo42, I so do like new designs and reading and seeing photo’s as they come together of there sonic creation.

Custom sonic builds are very interesting, you get to see the workmanship and the creators designs come to life. And this design, and workmanship, as I can see, is outstanding.