Another Key to Time tracer build thread

JasonT1979

New Member
Following the excellent guidance on this thread: http://www.therpf.com/f11/doctor-who-key-time-tracer-build-175694/

I am embarking on my own tracer build. Due to having to have the material shipped to the UK, and having an aversion to paying more for shipping than the goods I buy, I ended up with enough to make four tracers if all goes well. I plan to do just that. If it all goes to plan i know I can find good homes for the extras. :)

Pictures will follow soon, but for now i'll report my progress. The materials are all in and I have so far managed to cut the square styrene tube and the various acrylic tubes to the required lengths. One thing I noticed very quickly was that it is almost impossible to move clear acrylic tube around without inadvertently putting small scratches in it, so the whole length of every bit of tube was wrapped in a layer of masking tape to protect it during the work. This also made it much easier to mark out the lengths I needed to cut.

So I have lengths of tube and several little 1/8" thick rings. I'd have really loved it if all the various tube diameters fitted neatly inside one another, but I guess that would be too easy. I'm gearing up to figure out how to sand the tubes down so they do fit. I'll let you know how I get on....
 
OK, pics as promised. First the materials:

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And that's a rare view of my worktop being clear of debris and clutter! Naturally that did not last....

Cutting the tube, protected with masking tape:

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As I said before, it would have been nice of all the different diameters of tube and rod had simply slid neatly inside one another, but alas, this was not the case. The 3/8" tube slipped nicely inside the 1/2" tube, but that was it as far as easy fitting was concerned. Still, with much judicious use of varying grades of sandpaper I was able to get the fluorescent red rod inside the 1/4" tube. I was also able to get the 'plug' in the end and the rings on the plug. This was really tight, and I think too tight. As you can see in the picture there are some vertical stress marks in the outer tube, so for the next one I must sand a little more. Still, this is I think a promising start.

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Looks great! Don't forget the end is "frosted" which will cover up any small stress marks.

The tubes I used didn't fit precisely either -- I sanded them down slightly to reduce the diameter. The red tube isn't completely clear so a sanded finish isn't a problem, and it's partially obscured inside 2 separate tubes anyway. The other sanded parts were either hidden inside the hilt or "frosted" at the tip so you don't see them either.
 
OK, progress report.

The tube is done!The 1/4" interior tube was sanded down at each end to allow the 3/8" spacers to fit and the assembly was glued in place with the aid of some thin CA glue. For the cuff I decided to sand out the inside of the 5/8" tube rather than try to mask and sand the main 1/2" tube as I was not convinced I'd be able to get a clean edge. This worked well and the whole tube assembly was completed. I then masked off the rings and sprayed with matt varnish to get the frosted effect. I think I may have been a little heavy-handed with it but I'm pleased enough with the result.

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So, now to work on the handle....
 
OK, the handle came on remarkably quickly. For the end I was a bit stumped as to a way to cut a circular hole, not having the necessary equipment. Fortunately one of my work colleagues had just the thing in his workshop and drilled a set of 5/8" holes in some 2 mm styrene sheet (sorry for mixing up the units, but I bought the styrene in a local shop and it was sold in metric, while the tubing came from Plastruct and was sold in imperial). I cut around these holes carefully with a razor saw, glued it to the end of the square tube and sanded it down. A little filling and sanding and it was ready for priming, then painted in Revell acrylic light grey. I wish I had an airbrush, as the brush marks are irritating, but still, can't have everything.

The hard part was sanding down those bloody buttons! Still, got it done (and sanded my fingers too, it seems), and superglued them to the handle. I didn't worry too much about exact spacing and just went for what looked right. I think it came out rather well.

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Inside the hilt you can see in the last photo some small styrene spacers I put in as a guide. The bottom end of my main tracer tube has been sawn off and will butt up against those when the whole thing is assembled.

Now I just need to make the plug for the end and a complete tracer will be mine, ready to be inserted into the Key....
 
It's finished! The first one at least. The plug at the end I made from three strips of 2 mm styrene cemented together and swan to a roughly 3/4" square. I then sanded it down, used superglue to fill the small gaps between the layers, sanded it again, primed it and sprayed it gloss white. I then used a foam insert I came across at work. It was quite dense foam so I cut a small thin square about 7 mm across by 1 mm thick and glued that down into the middle of the styrene end piece. I then cut out another square just fractionally large than the interior dimension of the handle so it would fit snugly. I trimmed off the corners to make it octagonal and then to make sure it went in right I pushed it into the end of the handle, put some glue on it, then applied the end piece and left it to set. When I pulled it out I had a nice foam plug for the end cap.

After that i just slotted in the tube and there I had a tracer in my hand. Now I just need the key to put it in....

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OK, so I did find a battery for the torch, and so here is the illuminated tracer:

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And my Key arrived, so here's the final article.

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Now I am happy. I'll get on with making the rest of the tracers I can do with the materials I have now...
 
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