Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Well, I'm off work for a week, which gave me a little more time with my pal Artoo. This past Saturday, I cut the support ring for the dome to allow me to mount it to the frame. I used some scrap plastic tubing that worked perfectly for spacing. I would still like to test fit the skins on this week, but I'm happy with the progress with the dome.
I managed to clean up the cut outs on the inner dome and was able to mount my resin pieces. They're not permanent yet, but they do give the dome a more finished look. The spin on the rockler bearing is very smooth. I had been planning on getting styrene to make the legs, but I'm thinking of putting off the legs for a little while and spending the money on a motor and mount kit to get the dome running... or at least a jump in that direction.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Continued Dome Work

Winter weather and storms cancelled my plans for the weekend, so I found a lot of time to get work done on the dome. I mounted the radar eye to the dome and also installed the lower section of the inner dome and mounted the majority of the panels to it. I still have some trim work to do to get everything evened up. Of the 4 panels that still need to be mounted, two of them need circular cutouts and are awaiting parts so I can size up the cuts properly. One just needs trim work on the inner dome section prior to mounting. I'm also deciding whether or not to add the red led panel on the side. I have the panel, just undecided at the moment if I'm going to do it or not.

Monday, December 15, 2008

More Dome Progress







OK - the Christmas holiday is just around the corner, which means time with my buddy Artoo is going to be somewhat limited. I did find some time to work this past weekend and made some significant progress on the dome, although I ran into a common issue with the dome. The inner dome would not sit properly inside of the outer dome and thus created a 1/4" gap at the top. Sooooo.... I resorted to cutting the top off of the inner dome about 3/4 of an inch below the pie panels. This smaller section now sits flush with the top of the dome. I adhered this with the VHB tape that I picked up from Uline.com. All panels with the exception of the HP panel are also mounted with the VHB tape.




I also cut the center out of the dome base ring. This will allow me to access the electronics inside of the dome and seat the dome on the Rockler bearing. I'm not sure how the other C&D dome users are building their domes, but this is the route that I chose. The center has the R2Builders Logo on it, which I plan in turning into something creative. I picked up wood to create an inner ring for the dome to provide support as well as to give a platform to mount to the Rockler bearing, over the base ring. I plan on keeping the base ring as a separate component of the dome.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Frame/Parts update






Made some more progress with the frame this weekend. My support rods are installed - all except one as I was short by one machine screw. I picked up a Rockler bearing and was able to modify and mount it. Found something out to share - There are 8 plastic feet on the bottom of the bearing, I removed 4 of them to drill the holes through to mount it to the frame and left 4 feet still attached. Keeping in mind that this is aluminum and will bend, when I mounted the bearing to the frame, I added two flat washers between the bearing and the frame to match the spacing of the feet. This kept the bearing level as I tightened it to the frame.


I started cutting the dome ring for the C&D dome. Once that is complete (along with some clean up on the inside dome), I'll be able to mount the dome to the frame.

I also got a start on some of the misc body parts as well. Here are my first two coin slots. One is finished, the other I still have a couple pieces to add. The tape is just adding additional support to the glue and will not be seen. I used scrap pieces from my frame to get the profile.