Sonic Screwdriver

Of all the tools at the Doctor's disposal, the most versatile was the Sonic Screwdriver. Perhaps too versatile. It could get him out of just about any jam, and this caused a bit of a problem plot-wise. In fact at one point they had it go away, because it was too much of a cop-out. However, one of my short stories requires one, and it is a symbol of the Doctor. So I had to make one.

I had my eye open for various chromed plastic tubes, and found nothing useful. I was going to make it from various model-kit runners of various widths and paint it silver, but I wasn't sure that would work. I had the idea of getting some professionally lathed, but man, that could cost a pretty penny. So I thought of getting some thick aluminum wire and lathing it myself using a drill. But that would be noisy and loud.

I found some of this K&S aluminum piping at a local hobby store. I bought four different widths. Sorry, I didn't write down which widths. But the thinnest is 1/8 .014. The other three sizes are sequentially larger, and each fits into the other.

I began with the following materials:

- Cutting pad
- X-Acto Knife
- File
- Paintbrush (red, thin)
- Sandpaper (fine)
- Epoxy Cement
- Toothpicks
- Crazy Glue
- Four widths of K&S aluminum tubing

I found some images of a Sonic Screwdriver on the internet. I printed the picture out in various sizes to ensure one of the sizes was close to what I wanted. Then I used that one as a guide to cut the aluminum tubing.

The only place where length matters in the main shaft of the screwdriver is the first, widest segment. The rest slide into each other, so their lengths is not quite as vital. The first segment should be 18mm long.

This part is rather difficult. I roll the tube with one hand while guiding the knife with the other. The hard part is making sure the cut doesn't spiral, but does in fact meet when the tube rolls around.

By applying gentle pressure, and rolling the knife with the tube, the cut happens rather easily.

There may be a designated tool to do this without crimping the metal, but I don't know of one.

One important step is sanding down the rough edges left by cutting. Each time you cut, you should do this to all freshly cut edges. Also, run the X-Acto knife around the inside too, otherwise the concentric tubes may have trouble fitting into each other.

Here, the four main segments are cut. Since each slides into the next-larger tube, the length does not have to be accurate except for the largest tube.

Note: For each step of the way, test-fit all tubes into each other until they slide smoothly otherwise gluing will become quite difficult.

Here are all of the tubes you need to complete the Sonic Screwdriver.

The four long ones are for the main shaft. The next three fit over the main shaft tubes to add relief.

The final two form the hood of the screwdriver. The thinner one fits into the outer one. The red tip fits into that one.

Here you see the construction begin. The four main tubes are now in place, and one of the outer rings is on, with two more to go.

I use crazy glue to keep the sections together. First, I slide the outer ring over the shaft piece it will rest on, way past the point where it will end up. Then I put a dab of glue on the shaft where the ring will end up, then slide the ring up to that point. Be decisive, because hesitation will ruin the job. Once crazy glue sets it's nigh impossible to change its position.

Here, I use a thin red paintbrush (because that's all I could find) to make the bullet-shaped tip of the Sonic Screwdriver. I file it down from a cylinder to a bullet-shape.

The problem is the plastic is soft and leaves a lot of soft plastic residue at the end. Use the X-Acto knife to trim this, but carefully.

I now cut the paintbrush handle to about 6mm. To avoid an uneven cut, I use the same rolling cut technique I use on the aluminum tubes.

I take a thin ring of the largest tube, about 2-3mm in width, then glue in a smaller ring that's about a millimeter less wide. This will give the bullet-tip somewhere to rest.

Since I want the red bullet-tip to protrude on either side of the hood rings, I place the hood on two toothpicks. Then I jam the red tip into one of the aluminum tubes to hold it while I glue.

For this step Crazy Glue may be too thin, but as the paintbrush handle gets bigger as you cut more off, you won't have to worry too much about that, as it will expand to fit the rings. The more you make, the thicker the tip until it's too big and you have to get a new brush.

Get the Epoxy Cement ready. This binary glue sets fast and is very strong. I mixed this batch up after making 3 of the screwdrivers so I could do this step for as many screwdrivers as I had. Otherwise I'd have to mix up a batch of epoxy for each screwdriver, which is wasteful.

Here, I use the epoxy to attach the hood and bullet-tip to the shaft. I use toothpicks to push a small amount of epoxy down the shaft, leaving some sticking out.

I push the shaft against the side of the hood, and then hold it in place until the epoxy sets.

Here are seven Sonic Screwdrivers. Each is individual, unique, slightly different in length, and not too shabby if I do say so myself.

It took me a couple of hours to make 4 of these, from start to finish.