Brain Day

A lot was completed today. I assembled and soldered a brain that I bought from Scott S. in his scratch and dent sale. Most of the assembly went well but bending the metal around the eye areas wasn't crisp and I'm not satisified with the results but have to live with it. After assembly, I soldered it. That way you can remove the temporary tabs that hold it together on initial assembly. I left a few of the tabs that were pressed on too tight. Using a screwdriver to pry them loose cost me several nasty cuts on my hand. This coupled with one burned finger from the torch in the soldering process made for a higher incidence of bodily injury than normal : )

Later in the afternoon I primed and painted the brain and NOW the last piece of the B9 puzzle is understood. Before, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the brain cam attaches to the brain cup. And that was because I was looking at Brad's brain which doesn't seem to be compatible with the brain cup and the cam. His brain is much different. Mine had a circle cutout with 4 notches to put screws in to attach to the brain cup leaving room for the cam.

Next task: Since I had the torch out and still had 9 good fingers, it was time to make the pewter torso hooks From Dennis W's. Torso hook kit. Lucky Dennis sent an extra hook just in case. I totally screwed up the first one and needed that spare. The second one was marginal and THEN I figured out the correct way to do it. Applying the heat UNDER the base after drilling holes in the base to push the pewter through. Push enough pewter through the hole to fuse. Before I tried heating the pewter on the top of the base. The first experiment I didn't drill the holes all the way through and tried fusing it to the countersunk holes (bad idea).

So one of the torso hooks had a thin area on top. I applied fiberglass to the hooks in the areas that needed a little beefing up. After sanding and painting, they should be good to go.

The brain cup and neck piece had some fiberglass applied, sanding and painting. In the process a small piece of my brain cup broke off. The brain cup was made out of resin and it was a very difficult piece to make. Fortunately that the small piece that broke off won't be seen or missed.

I finished my Scott S. ears and then noticed one of them didn't work. The bottom long shaft came out and that ear cam doesn't turn. I'm really bummed out about this. Looks like only one ear will work. Anyone have a spare Scott S. Ear they want to sell?

Another intimidating task is looms on the horizon .... drilling holes in the bubble. I think I'll wait until today's injuries heal.