Hi all!

So, this is a continuation of my summer project blog, where I am making a full size Portal turret, as pictured to the left. Remember, if you want to be automatically notified of new posts, simply click the orange RSS button in the sidebar to the right. —->

Having finished the basic wooden frame for the body of the turret, I began taking measurements as to where the door supports come out. I found out they’re basically level with the center of the eye, and I estimated there was about 2″ of frame on either side of the opening.

So I began cutting! Well, I drilled out some pilot holes first, then used the jigsaw to cut the opening.

I created a couple platforms that could slide into the body and be mounted anywhere. They’re simply squares of wafer board cut to size with scrap pieces screwed to the bottoms. I drilled a 5/16″ hole in the center of each piece, allowing me to mount a threaded rod between them.

My rotational support is simply a piece of 1″ electrical conduit cut to size with a hole cut in the center. This conduit is bolted onto the support rod with washers on either side, allowing free movement. On top of the 1″ conduit, I have 1 1/4″ conduit, which can slide side to side. The doors will be built around these pieces.

I built the gun mounts out of cardboard. The trickiest part was assembling the first box, due to the curved edges on the inside. I wound up building a square box, then cutting 1″ strips, holding them up to the edge of the box, and measuring how much I would need to cut off each end. The second box was much simpler, as I could use the first as a template.

I then cut a hole in the center of each box, so I could slide them onto the rotational support assembly. These boxes will have three layers of paper maché to strengthen them, as the doors will be built on and around them.

Here’s some pictures showing the frame with the rotational support assembled:

And some close ups of the rotational support within the frame:

And that’s all for now! Next up: Gears and Paper Maché!