Dan Efran
Active Member
I've always liked the 4th Doctor's TARDIS key. The one that doesn't look like an Earth key. (3rd Doctor too, apparently. I hadn't realized that; I know the Tom Baker episodes better. Anyway, I'm considering them to be the same key for this build, though there are subtle differences in the props.)
Recently I read this fascinating thread...
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=149956
...which shows some previously unknown (to me!) details about this key.
Well, once I saw that, I just had to make one. I printed out several 1:1 copies of those prop pictures as a rough template. I had some old styrene sheets in a sort of PVC-esque dark gray color. I rubber-cemented the pictures to a thick sheet of styrene. Then I carved out those shapes with a Dremel.
Specifically, I clamped the Dremel's flexible shaft tool-wand into my vise (gently but firmly) and used it kind of like a tiny bench grinder, with a heavy-duty cutting wheel.
Safety glasses and dust mask are a must for this kind of work: plastic dust is not your friend and, sure enough, I broke a cutting wheel. No idea where a big chunk of it flew to.
Switched to a drill bit to countersink the constellation dots; I engraved the lines with a plastic "scribe-and-snap" scriber.
Welded the two layers together with Tenax plastic-weld solvent. Welded on detail parts tediously cut from a thinner sheet with scissors.
Sorry I don't have pictures of the earlier stages. I was rushing to do this in a few hours and it was making more plastic dust than my camera likes.
Then I sanded the whole thing with a medium grit sandpaper - maybe 400? 800? and a finer emery board for the tight spaces around the "neck".
Then...RUB N BUFF!
And now I have a TARDIS key. Not 100% accurate, but close enough for me.
The keychain was salvaged from a flashlight. It's hard to photograph shiny things, but the key does look vaguely pewter-ish.
Recently I read this fascinating thread...
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=149956
...which shows some previously unknown (to me!) details about this key.
Well, once I saw that, I just had to make one. I printed out several 1:1 copies of those prop pictures as a rough template. I had some old styrene sheets in a sort of PVC-esque dark gray color. I rubber-cemented the pictures to a thick sheet of styrene. Then I carved out those shapes with a Dremel.
Specifically, I clamped the Dremel's flexible shaft tool-wand into my vise (gently but firmly) and used it kind of like a tiny bench grinder, with a heavy-duty cutting wheel.
Safety glasses and dust mask are a must for this kind of work: plastic dust is not your friend and, sure enough, I broke a cutting wheel. No idea where a big chunk of it flew to.
Switched to a drill bit to countersink the constellation dots; I engraved the lines with a plastic "scribe-and-snap" scriber.
Welded the two layers together with Tenax plastic-weld solvent. Welded on detail parts tediously cut from a thinner sheet with scissors.
Sorry I don't have pictures of the earlier stages. I was rushing to do this in a few hours and it was making more plastic dust than my camera likes.
Then I sanded the whole thing with a medium grit sandpaper - maybe 400? 800? and a finer emery board for the tight spaces around the "neck".
Then...RUB N BUFF!
And now I have a TARDIS key. Not 100% accurate, but close enough for me.
The keychain was salvaged from a flashlight. It's hard to photograph shiny things, but the key does look vaguely pewter-ish.
