Leg Assembly......again

Last night I got to re-assembly Leg No1 again.

The way most of these components were designed to be connected together was not my 'new' idea. I have followed several other R2 Builders builds. And this, along with building the actual components, are mostly not original to me.

Adam Strawson's R2 was one of the first R2 Build's I followed.

The other being Emy by Podpadstudio's.

So here's all the parts....

Left pic shows the front, the right pic shows the rear fixing points etc.

For my build, I secure the Ankle Braclet to the Ankle 'curved' section with a small screw. This holds it in place and will locate the Booster Strut in place.

Next I secure the Booster Strut by inserting the bottom of it into the Ankle Bracelet, then a screw into a bracket on the rear of the top square part, picture below.

Booster Cover over the Strut, and press it down into the dowel location holes.

The other components, the Ankle Cylinder, cylinder wedge and support are already assembled as one piece. These are push fitted into the leg with dowels.

The last three items are the 'Ankle Details' these fit on the lower ankle sides, fron and back.
And the Shoulder Horseshoe assembly, which is pre-assembled.
The centre hub is also a snug push fit.

Horseshoe No2 - Hydraulic & Buttons fitted

To make space in the bedroom [keeping the wife happy] I took the Horseshoe back out to the garage and fitted [bolted] the Hydraulic & the two Buttons back on. Then fitted the spacer and finally, pushed the location pegs into the holes on the Leg.

Leg No2, is now complete :)

Battlestations!!! ;)

What with R5 being on display this Saturday, am a little nervous, to say the least!!

Been trying to get as much done and finished before the big day, so yesterday, I sprayed up Leg No.2 white. I gave it a few coats, but as the can was running out, decided to concentrate on the outside/front. I won't clear coat it till the whole leg has been sprayed, but it still looks good.

I also sprayed silver the second Hub, that didn't turn out great the first time. And the rear strip for the Ankle Bracelet.

Then last night I started to assemble all the components I had for it. I first screwed into place the main Ankle Bracelet. It's screw although countersunk, is also covered when the Booster Cover is in place. Next on was the Booster Strut, which sits in the hole of the Bracelet and an angle bracket secures the top block to the leg. The Booster Cover then is just a push fit with the dowels, into the leg. The Ankle Cylinder [with wedge & holder pre-attached] are push fitted into place, along with the two Ankle Details. The Hub is also just pushed into place for now. And lastly the Horseshoe goes on.

Lastly, I started to dirty up the whole leg.


**UPDATE**
I've now fitted the Large Data Port, touched up the Octagon Ports edges with metallic blue, fitted the lower vent pocket mesh screen.

Outer Foot No.2 - UPDATE
Been working on the crescent detail, to finish off the top section of the shell. Also drilled out the knurled hose fitting holes and added the top strip detail. Only going to be able to primer it up for the show tomorrow.

Lots of work done......

Ankle Braclet
I cut out a piece of hardboard to fit at the back of the Ankle Braclet. Once sanded I sealed it with watered down PVA glue. It will need re-sanding once dried.

Coin Slot
Before I fitted the Coin Slots back into the body, I painted the visible frame black, that could be seen through the slots.

Leg No2
Sprayed primer over Leg No.2. This helps to show up all the bits that need attention! I wil also need to drill and add a few more stratigic holes to help clamp the pieces tighter together. I did this before then applying more wood filler to gaps and all over where needed.

Horseshoe
Whilst the wood filler was setting on the leg, I started spraying Primer onto horseshoe.

Booster Cover
Masked off the 'blue' on the booster cover and then applied primer over the lower half & in the grooves. Left to dry, then later I sprayed it up blue. Need to buy another small can for finishing off the Octagon Port wall edges.

Shoulder Hub
This resin item had already been cleaned, just not got round to painting it. So on went a few light coats of primer. A few as you want to get the paint in all the corners, without the spray 'running'. Spray, leave, spray a bit more, leave......you get the picture :)

Outer Foot Sheel No1.
I already had this piece cut out. I just needed to cut the angles & it to length. It fits on the back face of the foot [actually the inside part of the foot, where the 'foot battery' sits. I bonded it in place with p40. Ooops, when I taped it up, the piece was slightly too long when I measured to check squareness etc. Luckily I had some scrap wood that was enough to move the piece to make it the right length. And then left it all to set. Next I then cut plastic pipe I had for the curved section. Using my coping saw I cut away most of the board I had left on. I then used my dremel with sanding drum attached, to create the curve.

Main Leg 2 - 2.4 - Ankle work [bracelet & wedge]

Ankle
I marked out the curve section needed on the two blocks I'll be using to make up the ankle. I also marked where I need to drill counter sunk holes to fix them to the leg.

Image is from first Leg build

Did this then screwed them on. Next I used my trusty saw to cut chunks off to shape. Then I used a file to smooth over. I then used dowel cut to length to plug the screw holes. The next step was to apply wood filler all over and sand all over....again.

Image is from first Leg build

Had a 'lost item' moment last night. I couldn't find my Ankle Cylinder Holder ????? I'd taken it out of the storage tin to remind myself what needed to be done, if anything, to it. Then........it was gone!?!?! I'd had a bit of a tidy up to make some space and yes, you guessed it, it had fallen into my box of off-cuts! Phew....... :D

Ankle Braclet:
Marked out the Ankle Bracelet for the 2nd leg & cut it out. Then measured my leg and cut the inside of the Ankle Bracelet to fit it. I then marked up and drilled a location hole for the Leg Strut to fit into. Next up I applied watered down PVA glue all over and allowed this to soak in and dry. This hardens the wood and seals the cut edges, which stops the spray paint from being absorbed into the wood and gives a better finish.

Image is from first Leg build. Wood filler to underside of bracelet

I then applied wood filler to the underside of the Ankle Bracelet, that may be visable to anyone on all fours looking up underneath R5, lol. This will smooth over the textured underside of the hardboard :). I then fitted the Booster Strut in place and secured the support angle with a screw. The bottom of the strut fitted into the hole in the Ankle Bracelet. Some wood filler was applied to the gap between the bracelet and the lower ankle area.

Ankle Wedge:

Cut out a piece of 3mm hardboard to make the ankle wedge front panel. I angled the back faces to fit flush up against the angle face of the ankle and the curved part of the cylinder. Next I applied masking tape all over the cylinder & angled face of the ankle and applied p40 resin to fill the gap & build the sides. Once dried, this new piece came away easily and was then ready for trimming of the excess P40 resin and then filling any gaps with wood filler. Once all this was dried, I drilled and screwed the new Ankle Wedge and also the Cylinder holder onto the Ankle Cylinder. Once painted, these become a one piece item which is then held on the leg via the fixing method mentioned in prev post.

Image is from previous wedge build. This image shows sides and P40 resin.
For the last wedge, I didn't use sides.

The weather has been very cold, so build time has been limited, hence lack of photos. I will take some up-to-date ones soon.

Leg Assembly 2.1

Sprayed leg white. I was only going to spray the lower/ankle area, as the Hub hole and horse-shoe dowel location holes, still need to be cut out and drilled. But it was looking good, so gave it a few coats ;-D

Once dried, I test fitted some of the other parts......

Leg Booster Unit & 'Dog House' 1.5

Fixed 'dog house' onto booster cover using P40 resin.

Then drilled two counter sunk holes in underside of ankle bracelet. The original plan was to screw up into cover. Changed this to screw down into the ankle block. Next, I marked strut position on bracelet & then drill a 10mm diameter hole for its location stub.

Stub's on both struts needed to be shortened by a few milimeters. This was expected as I didn't know how I was going to fit them in place. There are a few alternative ways on how to secure in place. So the stubs were turned down, on a lathe in work.

Sorted out a spring to take up the gap in the leg section. This will fit between the upper and lower strut sections. Not sure if I will actually need it, at the moment as on test fitting [see below] assembly went well. This will also make assembling a lot easier.

Drilled and tapped M5 into rear of Strut square tops. These are to have M5 Bolts screwed into them. Bent some metal to fit behind the square top block to secure it to it and the leg.

Test fitting of strut. Screw into leg for square top piece support.

Used dremel to cut slots in booster cover. Ooops, the collet came loose & the bit cut too deep at the end of the cut :-( Can be seen in pic below.

Fixed with wood filler, phew (not shown in pic). Marked positions of the four grooves at base of cover.

Then started with dremel, then a round file (below).

Lastly I fitted my dremel up with a sanding wheel and made a start on the top block's curved eadge. (below) This was re-done in resign after the wood attempt failed.

Did some more sanding and filling.

Ankle Bracelet 1.2 - primer & silver paint

Sanded the ankle bracelet and sprayed primer.

Later, added some wood filler to a saw cut to deep.
Sanded flush and then re-primer sprayed, then once dried, sprayed silver.

Leg Assembly 1.5 & Ankle Bracelet 1.1

Applied more wood filler to the leg, mainly to the wood 'grain' surface. Once dried, this will require more sanding of the leg.

Marked outline onto 3mm hardboard, then cut out what will be an 'ankle bracelet' for the leg.

If this was a metal build, this piece would be made in one piece and fitted between the upper leg and lower ankle section. But as my leg is made in one piece, the bracelet has to be in two pieces to fit.

This is the back face view. Wood filler will be used to fill the gaps on the end of the rear strip.

I used more wood filler to build up the top of the ankle, as can be seen in the previous picture, where the 'ankle bracelet' will sit. As the board has a textured underside, I applied a thin layer of filler, to be sanded smooth.

Am thinking screws to fix in place at the moment, which will be hidden by the booster cover. Not sure how to fix the rear strip ??



Here I test fitted some electrical cable through the leg. I had to feed it up from the ankle to the shoulder hole. This will be connected to the feet motors and batteries.