Leg to Ankle Upgrade

Well the leg to ankle upgrade is complete, well sort of. I plan on adding a 1/8" plate that will run all the way down the ankle to the axle, but for now there are just some nuts JB Welded to the ankle. i used Grade 8 bolts to ensure that they would not shear and drilled out the ankles and legs to fit the new bolts.

I JB Welded nuts to the plate inside the ankle to give the bolts something to screw into. As mention before, one set of nuts is there until I create the 1/8" plate. Right now they only keep the leg in place.

I got some 1/4" aluminum plates and drilled them so they will fit between the leg and ankle and keep the correct spacing on the bracelet.



All Assembled

Painting 102

No real pictures of this... not very interesting. All leg pieces have been masked and primed.

Painting 101

Not much done physically to R2 over the weekend. The Olympics were on and while watching and listening to the stupid comments from the commentators I took apart R2... again. I was hoping to get the new plates to update the leg to ankle joint and have him up on his feet and assembled for a progress picture. Now he is in pieces again, but they are now all masked off and ready to be primed and painted. I hop to have the primer coats on by the end of Tuesday. The final layers may have to wait as they are calling for some major rain here.

Shoulder Hub Update

As promised here are the pictures. I mounted the hubs using rare earth magnets.





Here is is an update photo on what the feet currently look like.

Shoulder Hubs

I finished mounting the shoulder hubs. I will update later with pictures. I attached the magnets together with some wax paper between them. I them applied some JB Weld to the new magnet and put the shoulder hub into the leg. After a while I pulled the hub out and separated the magnets. I then put the magnets back into position with another magnets, on the other side of the leg, holding them in place and squeezed towards the leg wall.

Weekend Update 2

Finished drilling the shoulder hubs. I JB Welded some rare earth magnets in the holes. They are now ready for mounting. I just need to attach some magnets on the legs. It will be interesting to see how the JB Weld reacts with the magnets. You can acually see the JB Weld interact with the magnetic fields.

I finished the final foot shell, and applied some white primer to the shells. I also cut all the craided hose and tubes. I now need to cut the nuts that will hold the KHFs on the feet.

Weendend Update 1

I mounted the rockler bearing on the top ring. I had mounting holes on the top ring, but they got in the way of the shoulder hubs and the large data port. I had to drill out the other holes on the outer bearing and drill new holes in the top ring. I then tapped the ring and reassembled. This should be the last time the frame needs to be taken apart for some time.

I also filed down the last ankle wedge. These things just didn't line up at all. I don't really think the wedges are the problem. I think there were some issues in the production of the ankles where some durfaces are not completely flat and the angles are off.

I have a few thing on my list to try and get done this weekend. Ipdates and pictures coming...

Just some little things

Updated status

Feet:
I have the battery boxes semi attached to the foot shells. There are some minor modifications that need to be done to get them fully attached. I will probably leave the lower attachment until I get the motors hooked up. I just need to make some adjustments to the KHF holes on one foot ans the foot shells are done and ready for their white primer. I have 1 braided hose done. I just need to grind down the nuts to fasten the KHF fittings on the feet and the battery boxes and the feet are completely finished.

Ankles:
I have 1 more wedge\cylinder combo to file and adjust to make it fit the center ankle. The only outstanding issue to to get the center ankle mounting block ground down to fit the ankle.

Legs:
I don't have to, at this point, but I will probably dill out the leg to ankle joint to upgrade the bolts that I already purchased. I have to finish mounting the under the shoulder details. The only other thing I need on the Legs is the Shoulder hubs. I think I have an idea on how to mount them, I just need to get some time to drill out the backs of the hubs to accept the magnets.

I will probably post an image of where r2 is at some point.

Alternate Krider Blue Test

Ok I used some scrap to test the blue using the Krylon X-Metal Purple. I used a white primer and then 2 coats of the purple. I let the purple dry over night and masked it off. I sprayed the Duplicolor Blue on in 2 coats and then the clear in 3 coats. I did one more test with this setup. On half of the finished blue, I used an acrylic wax and sealant. I know I should have let the clear dry for 24-48 hours, but with the light coats and quicker time intervals the paint was fairly dry for this test.

The Purple with the White primer masked off


The blue in diffferent lighting: (You can start to see the purple show through in the highlights)

Pay no attention to the blemishes on the paint. The painting was done outside without a paint booth to cover it. The days were hto and humid... rain in the area. Take notice of the color\deep rich change in the blue in each picture. The acrylic sealant gave the blue a much deeper\wetter look. The video i have show this transition a little better.





This video shows how the Color changes in different lighting, well as much as I can show it. Take notice at the end of the video how the reflection of the light changes where the acrylic layer starts.

LDP Installed

Last night I got the LDP install. I had to drill through the LDP on at least one hole to get the the screws to bite. I plan on filling this hole before it is painted, so it will not be seen. I reassembled the frame and skins afterwards and everything lines up.

Weekend Build

Busy build weekend. The first thing I worked on is cutting 1 of the braided hoses and testing out the KHF. It looks like I will need to cut the hose a little longer as the braided hose expanded a little and shortened the length as I put a section of tube in side.

I moved to putting a coat of white primer on the center foot. This is just a base coat for the foot since I plan on using Satin White later, but I already used a gray primer to stop any rust on the foot. The white primer will cover up the gray one better.

I needed to put the mounting screws in the battery boxes so I can start figuring out how to attach the boxes so they don't rattle. I marked the location of the holes and then drilled and tapped them.


Next I drilled and tapped the ankle cylinders so the wedges can attach to the cylinders. I lined up and measured the first cylinder and made a jig to do the other 3. A few adjustments need to be made before the cylinders and attached wedges can be moutned on to the ankles. I expanded a few holes, but the center ankle has one wedge combo that is really going to need some fitting.

I primed and test sprayed a piece of scrap to test the Krylon X-Metal purple as an alternative to the elusive Rustoleum. More to come on that.

The last thing I worked on was mounting the LDP to the frame. I mounted the LDP and marked it's location. I then drilled and counter sunk holes for screws. I now just have to drill and tap holes in the LDP.