The first step was to paint the exposed surfaces of the partitions. These partitions are on the sides of the door, and add stability to the assembly. On Thursday, June 3rd, we attached one side to the side of the console, and used a 2"x4" and 5" and 13" cross pieces to create the first triangular partition.
On Friday, we created the second partition, and wired both of them with clear rope lights. We had considered using red lights as well, but the added expense was not in the budget.
On Saturday, we added a back panel above the doors (along with a 2"x4" to hang the slide rail on), and we added a "ceiling" to our turbolift alcove.
On Sunday, we painted the doors a nice shade of burgundy (dark red) which complements the light gray and black nicely. It was raining, of course, so the two coats took forever to dry.
On Monday, Jeremy and I spent the evening hanging the doors. Folks, this was the second most trying thing we've done on the set. There's no "landing" on the other side of the door, so we're both on step ladders, tiptoeing, trying to feed the doors into the railing.
On Tuesday, Randy started work on the center seat. You may recall that our base was the passenger seat out of a wrecked Toyota Corolla from the local junkyard. We used OSB to attach the chair to the swivel of a broken office chair. We had underestimated the needed width, so Randy stepped a series of 1"x3"s up a series.
On Wednesday, Randy built two boxes to serve as the arms of our center seat and attached them. The fronts of the arms will be covered with acrylic lens as well, and will have an internal light source, too.
On Thursday, Randy added the back to the center seat. We plan on covering the back with a piece of service board and the arms with fabric-covered 1"x3"s.
On Friday, June 11th, Randy applied some drywall compound to the arms of the chair. We're not sure how to proceed. We could put in some acrylic flat screen controls, or we could use buttons (like the ones on the seat of the chair). We also are unsure as to what color to paint the arms of the chair... Any ideas?
Also on Friday, Randy and Linda made a trip to Lowes and came back with some acrylic prismatic lens material which Randy and Ryan then trimmed to 4" and attached to the front of the lighted partitions. He also painted some corner molding (seen leaning against the station) a darker gray for contrast to be placed on the edges of the acrylic light covers.
Saturday: Installation of Front Partitions
and Partition Lighting (along each side of the viewscreen); also, the painting and
finishing of the center seat.
Sunday: Construction and
Installation of Mainviewer (one green screen, one lighted backdrop)
Monday: Construction and
Installation of Partitions and Partition Lighting for Working Turbolift
Tuesday: Hanging of the
Working Turbolift Doors
Wednesday: Construction and
Installation of "Back Door" Partitions
Thursday: Installation of
"Back Door" and Possibly Master Situation Display
Assuming all that goes well (and it most certainly won't, but we can all dream, can't we?), we've got the following:
Installation of Overhead Lighting (the
electrician simply didn't show up this week -- *SIGH*)
Installation of Carpeting (this is going to be our biggest expense after plywood)
Installation of Control Panels (these are coming from Thomas Sasser)
And if we get enough donations:
Installation of Window Unit
Air-Conditioner
Installation of Vinyl Enclosure for Carport
