First bit of news is the upcoming Mid-West Droid Builders gathering in northern Indiana this weekend. To prepare I've been repainting the feet, rebuilding the center ankle and repairing the wiring from everything that happened at Droid-Con last May. Wiring is done and the new center ankle will be ready as soon as the glue drys and I drill the mounting holes. The Feet are primed and just need to be painted and clear-coated.
And now some progress on the Logic Displays. Wait....what? The Logic Displays?! Really? An actual update on the Logic Displays?! Yes, it's true. It's been awhile hasn't it. But don't get too excited. It's not much. All I did was drill a hole.
This hole is where the fiber optic strands will fit into the LED tube. All that's left now if to make a block to fit each cord of fiber into so they're arranged correctly. Just need a flat board of black ABS plastic.
Most of my work this past month however has been on the head. Shortly after my last post, I finished cutting the ribs and did a test fit.
So far so good. But before I start gluing it all together, I finally bought my first sheet of Styrene, a PVC type of plastic commonly used in professional sign making and related things, to perform a test fit to make sure the plastic would retain a smooth circular shape when wrapped around only four ribs. It's a good thing I did this because the test failed. At first I thought I needed to add more ribs. But then I tried the same piece of styrene on the original head and it wrapped around perfectly. The reason is because the original head has rings going around it that help the styrene maintain a smooth bend around it. So that's what I needed to add to head v2.
I decided I needed to add a ring to the middle and the top of the head. I will use 1/4" wood and will sand the edges to the same angle as the outer edge of the ribs where the rings will be. The middle ring will need to be two 1/4" rings glued together like a sandwich with each ring's edge angled differently to match the face/neck angles (very much like the original head).
Here I'm cutting out the middle of the middle ring. Both 1/4" halves are already glued together. I'm making each ring only 1" thick from outer to inner circumference. The notches on the inside are to fit into the notches I put into the ribs.
The ribs with the notches for the rings cut into them.
Here's the head assembled with the top ring and a close-up of how it fits together. Not a perfect fit but close enough.
On Tuesday I will test fit the middle ring and drill the mounting holes into the center ankle. If all goes well I will be able to glue the head together.
One more thing I need to do is make the ankle lock for the center foot so it doesn't tilt when moving backwards.
John
No comments:
Post a Comment