Tag Archives: woodwork

Woodwork

TARDIS roof lamp

The interesting thing about this particular construction is that there are actually two different styles of skill involved. There is the gross structure, the pillars, walls & doors which in retrospect weren’t too hard. Then there is the finer fiddly stuff. As Leon, one of the TAFE teachers said: “You can spend a week building a house, but then spend 4 months fitting it out”.

The roof is attached, albeit temporarily as I’ll remove it back to ground level to putty some cutting defects and paint. The roof lamp box took two weeks of fiddly work. I’ve managed to source some glass panes so the next challenge is upskilling to some glazing.

Woodwork

TARDIS – yay!

Well, after one and a half terms learning about static machines, it’s back to the Tardis. Because I’ve been working on it in dribs & drabs since late 2009, I kinda forget what & where I’m up to. Like a tv episode, the Tardis looks at me every Tafe class and mocks me. Spiders & other insectivorous life have taken resident as has the dust.

Still, finally determined what to do with the roof, and here’s the finished (to be added to the frame) product. I need to make a light fitting for the flashing blue light and there are a number of designs that I could use – so a little more thinking music required.

 

Travel

Takayama ho

A day trip out to Takayama saw the first use of our normally excellent value JR passes. Typically you can travel the entire rail network with some small exceptions, and you have to be a foreigner & purchase the pass overseas, but otherwise excellent value. Except that our plans went skewif due to the Great eastern earthquake/tsunami.

Takayama was about 2 hours out from Kyoto and at the foot of very snowy mountains. A popular skiing holiday destination I believe, and I was disappointed to have not thought at all about packing the K2s. The beautifully preserved old town fascinated, but carried a tinge of disappointment of being more tourist oriented than historic (not that it was a problem). I was delighted to be back online as Takayama is better known for having free wifi almost everywhere (and b*gg*r paying Telstra $29 for 10MB!).

After lunching on Japanese style toasted sandwiches in another delightfully jazz music filled cafe, we wandered the historic streets admiring the copious amounts of Japan Black adorned fascias. We happened upon a pagoda with a particularly old (1000+ years!) gingko tree and pondered the gingko sapling we’d planted at home not too long ago.

A bus tour then took us to the Hida Folk Village where we could have spent much longer, but for the time restrictions. A historic village of carpentry and timber makers – several of the buildings had slid from their original locations due to various earthquakes. The plaques and displays of tradition timber making was revelatory, as was the below zero temperatures.

For dinner, we thought we’d try some bento boxes from the JR station. On purchase, the seller lady made some tugging motions at our food boxes. Thinking it to be a local greeting, we motioned the same back to her. Only later did we discover that each bento has its own heating device which warms up your food when the string is pulled. Delicious instant hot food!

 

Woodwork

TARDIS roof

Finishing the roof of the TARDIS required a little more contemplation than just banging some bits of roughly triangular ply together. Teacher Pete suggested a hip & rafter design which is probably a bit more substantial than required, but in the name of learning a new skill: I’m game. It’s also good practice for the eventual gazebo that Anna wants.

Woodwork

TARDIS rhs lightbox

The slowly forming TARDIS continues… Added the right hand side light box. Matters of contemplation now include: cutting several (lightbox sixzed) hole in the frame for access and placement of graphics & lights, addition of rear lightbox, strengthening base, doorstop design (Doctors 3 & 4 had small wedge stoppers above the doors), and stepped & sloping roof.