Robot on the brain

The Tread section now has the new treads from David H trimmed and bolted in place. David sure makes some beautiful treads. It wasn't hard to trim and install them.

The side panels are also completed. It was the first time I used a router not mounted on a table. It was used to hollow out the areas on the backside of the side panel where the axles meet the side panel. That router is a handy tool. I also ended up using a single screw on each tread panel to get them to lay flush against the tread section. For some reason the side panels do not lay flush against the bottom portion of the tread section but there's nothing I can do about it unless I build a new tread section. There's a gap but not too bad I guess.

Not as much on the robot was accomplished this long weekend. The water softener died so I spent a day replacing that. My Dad came over and removed most of the parts from it since he's rebuilding one similar. While we were scavenging it, I noticed the inner resin tank looked like it would make a great neck and head for my future Futurama Bender robot. So I spent a few hours removing the resin from it ... what a stinking mess. But it could make a good robot part in the future : )

Foaming of the knees

Another first today. I used one of those foam brushes on my knees with a pint of grey primer left over from another project. The foam brush with the angle cut sure worked better than any brush I've ever used.

The knees received 3 coats of primer today. Tomorrow they'll get a coat of dye. I'm guessing you can dye over paint ... not sure but I'll find out tomorrow. That way they will match the legs. Humpty dumpty is just about ready to be put back together. Other uneventful project was to do the inside knee hinges. I cheated and didn't install them before to shave some time. Plus I needed the robot completely disassembled to get to this area.

Today I took my time assembling and finishing the legs and waist. Using dye instead of paint on the legs was a great suggestion that I got from a couple of the B9 builders in the club. Much easier and cleaner than paint. I went directly over the pipe insulation and it covered well.

As far as the zipper, I tried a few different pieces of plastic weatherstripping but the dye didn't seem to take too well to that. So we went to JoAnne Fabrics and I bought some thin strips of soft leather that dyed nicely. A little bit of goop and the zipper slid into place. My wife went to JoAnn Fabrics with me and had a different suggestion for the robot zipper but after some experimenting we decided to go with the leather.

Another couple of hours of sanding the knees and they're just about ready for some paint or dye. Not sure which way I'm going to finish them yet. But I may try the dye.

The legs look 100 percent better. I like the color and the texture much better. Zipper experiment #2

Sweeter the second time

Tonight my wife and I redid the legs. It's so much easier doing it the second time around. You know what to expect and hopefully remember the mistakes made the first time around. We made sure the seams were nice and straight this time. Gluing them to the legs and waist sections was a piece of cake.

This week I ordered a few cans of of "aeresol rubber" from MccasterCarr (spelling?) but it turns out that I got in the mail was plasti-dip. Even though I don't like plasti-dip for legs I experimented on a few pieces of spare armaflex I had but am still dead set against using it again.

I'll dye the legs and waist tomorrow and re-assemble it. Then I'll finish the knees and may use some plasti-dip on the knees because they are kind of rough from the sandblasting. Those legs look so much better the second time around and I'm glad I took the time to do it right.

Here's a few pictures. There's one of the finished side panel and the inside piece of aluminum channel I use to attach it. I built the side panels because my email was never returned from one of the club vendors. I actually was going to buy hundreds of dollars of parts from the guy but ended up fabricating all of them myself. There's more satisfaction in doing it yourself plus you save money. That's why I love this project ... it's a great learning experience.

New Side panels made of MDF

Thou shalt not sandblast

Most of the weekend was spent re-finishing the treadsection and repainting. The side panels came out very nice thanks to the helpful tips of Brian C (The infamous purple robot). Using flat 1/2" round molding saved me a lot of time since I was going to sand dowel rods flat. The way I attached the side panels was similar to Brians but I ended up using some aluminum channel attached to the side panel that fit over the opening by the wheels. I'll try to put some pictures up later in the week. The club blueprints were helpful with the pattern.

Redoing the knees was just a bad bad idea. Earlier this week, I stripped the first knee down by hand and thought I'd do the second one with a sandblaster. What I didn't realize is you cannot sandblast mdf. It pockmarks the wood real bad. I didn't notice how much damage was done until it was too late (I didn't have my glasses on and all the sand flying). So the rest of the day was spent hand sanding the knees. Hours of sanding and they still just look ok. Oh well ... that's life. Another lesson learned.

I'm glad I borrowed the sandblaster instead of buying one. It brought back memories when I spent a winter sandblasting the underside of a 1965 mustang. Memories of how much I absolutely hate sandblasting : ) That sand gets everywhere.

Knee surgery

If only I knew what was inovolved when I decided to strip the robot's knees down to the wood and re-finish them. Since there were multiple layers of bumper rubber paint AND Plasti-dip AND paint, the job was a mess. The sandpaper clogged up immediately so a file was used to scrape the stuff off the wood. After about 3 hours, the knee still looked pretty sorry. But the alternative to redoing them is to leave them looking rough. At least I know another guy in the B9 club that had a similar knee experience.

Instead of doing the second knee the same, I decided to hunt down a sandblaster and sandblast them. My son said his roommate has a sandblaster I can borrow.

I also sanded the tread section and prepared it for repainting. It was satisfactory as it stood but I figured it won't be much more work to repaint and fix some of the marginal areas. I also sanded the knee plates and prepared them for repainting. Might as well do it right.

Doe Doe Doooonut

Painted the donut a nice hammered silver. Looks good.

Also got new armaflex (actually it's an off brand) pipe insulation from a neighbor who works at a heating and cooling supply and got it wholesale which saved a bunch of money.

B9 Lyposuction on the legs and waist

This weekend, I peeled all the armaflex from the legs and waist sections. What a mess that was. I also separated the legs from the waist section to make it easier to add the new armaflex. There was also a weird size problem with one of the leg pieces so I used this opportunity to resize it.

The reason I'm redoing the legs and waist section is the paint bubbled and gave the legs a sandpaper consistency and they were too dark. I want a lighter smooth look that some of the robots in the B9 club have.

I believe the reason for the bubbling is because I used Plasti-dip on the legs before painting. Next time I'm not sure if I'll use any type of undercoating on the legs before painting or dying them. I'm leaning toward using VHT Dye on the legs instead of paint. Some people have said that paint occasionally flakes off the legs. Others have had trouble with paint cracking or peeling. Dye kind of rules out those type of problems.

Since the robot is all apart, I also sanded down my donut and waist plate. There were a few flaws in those pieces that needed attention. I'll repaint them tomorrow.

I'm still stumped how I'm going to attach the MDF side panels ... There's always around 500-1000 things on my to-do list.

Refitting English (US)

After work tonight, I completely tore down my B9. I even put the bubble and Torso back in their box and brought them in the house. Now I can redo the tread section and legs and build the new sidepanels to fit. Plus I can fit and attach the new treads.

After I fill, sand and repaint the lower part of the robot I'm going to give a lot of thought into making it easier to take apart and put together. Another thing I need to do and wish I would have addressed it earlier is to cut notches for the soil sampler. I'm not sure how to do that yet. But I have to at least make it look like there's a soil sampler.