Hubs and Legs on the way!

I didn't get any building done in the weekend. As I mentioned on a previous post, I stupided my applicator bottle and couldn't glue anything. So I ordered a new bottle online from this link
and it arrived on the following day!

I've decided I'm pretty much done with Gavrieli Plastics in North Hollywood because it's just a lot cheaper to order styrene online from http://www.indplastic.com/ and I can get the applicator bottle from the previous link.

So what did I do this weekend? Well, I just cut out some print-outs and pasted them onto styrene for cutting day.

I love cutting day. I get to use my router setup and cut circular shapes from Dave's plans. Cutting day occurs when wife is away long enough for me to set up router table, cut pieces, dismantle setup, and clean clean clean until there's no trace that cutting took place.

Now, I know that it looks like there's a lot of flashing on my styrene parts, but that's just what the router does to the paper templates. It's not the actual plastic. So with this in mind, check out my hub pieces, all cut out.


For no good reason I stupided R3 twice. Oh well. Start with R1 or L1. Place plate 1 on the table and glue plate 2 on top, using a couple nails for alignment. The reason I'm using nails is because I found out that the nails I had lying around the house are exactly 3mm in diameter (around 1/8" for those who don't believe Stalin was a hero. Dave's instructions had told me to buy a 3mm drill bit. I felt like I was betraying democracy but bought one).

One thing that I want to point out right now is that Dave's instructions were smuggled into the free world from some People's Republic that uses that archaic communist metric system. That's why the plans say such insane things such as "you will need 16 x M6 x 55mm countersunk screws". It's all in code! Can't let the government of the People's Republic know he secretly loves freedom. So, ignore that insane soviet M6 blah blah blahtskovitch talk and observe the translation: You will need 16 1/4" x 2-1/2" flat head machine screws.




Glue in those rectangular upright thingies in the alignment marks, making sure the outer edge is flush with the edge on the plates. Don't let the uprights protude beyond the edge!


Now glue on plates 3 and 4, once again using the nail holes for alignment.
Now you're going to need a drill press. There is NO way around this, you need a drill press and a 1/4" drill bit (or 6mm drill bit for those who hate us because of our freedom). I hear Harbor Freight has a very cheap drill press. If you live near one, get it. If not, do what I did. I needed a drill press very badly. Wife said no. I begged. She still said no. She finally said yes under one condition. Buy it at Walmart (those anti-american globalists sell stuff made in china) and keep the receipt. Build your droid and return the tool for a refund. You have to finish your droid within 90 days.
Now that you borrowed a drill press from that Illuminati-owned global elitist corporation, drill through ALL holes with the 1/4" drill bit (or 6mm if your mother used to read "Das Kapital" to you as a bedtime story). You can't do that with the step drill bit, you really do need a regular drill bit. Then use your countersink bit to countersink the outer holes on face 4 and the inner holes on face 1 as shown in Dave's plans. Mount the screws into the hubs, but make sure you do the inner ones first! It's a LOT easier if you do them first. Otherwise you'll feel like you're stuck in a chinese finger trap.


The semi-finished hub. All it needs now is the skin and I need to drill the cables/connector hole in the centre. Dave's plans are forced to say that it should be 30mm in diameter but we have men and women fighting in the middle east right NOW to defend our right to drill a 1-1/8" hole!!

Figuring I had time before my wife figured out I must be secretly building a droid in the apartment, I decided to work on the leg. I started with the lower leg blank. Dave says to drill the holes to 6mm for now. This, of course, is code for 1/4", which Dave must not say in fear he might get sent to Siberia. When you get to the part about drilling out the centres, you must use the drill press. And Dave says to use a 16mm towel rod or pvc pipe. That doesn't really exist. 16mm is of course code for 5/8". I don't know how many people died so we could have that information but honour them and get a 5/8" Freud forstner bit. I got one in the router aisle of Home Depot. It works great on the drill press. Then I got a piece of 1/2" I.D. copper pipe. You can cut it with a hacksaw. The towel rod would work better and I suggest it. I aligned everything, glued it and placed weight on top for an hour.



More leg construction. I had all the small leg pieces in that coffee can. And I was drinking coffee.

These clamps on the next photo are holding reinforcements that glue to the EDGE 2 faces.

And weight on top for another hour.

I will write more later. For now you can take a look at the styrene R2 dome that arrived via UPS.

Wife was not happy...