Playing Ketchup Episode I: Stinkin' Feet

Its been four months since I've posted any updates to my R2 build - mainly because I've been concentrating on actual building while letting the posts slide. But today its a balmy 20º, snowing and I'm taking a day off work after a nearly 90 hour work week. So get ready for a couple long posts of progress.

I'll start where the last post left off - getting the NPC motors finalized for installation. I ran into the same problem everyone did with the old battery boxes and had to grind the tops of the NPC motors in order for them to fit inside the boxes. I also had to modify the openings of the left box a fair amount to get it to slip all the way over the motor. Not sure why the right one didn't require it, but I'm fine with only cutting one box if the other one works.

At this point I was done with the NPCs but needed to do more work on the Battery Boxes. I wanted to make sure the Battery Harnesses were going to be secure, so I drilled a hole into the harnesses and the boxes at the bottom of the main vertical piece, where the decorative cover would eventually cover the unsightly screw. I had to do a bit of sanding on the harnesses to get them to fit in the box facade as well. My boxes are from an older run before the face of the box was CNC'd. So they are not quite exact, and you can tell just by looking at them. Eventually I'd like to replace them with the newer improved version.

At this point I was looking at the issues of securing the boxes to the feet. The curved inside panel of the feet have holes for a screw to slide into as you can see in the pic below, but after a lot of staring I realized the boxes were such a tight fit that I'd never be able to get box mounted screws to slide down in the pre-drilled foot holes. I did a little searching on the forums, and decided to drill two holes at the bottom of each box and foot that a screw could pass through and be tightened from the bottom. Drilling into several hundred dollar parts is always scary and this was no exception, especially because of the curved area where each hole needed to be.

Its a tight squeeze with the fingers, but it works quite well. In the end it turned out very good, and the boxes are rock solid on the feet.

The final piece to the feet puzzle was drilling out the holes for the Knurled Hose Fittings. After even more research I went to Harbor Freight and bought a step down drill bit. It was money well spent and made expanding the pre-drilled holes quite easy. Going from 1/4 inch to 11/16th took only a few minutes on each hole and the KNFs slid right into place.

At this point its was nearing late November and I was ready to break everything down for paint. Luckily it was an unusually warm December, and the added help of a propane heater didn't hurt either.

I'm just talkin' bout Shaft

Work commenced again yesterday towards final assembly. The NPC motors come with a shaft on both sides, one of which needs to be cut off to allow the Battery Boxes to fit over them. I failed to take a good pic of the motors with the extended shafts still on the droid, but they can be seen here with the motors attached to the JAG foot drives:

At first I tried cutting the shafts with a metal blade on a chop/miter saw. It cut fine but was only able to get close enough to end up leaving about a half inch of the shaft still on the motor. It also made the shaft extremely hot, which probably wouldn't damage the motor, but I didn't want to take that chance again. Since something else was needed to finish the job I decided to just use a hacksaw. With it, there was no problem getting extremely close to the shaft housing. It only took a few minutes to trim off the remainder of the shaft, then a couple metal files were used to clean up and smooth out the finished product.

The same process was repeated on the other motor shaft, minus the chop saw. Fairly quick and easy. Definitely easier with two people so that one can hold the motor while the other saws. Now onto getting the Battery Boxes to fit. That requires grinding the tops of the motors, and a cut or two to each box as well.

Double Boost

Painted the other Booster Cover today. Used the same method as before and this one came out even better.

Struttin'

Worked on getting the Leg Struts installed yesterday. The problem was that the bottom piece of the struts were too long, and the builder who ran the piece had intended for them to extend into the ankles. I however,  followed LoLo080's method of cutting about an 1 & 1/4 inch off the end so they could be screwed in from under the Ankle Bracelet. I felt this was a better, more solid solution.

I enlisted my Dad and his plethora of power tools. I bought a metal cutting blade for his miter saw. It worked quite well and made a nice straight cut. Then we pulled his drill press out from the archives and used my drill and tap set for the first time. Neither of us had ever tapped something before, and it went fine except I think we didn't drill the first one deep enough. The second one we drilled out a smidgen more and it tapped much easier. Aside from sweating in the 100º humidity it went off without a major hitch.

So now I can debut my completed Legs assemblies. Just need a little sanding and then they will be ready for some blue and white paint. Now back to working on the skins.

Magnetic Personality

Put in a little Leg work over the last week or so (Wa, Wa, Waaa). First up was the need to grind a little off the JAG legs to be able to mount the Horseshoes. I screwed the shim into place then used a red sharpie to mark the area that needed to come off, like so:

I went ahead and used the dremmel with the coarsest sanding tool. It burnt through 3 of them, but did the job fast and easy. I also ran into a problem with mounting the Hydraulics and Under Shoulder Details. These pieces were drilled for a much smaller screw than the Legs or Horseshoes were made for. I thought about drilling these pieces out, but instead I just grabbed some #6 washers and lock washers which worked out great. They are all held in place very well, and it even clears the shims on the Hydraulics with just a lock washer. 

Finally, I decided to go ahead and mount the Shoulder Hubs. These are held in place by magnets: a set glued to the inside of the legs, and a pair to the back of the Hubs themselves. I used some Locktight Epoxy, which worked very well, almost too well. It was the quickset type, and it does in fact set quick. Luckily I didn't have an issue with needing to reset any of the magnets, but the epoxy itself set up inside the plastic nozzle within a minute rendering it unusable. Fortunately two nozzles came with the pack, and it took both to do the job.

One neat little trick I thought of was to use some paint to mark the placement of the magnets in the legs. I had one set glued to a hub and doubled up the magnets, then put a good amount of paint on the top magnet, and then placed it in the legs. When its lifted out you have a nice swab of paint to mark where to glue the magnets to the inside.

I did, however, forget to check the polarity of the magnets before mounting them to the first Hub. It turned out to be a happy mistake though. Because they are opposite I was able to make it so the Hubs will only go in one way. I even marked one magnet red and one blue on the back of the hubs and inside the legs. That way its real easy to tell just by looking. It turned out good as you can see below.

Now just awaiting Booster Covers and Ankle Details to finish out the legs before painting. Both of wich are ordered!