Move Along

Decided to try the captive studs on the body hinges today. I marked the holes on the outside of the Inner Skins first just to make sure they would be under the Outer Skins once they were glued together. Everything looked ok, so I drilled and bolted the hinge for one panel then placed the Outer skins back on and clamped them down. You can see below that there is a pretty good gap. So I'm nixing using the studs on the hinges altogether and will just glue them to the inside instead. Some may be able to live with that gap, but not me. I think its just because the studs are so close to the edge, in fact, they may have even stuck out a tiny amount once glued together. So lesson learned, at least I only tried it on one hinge.

Also yesterday I went to the parents house and used the drill press again. This time on the other foot drive to foot shell holes. I still had a similar problem as with the first one and had to use a larger hole and even ended up filing a little on a couple holes to get everything to line up right. I started wondering was why Jerry doesn't go ahead and have the holes drilled in the feet when they are made. Seems like a machine would be able to be exact and alleviate a problem on the builder end. The only thing I could think of was that other drive systems may not use the same holes, and you'd end up with unnecessary holes in your feet. Something I may ask one day if I ever meet him in person. I also decided not to countersink the holes. The steel is just too thin. Looks like maybe 1/8th inch think at most. I'll still use the low profile flat head screws though. I think they look a lot better than the rounded fatties and will hopefully blend in a little more when everything is painted.

Captive Audience

Finally got the captive studs from McMaster that I'd been putting off purchasing for awhile. So I bit the bullet and decided to try them on the skins first. Nobody on the forums had replied that they tried them on the skins. They were mainly used for the dome. But I figured its the same 2 layer principle with the skins, so why shouldn't they work? I'll use them on the JAG hinges for the front doors, the coin slots and of course later on the various dome pieces.

I used the coin slots as the guinea pig. After marking the holes with pencil first, I attempted drilling the first hole solely off the mark. I'm not sure if its the drill, the bits or me that suck, but every time I try to drill something, it glides off center even when I center punch a guide. I had barely started the first hole when I thought of a better idea. I clamped the coin slots in place very gently and protected the outside with a rag since they are already painted. Then I proceded to drill the holes out with a 7/64th bit using the slots themselves as a guide. I removed the slots, bore the holes out a tiny amount so the 4-40 captive studs went through the holes easily, and then sanded the slag off with some 120 grit sandpaper.

Next, I proceded to see how flush the captive studs would be. Loose they still stick out a bit. But once they are tightened from behind with a nut they pull into the aluminum a good bit, not entirely but pretty good. I countersunk the next three holes very lightly to see if it improved the flushness at all. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. These photos make it seem much worse than reality, they only stick out maybe a millimeter. I guess a good macro lens will do that.

So after all four were in, I put the outer skins on loosely with binder clamps. I think with a good clamping during the gluing phase, you won't even be able to tell that the studs are under there. Again the photos make the gap look worse than real life. There is no visible bulge in the outer skins, and the coin slots will cover these seams anyway. So, I think I'll use the captive studs on all the other necessary spots. Thanks to Pangborncc & CuriosMarc for the captive stud tip. Now I just wish I hadn't already spent some money on regular 4-40 screws. Oh well.

License to Drive

Spent the weekend doing various things on Artoo. First I took him all apart, so he's not standing on his own legs anymore. I'm going to do some work on the skins again in an attempt to get some white painting done before the heat of summer gets here. So they're screwed/clamped back on the frame at the moment. 

I looked through my box of blue painted parts and wet sanded some of the ones that needed touchup. The first three pieces turned out good, then the next three looked pretty cloudy and flat, so I'm holding off till it cools down a little this evening to do anymore. It was in the low 80s this afternoon, but felt a little warmer in the garage while I was painting.

After re-reading every post I could find about center foot casters, I proceeded to order a couple sets from Lowe's website yesterday since they weren't available at any local store. Hopefully one, or a combo of these will work.

I decided to tackle the foot drives this afternoon. I followed this tutorial, so I can't take any credit for originality.

Here's the steel foot shell and foot drive.

I took the large wheel out to get access to the screw holes, then placed the mount inside the foot shell.

Then I took a blue sharpie and marked all 6 holes. I also took a pencil and circled it around the hole too. The angle makes it look like the outer marks are off center, but they are not.

I center punched the marks and then drilled a small hole first just in case.

They all lined up just fine after putting the bracket back in for a visual inspection.

So then I drilled the holes out larger. First I used a 1/4 inch bit which should be large enough. I was having a little trouble getting them all to go in with ease, so I went ahead and used a 5/16 inch bit to help loosen it up. I wish I didn't have to and that they had lined up perfectly with the 1/4 inch hole, but it should be fine. Then I put the large wheel back in the foot drive bracket and screwed the whole thing in from the top/outside with the 1/4-20 screws Jerry provided.

Like the tutorial I followed, I may end up getting the low profile flush style screws and countersinking them. The bulky screws take away a little in my opinion.

One thing I noticed after I had the drive in was that the smaller back caster wheel in the drive needed to be lowered because the foot wasn't sitting level. I figure I'll fix this one later since I'd have to remove it to do so, but I went ahead and leveled out the other foot drive. It was fairly easy. I loosened the two screws using a T-bar allen wrench through the two holes in bracket. Then I sat the whole drive upside down and put a metal ruler across both wheels. Then, I used my trusty Dollar Store level to check the position of the small caster wheel and then tightened it down.

One foot drive down, one to go. With the new center casters coming this week I'll hopefully have all the wheels figured out and done soon. Then I'll have to go ahead and order the NPC motors and get busy on some electronics side of things. Can't wait for that first test drive!

99 Problems

And Center Casters are one. Since I have the Foot Drives in now, my next plan of attack was to tackle the whole drive system and get R2 on wheels. The main problem I'm having right now is with the center caster wheels. I got these below from Rockler after reading up about how much better skate style wheels are. The issue I'm having is that they don't line up with the JAG mounting bracket very well. This is about the best way to mount them, but when you swing them both to the extreme outer position they are almost 2 inches too wide for the foot shell. I'm looking into possibly getting the post style casters that I could pop the wheels out and still use these. Its either that or devise a way to mount the casters over the plate's bolt holes after its installed. That may be what finally happens. I'm also looking at the one big McMaster caster that a couple builders have used, but it looks like it would require modifying the JAG plate a good bit.