construction

Nail polish remover, center foot and more sanding!

So: After emptying several tubes of model kit glue, with various results, I got back on trying to find the raw chemical, Ethyl Acetate, to glue together my droid.

You can find the actual chemical, the only issue is you need to buy it in bulk!

So, after emailing, calling and finding out ore about it, I stumbled across something.

Seems my girlfriends nail polish remover consists mainly of … you guessed it: Ethyl Acetate!

I have called the company to see how much concentration of this it’s actually in the bottle, but a competing brand (no pic, sorry) (Gripen Remover for you Swedes) consists of 80-90% of Ethyl Acetate.

So, silly as it may sound, I tried gluing a few pieces of styrene together with nail polish remover… and it actually works!

I’ve used the “other” brand, since I know the concentration in that one, until I get word from the company about the concentration in the bottle pictures above.

I also cut out all my pieces for the center foot, and started gluing it together. Not with glue, though. I glued it with nail polish remover.

My initial thoughts is that it is very volatile, you need to work FAST, and you need to soak a bit into the plastic, then keep it hard pressed together for some time, and most importantly: leave it over night to harden. The joint doesn’t get stiff and firm until after 24 hours.

So far, so good!

Oh, apart from that, I’ve got a few hours worth of sanding ahead of me. Got to sand both motor holders, parts of the center foot, the second leg, and chamfer like mad for the foot shells!

Good thing it’s a long weekend coming along!

 

//Micke

By |2016-12-06T00:02:02+01:00January 5th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Nail polish remover, center foot and more sanding!
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More building done ..

So, after cutting a lot of styrene, I found an old tube of polystyrene cement among my old model colors. Unopened.

That cannot be, I decided, so that had to be put to work.

So, after experimenting with my own circular cutter thingy, I decided to put together one of R2’s legs!

After putting together about half, I was VERY happy that I recently bought a small sanding machine, as there were quite a few places where the height was not all even, but that was just a few minutes with my mouse sander, and it was all smooth and ready to glue together.

I also built a small magnetic lock into the hub for the shoulder hubs.
Unfortunately, I cannot take any pictures of it at the moment, as it is glued together, but here’s a pic of what all my hard work yesterday resulted in:

Behold, R2 has one leg complete! Woohoo!

Anyway, that was yesterday, and I figured I could not afford to be lazy today either.

After redoing my design for the motor holder, recutting some styrene, as I had made a mistake in the cutting, I started gluing things together… and one thing led to another, and pretty soon, I was left with this:

For a better view, look at this:

Yes, there are a few clamps, but not all I have, fortunately! Actually, I picked up a few more in the store.

I included a few close-ups of the inner workings of the motor holder. It really holds the motor snugly in place, and all I need is just a few spacers on the inside for the mounting screws.

Naturally, I had to try it out.. even though the glue had not had time to harden over night… but a few minutes wouldn’t hurt 😉

Worked like a charm, if you wonder!

So: here’s a nice view of my finished motor holder. At the moment, I need to add another 3mm piece of styrene to the inside part of the “groove” to get the proper measurements. Seems I miscalculated with 3 mm after all, but that’s ok =)

You have no idea how many small pieces I’ve placed inside this as bulkheads, to strengthen the foot in any way I can think of.

All in all, a busy day, but a fun one! =)

//Micke

By |2016-12-06T00:02:04+01:00December 30th, 2011|R2-D2|Comments Off on More building done ..
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Today’s job.. cutting plastic and semi circles..

Today’s job: Cutting more styrene.

I’ve cut out 2 large sheets of square pieces. Plenty of work.

I’ve also managed to fix a circle cutter of my own for the arm sockets.

I took a spare piece of styrene, drilled a 3mm hole in it, and cut it off, to be 85 mm .. which, in case you haven’t noticed, is half the size of the arm socket hole.

I drilled a 3mm hole in the skin in the center point, and used a screwdriver as pivot point, since I didn’t have any 3mm screws lying about…

I used the edge of the piece around the pivot point as a template for cutting, and i moved the mounted scrap piece around the half circle at the same time as cutting.

This made a very nice and smooth round hole.

After cutting out a few of these, I used the cut-out pieces as templates for cutting the rest of the holes!

No more need to find a circle cutter that can cut that big holes! =)

Next step is to finish off the blueprints to my cnc guy, who will do all my curved pieces for me! =)

Sorry, no pictures today =)

//Micke

By |2012-03-19T09:21:29+01:00December 27th, 2011|R2-D2|Comments Off on Today’s job.. cutting plastic and semi circles..
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