Build me a lighthouse!

[Cid]

Actually, with your method, Cid, you could get a real nice curved one, like the eddystone lighthouse.

That was the idea, obviously a straight walled lighthouse could be done much more simply.

 

[moose]

Yep, but it'll have good shape and structure... Sorry, I'm coming at this from an uber perfectionist perspective.

Mind you, if you can set up the riight jigs it would actually go pretty quick.

How would he do the door?

 

[Cid]

The door that allows you to see the whole thing or the entrance? For the former, well that's why it's cut in half, you can just use hinges and the entire front swings open. The front door is easy, just make sure you cut the apeture at each level, veneer the entrance after gluing and use miniature hinges to hang a door made out of walnut or some other tight-grained wood.

 

[Crispy]

Think a little more carefully about the mechanics of putting hinges down the side of a curved object...

 

[Cid]

Think a little more carefully about the mechanics of putting hinges down the side of a curved object...

Haven't thought it through, I'd probably design some kind of doweled joint... not too hard.

 

[laptop]

Think a little more carefully about the mechanics of putting hinges down the side of a curved object...

Ah.

Wookey wants to be able to open it?

Add a diamond-dust saw to my ferroconcrete idea

 

[Wookey]

It's a challenge but not too hard i think...

I'd do it like this, quite a roundabout way off doing it but it'll look good and have a strong structure:

1. Get all your plans etc together, work out what goes where etc.

2. Get your ply and mark out the base plan of the lighthouse. Now continue all the way up marking horizontal cut sections (so lets say it's 1.5m and you used 15mm ply, you'd have 100 circles marked out, gradually decreasing in size). Mark a line dead centre on each. Work out which floors will actually have a er... floor. You may want to make these out of thinner ply so that the floor thickness is to scale.

3. Cut out each circle, leave the inside for the moment... Make sure you have all the openings marked out, take them in about 1/2mm as you'll veneer them later.

4. Cut through the centre of each circle except the ones with floor plates, on these cut the depth of the wall only.

5. Cut the apetures and centres out, on the floor plates carefully cut around the interior of the wall (so that you have a floor plate with a half circle coming out to wall width - make sure that's on the same side with all the plates).

6. Right. The important bit - gluing. Do it in small sections, use PVA. The easy side will be the one without the floor plates as you can lay this down horizontally and it'll be simple to clamp.

You should now have two halves of a tower, one with the floor plates sticking out. Now you can go about finishing, get some nice tight-grained hardwood veneers as more open grains look out of scale, you'll be wanting it as thin as possible too. You'll need a fair amount as the you'll want to veneer the window frames, interior walls (well, maybe, depends what style you go for) and floorboards (I advise veneering the edges of the floorplates too, but that won't be easy).

The rest can be done as you like it, you can sand smooth the outer walls and render them, or veneer them etc. As for the light it shouldn't be hard to set up a slow moving shutter using a geared motor (which you can buy as a kit), do it round a nice bright halogen bulb.

The place for all your materials is 4d modelshop - they have a great selection of lovely veneers and woods, as well as motors, minature structural members, skirtings etc... Based in Londoon but they deliver.

Bloody hell! I never thought of doing it that way. It is labour intensive, yeah, but the results could be spectacular. I'm gonna take that idea to Mr Stibs and see what he thinks of it. Cheers!

We are probably only going to do this house once, and I don't mind if it takes a few years to finish.

 

[Wookey]

If you want one of these round ones, Wookey, have you thought of perforated zinc* and cement?

Doesn't have to be that heavy - quite a thin skin would be pretty strong.

Mmm. I'm Googling 'perforated zinc' as we speak!

Aaah, the stuff inside washing machine drums? Or the thinner stuff?

That could work. Unless it would corrode, like you say. This needs to last several generations, innit.

 

[Wookey]

As for the door opening, what I'm after is access like this, from Moose's amazing link. (The hand-made life-jackets and lobster pot I am having!!)

I would prefer it hinged (but as Crispy pointed out, the mechanics of hinging a tapered section of a cone - which would then swing out kind of 'upwards' I guess because of the relative position of the hinges - might be a bit difficult....)

I need at least a third of the tower to open up so I can paper and floor, put furniture in etc, and also for display. A smaller model could have a removable door, perhaps, but a 5 or 6ft model needs a better solution, imo.

 

[Wookey]

Lightwise, I've sourced this from a garden lighthouse store.

I think I might have to buy the light before I start construction, as it looks quite heavy and might affect the materials I can use....?

 

[newharper]

Good luck Wookey,

This is my favourite, a beautiful hour's walk from my mum's house.

St. Anthony's Head.

 

[Cid]

Are you planning on keeping it outside? That will bring in a whole wealth of problems; water ingress, damp, wind etc... Judging by the weather lately within a year your beautiful creation would be a collapsing heap of melting PVA, blistering render, peeling veneers and mouldy furniture.

For the opening you could do it in hinged sections, if you alternate the side the sections are hinged on they won't clash. You may have some weight distribution problems, but you could solve this by making a concrete base which you either use as a feature - could flock up or hide with rocks - or just leave as is (after all most lighthouses actually have a large concrete base). The problem with hinged sections is that you'll get lines accross the external facade. With my method this wouldn't be too bad as the joins would be very tight, but you could also find a way of hiding them in the render.

Stairs... These are not going to be easy, but just have a good long think about them, I can see several potential solutions that wouldn't be too hard for an amateur to build.

Oh, and if you can get down to London do have a look in 4d, they have lots of very cool stuff and the guys in there may be able to give you helpful pointers... If anything just looking at all the veneers, miniature motors and other stuff will get the old idea machine flowing.

if you want to do it properly I'd go for a curved one like Bell Rock, that'll have a very large dose of 'wow factor'.

 

[Wookey]

Are you planning on keeping it outside? That will bring in a whole wealth of problems; water ingress, damp, wind etc... Judging by the weather lately within a year your beautiful creation would be a collapsing heap of melting PVA, blistering render, peeling veneers and mouldy furniture.

For the opening you could do it in hinged sections, if you alternate the side the sections are hinged on they won't clash. You may have some weight distribution problems, but you could solve this by making a concrete base which you either use as a feature - could flock up or hide with rocks - or just leave as is (after all most lighthouses actually have a large concrete base). The problem with hinged sections is that you'll get lines accross the external facade. With my method this wouldn't be too bad as the joins would be very tight, but you could also find a way of hiding them in the render.

Stairs... These are not going to be easy, but just have a good long think about them, I can see several potential solutions that wouldn't be too hard for an amateur to build.

Oh, and if you can get down to London do have a look in 4d, they have lots of very cool stuff and the guys in there may be able to give you helpful pointers... If anything just looking at all the veneers, miniature motors and other stuff will get the old idea machine flowing.

if you want to do it properly I'd go for a curved one like Bell Rock, that'll have a very large dose of 'wow factor'.

It's for indoors Cid - I'm having a copper wire leccy system installed for wall sconces and ceiling lights, and there's be lots of fragile furniture inside for my lighthouse keeper.

Base wise, I have seen nice ones for the garden, in concrete with inset stones, but mine is indoors - it needs to fit through a regular sized door, and be liftable by a couple of people. So I think that rules out too heavy a base. Most houses are put on small , short-legged display tables, which is an option.

I like the hinged doors idea, a left opener then a right opener and so on up the tower. Will think about that.

I like Bell Rock a lot! It has just the right dimensions. And the perfect silhouette.

 

[Cid]

Don't need it too heavy, just think about the fact a lighthouse is a very different structure to a standard doll's house, so you need some weight on the bottom to stop it toppling in the event of an accident.

 

[WouldBe]

Don't need it too heavy, just think about the fact a lighthouse is a very different structure to a standard doll's house, so you need some weight on the bottom to stop it toppling in the event of an accident.

Or just a large enough base plate.

 

[selamlar]

Erm...?

*really*?

Hmmm. Probably not. That is what is says on the Trinity House website, but all the other wattages are in the 1500 range, so I guess they have missed 1 if not 2 0's off by mistake