Full Scale TARDIS doors for my Shop

[Watson]

So we recently moved to a new house that has a MUCH larger garage. My previous laser shop space was a 7' by 7' space that I walled up in my garage to house my Trotec Speedy 300 laser cutter. This laser is 44" x 35" x 41" (WxDxH) and it BARELY fits through a standard size door on its SIDE!!!

It took three people to get it through the door last time as it weighs a ton. Our new house has a tandem three car bay garage, so I have built a 26' x 10' shop in the new garage to house my laser and allow me to start doing some hobby stuff again.

Knowing that I would be putting the laser in after the shop was built I decided to build it with double doors to allow me to roll the laser to the opening lift it over the threshold and roll it to its corner of the shop. If I ever need to take it out for service or any other reason I can do so easily.

I then decided that since I was going to do double doors that I would make the entrance doors to my shop the front doors to the TARDIS. There have been so many awesome builds of the TARDIS on the RPF (Phil Wise & Matt Munson just to name a few), that I didn't want to half ass doing this I wanted to make the doors as close to the actual prop as possible while at the same time performing the vital task of actually being shop doors.

I will have to make some accommodations in order for the doors to be what I need them to be but I am going to stay as true to the real prop as I can.

Mods if this needs to go somewhere else, please let me know.

First picture here is of the actual shop opening. I am needing to get this done as quickly as possible so I can turn the AC on in my shop. It is August in Texas so you can imagine its not very pleasant. I also cannot run the laser in this heat without some cooling.


Wood and sign white acrylic ready to go. I have a vinyl cutter and will be applying the vinyl to the plastic


Lock for the door. Era 60mm Nightlatch


Planing the wood for uniform thickness and have routed the edges getting ready to cut them down to the size I need.


Dry fitting of the Call Box signs box. Its a little off so I will trim it some and it will eventually be put together with biscuit joints.


More updates to come!!!

 

[moffeaton]

Very cool!!!

 

[MGC]

Which series TARDIS are you going for? I designed the signs on the S9/10 ones so can probably give you some graphic pointers...

 

[Watson]

Which series TARDIS are you going for? I designed the signs on the S9/10 ones so can probably give you some graphic pointers...

Matthew, you and I actually talked back a while about my 1/6 Scale All Wood TARDIS model. :thumbsup

 

[MGC]

Ha. Problem solved!

 

[Watson]

Small update today:

I am mainly using my router and miter saw to make the cuts I need to build the door panels. I am using 3/4 inch plywood for the core of the door with the wood molding on both the outside and inside of the doors. With the molding on both sides of the 3/4 core, it should give the doors good strength and be very solid. Again, I need these to function as shop doors and not just be pretty to look at.

I have limited space available for wood working so I have a large rolling cart that serves as a work table for woodworking projects, and as the out-feed table for my table saw. It also has a built in router table! Using my trusty 17 year old Ryobi miter saw that just WONT quit, I clamped it to my table saw and used the extendable fence with a scrap piece of wood clamped to it as a stop for making repeat cuts. I need 10 of these cross panel pieces per side. This is a test of my cuts to make sure that it is dead on what I need.


Next up are the polished chrome handles for the doors. On top of using them for this project, I am recreating them in 3D so I can scale them down for my all wood TARDIS model.


More to come!!!

 

[Watson]

I was able to get more done last night and got all the trim pieces for the door cut and ready to assemble.

I used the miter saw to cut all the pieces to the exact length I needed


Next I made a jig to hold the pieces so I could use my router to cut the notches into the ends of the pieces. I have a crappy table saw and I lost eh miter guide to it in a move so I am using the same 45 degree chamfer bit that I used on the outside edges to cut the inside angle.


Once I have the inside angle cut I use the same jig but this time I use a 3/8 rabbeting bit to remove the bottom portion left after the chamfer bit.


So if you do a good job planning and taking the time to set up your jobs, when you do your cuts and then dry fit them together you get some magic.



I learned a few things doing these trim pieces. I would most likely cut the boards to length first next time before adding any of the outside edge chamfer. I would route out the inside chamfer and then use the rabbet bit to get rid of the notch first. Then I would run the length of the boards through my router to add the outside chamfer. If i had done it this way I would not have had any tear out on my pieces, but I didn't do it and have to do some minor clean up. Lesson learned but the TARDIS is not really a clean looking box, it has bumps and dings and character so it will be ok! I am very happy with the progress so far.

As always more to come.

 

[Watson]

Today I started building the panels for the doors.

I used my laser to cut a template to use to space the horizontal pieces. This made getting them lined up super fast and easy.


I used my kreg pocket hold jig to drill the pocket holes and then clamped everything down and screwed it in.


One out of four panels done


Two out of four done. I am pretty happy with how they look


Its not all sunshine and roses when I realized that I did not cut the top trim pieces correctly. I am going to add a bit of wood and then fill and sand it. I will put these two on the inside of the shop since they will be painted white. It was only when I saw this that I determined I was way too tired the other day and did not measure correctly. Live and learn!


Stacked and ready to build the front side pieces. All in all I am damn happy so far

 

[Watson]

Despite the fact that my brand new vinyl cutter was DOA straight out of the box, I still managed to get more progress done on the shop doors.

Got the next two panels done. That makes four out of four, that go on both the inside and outside of the doors.


Here I am getting everything laid out and ready to glue. I used a pencil to mark where everything goes so i an can tape everything up to avoid glue getting everywhere.


Here is the tower bolt that will go on the inside bottom of the door that has the pull to open sign. This will keep it closed unless I want to open it


I am trying to determine the best way to get power to my doors to light everything up but not have cords and cables going all over the place. I will be building boxes over the windows and the pull to open sign on the inside so the wires are easy to hide. I am working on an idea that may work awesome or fail miserably. More to come on that later.

 

[Watson]

Been busy with other stuff the last two days, but got the first door ready for glue up. One of the best things about having a laser cutter is the ability to turn an idea into reality in a short period of time. I needed a tool to spread glue so I drew it up and cut it from acrylic. I also needed to cover the wood so it did not get any glue splatter so I cut some cardboard boxes into covers in a few minutes.

 

[Watson]

I got the first panel glued up


I used my jig saw to rough cut out the openings for the windows and the "Pull to Open" sign. I then went back and used a flush trim bit on my router to clean up the openings.


I still need to go around the door with the flush trim bit to get everything nice and clean around the door but I could not help clamping the door to the open frame to see a glimpse of how it is going to look.

 

[Great_Bizarro]

Nice work so far, you going to add the Police Box sign above them?
Here is my next project, or at least one I can afford lately

 

[Watson]

Nice work so far, you going to add the Police Box sign above them?
Here is my next project, or at least one I can afford lately

Yes I will be having the call box sign above the door. I bought a vinyl cutter to make the sign but it arrived DOA so I am waiting for a replacement.

Greg

 

[Great_Bizarro]

I have one if you need, send me the measurements and what the font is and color

 

[timelordjedi777]

I plan on doing a TARDIS door for my nerd cave. I'll be watching for tips.

 

[Watson]

I am debating on whether or not to use the expensive automotive paint on the doors that the Smith/Capaldi uses. Part of me wants to go full tilt and do it right, but the other part of me worries about damage and repairing. Any opinions?

 

[Watson]

Got the second door glued up. I have to tell you, Harbor Freight is your friend when you need a ton of clamping!


I am having a problem with my laser, these two files took multiple passes to get through what one pass usually does. I cut a template for my Pull to Open sign to make placing letters accurately very simple. I am concerned that my tube may be on the way out.


Pull to open frame ready to be glued


Lastly I did some testing using an unused PC power supply. I am using this power supply to power my overhead lights in my shop as well as the TARDIS doors.


My replacement vinyl cutter has arrived and I will be able to cut my signs.

 

[Watson]

I routed out channels for the wiring that I will need to power the Pull to Open sign and the Windows. I glued the door after this but forgot to take a picture


I got my vinyl cutter up and running. After some trial and error I am pretty happy with the results. The backwards Pull to Open side will go on the back of the front of the clear acrylic sign with the raised black letters. Then some sign white acrylic will go behind that to recreate the lighting effect.


Last but not least the vinyl for the Police Call Box sign. It will be mounted to sign white acrylic soon.

 

[moffeaton]

Wow!
Looks fantastic!

 

[Watson]

Small update over the weekend. Got the door frame in, test fit the outside trim pieces that will simulate the door posts.


I dont know how I did it but when I was prepping the Pull to Open file for laser cutting and vinyl cutting, I somehow nudged the text over about a 1/4 of an inch. This really ticked me off since I am already having issues with my laser. They have to be redone and I cant do that until I get my laser serviced.