Some new years building progress…

So, since I’ve had a lot of time on my hands during the new years, I’ve managed to get quite a bit done!

I took a few trips to the hardware store and picked up more polystyrene cement, as well as some needed tools and a huge lot of nuts and bolts and washers. At least enough for me to attach battery boxes, the motors to the main feet and all that.

I took the first leg i finished outside and spent 10 minutes with my mouse sander on it, to get all unsmooth edges and uneven bits done and dealt with, and the end result was really nice and smooth.

In addition to that, I routed cables through the leg, and made sure my shoulder hubs fit well into the shoulder, with a magnetic lock.

Here’s the sanded leg with cables running through the leg and proper cable attachments mounted. This leg only needs a small amount of sanding on the marked, red edge before it is ready for skinning.

I decided to add a caster to the main foot as well, as the big wheel is really off center, and I wanted to make sure the foot was nice and level. I may not need this, but at least I have the option of trying this. With the system with the motor holders, and the feet only being shells, I should be able to just switch the feet around to the other leg, should I like to have the caster in the front or in the back. Having the caster in front will cause more impacts, but it will allow me to run the droid backwards through doors if I need to.

Here’s the final foot motor holder, mounted and ready! Seems sturdy and stable, and I can’t wait to get the robot to a point where I can actually have a robot that can move! =)

Apart from that, I also went back to my HP’s and made small white caps to cover the bottle caps out of 1mm styrene. This looks way nicer than the previous temp solution of using paper as a diffuser.

I am starting to get the hang of working with styrene, and using the first leg as a template, I used it to mark and cut out the parts for the second leg.

I even managed to get some time gluing half the leg together.. My plans are to have it completed by tomorrow, and thus having both legs ready, construction wise. Skinning is definitely needed, but that will be for later!

I also have plans for a magnetic lock for the shoulder horseshoes, but I’ll have plenty of time to put that into action before skinning the legs!

So at this point, I’ve got all skins cut out, fixed lights for my hp’s, got one leg done and the second halfway there… and one motor holder done!

//Micke