More Shoulder Rework

After spending a couple of days admiring my droid, I noticed the right shoulder was a bit lower than the left. I looked closer and figured out why. First, the right side is the 1" pipe. Even though the hole for it (1-1/2") is centered with the other side, the hole is a little bigger than the pipe. So the pipe is resting on the bottom of the hole and thus is sitting a bit lower than the left side. Then I thought what would happen when I get the feet on...the right shoulder would then be a bit higher than the left. So now I have to fix this. It never ends.

The solution is to have the 1-1/4" pipe extend through both shoulder supports. Don't know why I didn't think to do that before. But this requires replacing both pipes (the larger one so it's long enough and the smaller one so the drilled holes are aligned). After Replacing both pipes, I cut the 1-1/4" to 16" long (was 14" before) and the new 1" pipe I kept at 14" long. Then I re-drilled the 3/8" alignment holes but this time I used a hard metal drill bit, making the job much faster and with less smoke, hehe. Now the shoulders sit level with one another.

While I was at it, I decided to try making the silver rings that go on the shoulder flanges. This is the silver part between the legs and body. I bought a 2' x 4' panel of aluminum sheet metal and using tin snips I cut out two 1-1/4" x 19-3/4" strips. I wrapped these around the flanges and trimmed to fit end to end. Then I used small scrap pieces and J.B. Weld to bridge each end.

End result came out pretty good, except for one side. There is a small gap on one of them so I'll have to remake that one. Other wise it looks great.

Starting to look like a real droid isn't it? Only took me 2 years of research and 3 years of off/on work. The steel feet I ordered should be arriving soon. Can't wait to try those on. I think next I'll tackle mounting the center ankle to the body. Stay tuned for that adventure.

John