The weekend just gone has been very, very productive.
Turning my attention to the newest handle I'd be making (this would mark the 4th questionmark handle I'll have made to date) I resumed work on the time consuming process of grinding the ends of the acrylic into a dome. I'd already made a fair-sized dent in curving the end of the rod some time ago, and so it was simply a case of carrying on where I'd left off... or so I thought.
I don't know if it was because I was out of practice, or that my Dad having used the grinder during the previous week that'd changed something, but in trying to sculpt the curve the grinder rendered it far lumpier and uneven than previously experienced... to such an effect that I thought the rod was now going to have to go on the backburner and I'd have to start over.
It's then I recalled something that Oblivion had remarked on. In making his own replica of the umbrella, he'd used a heat gun to warm up and then mold the ends of the rod into a dome. Wishing to try the method out, I took the "spoiled" rod and blasted it (whilst rotating it) for a couple of minutes...
And I think the results really do speak for themselves. On the left, a ground rod, on the right, a heat blasted one.
Impressed with the result, I worked on curving the opposite end (which was completely flat) and fine tuning the end that had already been heated. Eventually I got the curves to a point where I was pleased with them, and I then ran some sanding paper over the acrylic to sand down the bubbles that'd grown in the surface.
That evening, the handle was ready enough to put into the oven, and once cool, I applied some body filler to smooth out some of the rougher sections, such as the bubble crevasses and the odd gouges that'd been created by some of my tools.
I'll definitely be using the heating method from now on, where it once took a couple of days to finish curving both ends of the rod, it took less than a hour with the heat gun, and in addition to the speed of things, I feel the gradient of the curve is much better than on the acrylic that'd been curved using the grinder.
With the body filler having been allowed to set overnight, it was sanded down and then washed to remove the dust (so that I could then discern which bits were smooth enough, and which still needed to be sanded further).
Once the sanding was finished, I drilled a pilot hole and then enlarged that to fit the threaded rod. I then proceeded to drill the base of the handle with the 16mm flat bit so that the spacer could be slid into the base of the handle, a process that wasn't without a significant complication:
I still had the fragment of acrylic, and I'd considered gluing it back in place... however I found that I'd have to modify it a little with my Dremel in order to get it to fit in position with the spacer in place, and despite spending a short while on carefully dremeling away the acrylic as carefully as possible, the results were less than satisfactory. To that end, I opted to try recreate the fractured section with the body filler, and I think the results were successful:
Happy with the work I'd achieved, I primed and painted the handle and dot before putting them to bed to dry overnight, and this morning I had this to show for my efforts:
And assembled:
This time I'd opted to go for a shorter spacer, more closely matching the two umbrellas as seen on ClassicDoctorWhoProps.com. with the paint dry, I started test fitting the elements with the umbrella in order to work out how much threaded rod I'd need between the top of the umbrella shaft, and where the opening mechanism was located:
Happy with the test assembly, I cut the threaded rod to length. I then set the handle parts aside and turned my attention to the next stage I'd have to go through before I could fix them into position. Dying the canopy material.
During the course of it's life (this umbrella could easily be over half a century old), the fabric of the canopy had become faded on the outside, stained by rust from the ribs on the inside, and become partially frayed on one of the eight segments. To address the first two issues, I'd purchased a pack of Dylon black satin dye from my local haberdashery to try restore some of the original colour and to hide some of the internal marks.
Following the instructions on the packet, the umbrella was submerged inside a poster tube with the dye/water solution, and stirred for nearly a hour...
...where it was then then eventually removed and placed outside to dry. Sadly the dye didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but the canopy does appear to be darker, and hopefully when folded up, the marks will be less obvious.
With the fabric dry, I masked off the metal ferrule and covered the fabric so that the wooden end and open cap could be primed and then painted in Ford Radient Red.
Once the paint had dried, I removed the masking tape and newspaper so I could do a second test fitting, which allowed me to clear out the channel drilled into the handle to allow me to mount it onto the threaded rod, and to compare it against my previous umbrella build:
Although unfinished, the new build is definitely better, and looks closer to the screen used prop.
Photo: ClassicDoctorWhoProps.com
Additionally, it's here that we can observe the differing sizes and dimensions of the replica handle when compared to the screen used one. The fanmade handle is too long, and 5cm or so could be taken off of the length to make it more accurate. The diameter of the inside edge also appears to be a few centimeters smaller... and it could mean that instead of getting three-and-a-bit handles from the metre's worth of acrylic rod I ordered, I could potentially get four whole handles and a bit of acrylic left over.
The dot on the other hand looks to be the right size in proportion to the thickness of the handle, and appears pretty close in size when compared to the screen used prop.
I just wish I could get a hour to study one of the genuine ones so we'd have some definitive measurements to work from.
The final bits of work to sort out are replacing the button loop so that the canopy fabric is held tight against the shaft, restitch some of the canopy, and apply some clear lacquer to the red painted sections. All being well, the umbrella will be finished and ready for LFCC this Saturday!