Thread: Building Crowies Dolls House - A slow WIP

This is turning out very interesting.

Like the stairs well made should look great when installed. As always looking forward to the next part of the build

After sealing things with matt (on walls, pillars and base) and gloss (on floor area) I have finally been able to begin real construction. The nine pillars have been dowelled and glued into the base followed by the wall between the house and arcade area. Next the back and front walls (after cutting out the doorway) with everything glued and pinned together with the following result.
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The long wall was also pinned to the pillars and each wall pinned to the base. I save the skewers from chicken kebabs and find them just right – drill a hole, squeeze in glue, twist home the skewer and cut it off roughly with side cutters. When its all dry trim flush and touch up paint etc.
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To make sure its all OK I tried out the beam ‘lattice’ which again will be glued and pinned to the pillars and walls.
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Before that though a bit of interior work to be done, like those stairs and a fireplace. The other wall is to be removable to allow access and I am trying to nut out a mechanism to lock it in place without resorting to hinges and ‘hook and eye’ catches.
More as and when . . .

Coming along very nicely.
It really starts to look good with the beams in place.
Keep up the good work.

Very interesting build. looks great. .coming together nicely.

Looking good. Do you happen to have a photo of what it is going to look like when all done?

Bret

Hi Bret, sorry no photo - the only thing I am going from a modified version of the PDF plan Crowie provided in response to Andy's query. (I don't know how to post a link to another thread but its currently back one page and called 'dolls house').
For those who may be wondering, this is my workshop.
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As you can see there is no ‘photoshopping’ here – it’s a small single car space in the basement of an apartment building with a single fluoro and NO power. I have to run a 30m lead to the nearest body corp power point which encourages a lot of dark side activities.
Anyway, after much measuring and calculating I worked out where to place the landing for the stairs, glued and tacked bearers to the wall and installed the landing.
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Then the stairs were placed and again glued and tacked to the wall.
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Some touch-up paintwork, newel posts, a front doorstep and an internal wall leaves enough glue to dry and prevent too much more activity.
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As far as a method of holding the removable wall is concerned I am thinking of short dowels on the top of the wall which would engage into holes drilled into the beams and then inset into the bottom corners of the walls use the internal mechanism from a light barrel bolt to engage in holes drilled in the base. Painted black and inset into the black part of the wall should make it fairly unobtrusive.

Awesome. Thanks for the shop photo. Its always interesting to see where people work. No power available. That is quite a challenge I must say.

Bret

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Awesome. Thanks for the shop photo. Its always interesting to see where people work. No power available. That is quite a challenge I must say.

Bret

This is a copy of the old plans I posted...
There is a drawing on them of the final house;
But not as good as the real thing..
Cheers, crowie...

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Originally Posted by crowie

This is a copy of the old plans I posted...
There is a drawing on them of the final house;
But not as good as the real thing..
Cheers, crowie...

Good one. Thanks, Pete. Now we know what we're looking forward to: -
(Looks fantastic.)

The house is certainly coming along in leaps and bounds and looking great in the process

Rather than go spending money on bolts when I only need the insides I have tried to come up with another catch mechanism and have created a rough version to test the concept. I started with a piece of scrap aluminium angle stuff and cut it to shape.
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I then chiselled out a nested recess in a piece of ply matching the wall thickness and also cut a slot. The two depths of recess are for the catch and a cover piece.
Attachment 220693 Attachment 220694 Attachment 220695

The cover piece (which is about 50mm x 25mm) will be drilled, countersunk, screwed on and painted to allow access if needed in future.
The result from the ‘outside’ provides a handle to move the tongue in and out of the base of the wall so as to engage in a slot in the base.
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It seems to work in principle so I will now make up a jig so I can use a router with a guide bush to make the job of cutting the recesses easier and neater.
More as and when visitors allow . . .

That catch looks good. Should work nicely.

Yesterday was a non-house day. Today was for cutting out the floor and walls for the first floor. Some hot-melt glue provided the means of holding it all together to check whether I had the measurements right. I didn’t do too badly with only one small trimming required.
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The next exercise is a repeat of the work on the ground floor walls – a lot of marking out of posts and rails followed by relief recessing to represent the panels. I will post more pics when that is complete.
In the meantime - Go the Blacks!