Showing posts with label ankle locks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ankle locks. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Holy sheets!

A few other things needed to be done before I could get Artoo up and running. I needed to decide how to run wires through the legs, and I needed to fix the center ankle locks.

After even more debate (sometime I swear I spend hours just looking at something before breaking down and doing it), I decided to drill holes in the underside of the ankles. Most builders do this, there's only a few that have wires routed differently and hidden all together. I figure they are so low to the ground, someone would have to get on all fours to see the wires come out the ankles. This was pretty easy, just measure and mark the spot on the ankles, and use a drill press to get a nice smooth hole. Later I took a small file and sandpaper to de-bur any slag. I also put a teeny tiny angle on the inside wall of the holes. That way there is less of a sharp edge to wear down the protective wrap of the wires and it should help prevent any shorting down the road.



Always a little stressing drilling or cutting into something very expensive. I'll probably drill a hole into the battery boxes when I get further along. A lot of builders drill the second hole into the top of the foot right below the ankle. Neither is better than the other, its all personal preference. I figure the battery boxes cost a lot less to replace if I screw it up.



Back when I installed the center ankle locks I noticed there was a bit of a gap left below the locks themselves. This caused a tiny bit of rocking in the center ankle when changing direction. So I knew I had to fix it. I had some aluminum sheeting laying around that I plan on using for the kick plates and behind the utility arms. Test fitting the sheeting looked like it would be just the right thickness. I took the locks off, laid them on the sheeting, drew a line where I needed to cut and broke out some cutting shears. I bent them back out as straight as I could and then used some fast setting epoxy to adhere them to the locks. A little sandpaper and elbow grease evened out the transition between them. I slapped them back on the center ankle and viola, a stable ankle that no longer rocks.


Monday, May 13, 2013

Locked and Loaded

Finally got around to some R2 work. Recently got some ankle locks and finally decided to instal the center ankle set after spending several minutes staring at them over the course of a few weeks.

Install was pretty easy, but I had to take the ankle off and disassemble everything in order to do it. I clamped one side into place and drilled the ankle though the hole already in the lock. At first I tapped both the lock and the ankle, but I discovered shortly after that I wouldn't get a good tight fit that way.




I had to drill the hole already in the ankle lock a little wider so it would fit the 8/32 x 3/8 screws I purchased for these. I had originally bought some regular philips screws, but decided later to get some hex screws to look a little more industrial since these will be somewhat visible if you look close enough. I countersunk the holes so the screws would sit flush when installed. Then I rinsed and repeated for the other side of the ankle and test fit them before I did the final re-install of the entire center ankle back onto my frame.





They aren't quite as tight a fit as I'd like. Theres a very small gap between the ankle lock and the center foot shell and it causes a slight kick back when R2 goes in reverse. I was afraid that would happen after test fitting these by hand before installing. I'll probably post in the forum to see if anyone has any ideas on how to fix the gap. Its not terrible by any means, but I'm afraid it would create a problem down the road after some wear and tear. I pushed R2 around and it seemed to work fine. I'm not sure if I really need the side ankle locks or not. I may hold off on them until after I've got the drive system up and running to see how they really hold up.