dome

After my really lovely time in Gothenburg, I realized that next time I had a chance to take my droid out, I had to be there.

This time, without any duct tape on the dome!

No time to waste, got to get to work!

First on the agenda, was to mount the top part of the inner dome properly into the outer dome. The inner dome has been sanded as much as possible, and once it was a proper fit, I just put in place. It is held in place by milliput and superglue, and seems like it is holding up nice. Once the rest of the inner dome is mounted, I will add some extra safekeeping inside, just to be sure. For now, it looks pretty ok, I must say!

I really like how it looks weathered as is…

For the inner dome I fixed the panel I had in place for the “mystery panel”. Essentially, this is a piece of plexiglass that I had cut to size and heated up with my blowtorch, bent slightly around the inner dome to match the curve somewhat, and finally set in place with milliput. The outside of the plexiglass has been sanded, in order to match the surface of the inner dome, and on the inside, I’ve glued 2 layers of a mylar film that I got from Sigge!

(Great guy, that Sigge. I will have to devote an entire post with the items he’s gotten for me so far… and I will!)

In this light, it is easy to see, but with the frame around, and a decent box behind it to close off the light, It will look quite the same as the reset of the dome!

This is the inside, with the mylar film glued to the piece of plexiglass. They grey stuff is the hardened milliput, that should be hard enough to withstand even poking fingers from kids!

The rear PSI and rear Holo Projector also needed cutting out. The rear PSI hole was really making me slightly nervous, as this hole is in a place where it will be exposed!

However, I started with the rear holo projector, which really doesn’t have to look nice at all, since it is all covered by the outer dome anyway.

I drilled out the circumference with increasingly larger drills, to the point where the piece in the middle almost fell out by itself. Looking back, I would have brought out my dremer earlier, as the final hole ended up slightly larger than I had wanted to, but no worries, there are still plenty of aluminum to fasten the holo projector, and I preferred the hole to be slightly larger so I could move the rear holo projector around a bit, to not get into the way of the fit of the outer dome!

Once the center piece was gone, it was time to file down the rough edges… File and dremel were my tools here!

Hole ready and started to drill holes for the mounting of the holo projector.

Then time for the dreaded last hole. Having drilled 4 other holes in the dome, I used what I’ve learned from the previous attempts for this last hole.. the important one, as I want the inner dome to shine through here.

I drilled around the area… took extra precaution to not go over the line…

Dremel time! Like the front holo projector, I cut up slices, bent these away with a pair of pliers, and started sanding.

After filing and main sanding was done, it was time to use the “bottle technique” .. wrapping a bottle in sanding paper, and twist back and forth… round and round .. until you have a perfectly circular hole.

My hole for the rear PSI is slightly smaller than the actual PSI, but when looking at it, it doesn’t show, and I can’t really tell. It’s only a fraction larger anyway, and it’s better than sanding too much!

Final result, with PSI test mounted:

Since then, the PSI has been mounted properly, (for test purposes), and the last part is to sand down the area around the rear PSI to match the surface of the outer dome, and then paint, sand, paint, sand, paint, sand and paint! =)