Centre Leg - securing bracket upgrade

The centre leg securing bracket needed upgrading.

Original pieces were two aluminium angles that clamped either side of the leg tongue, but there was still a bit of play, so the centre leg would wobble slightly.

I drew up the centre leg to see how best to re-do this.

So decided on a strip of steel angle, marked up a suitable length & cut it. Next was to position holes.

I'd already ordered some M8 cap heads & T-nuts to secure everything. It was just a matter of drilling holes, opening up the original ones on the centre leg tongue & then bolting it all back together.

Five free mins at the weekend (ok, more like an hour lol) and i got down to fitting the bracket. Drilled two holes into the wood base and installed two t-nuts from below. These were recessed slightly.

recessed t-nuts

Centre leg back on

Inside view of centre leg tongue bolted

Then it was flipping R5 upright again to install his centre leg and fit the new angle bracket.

Result = no more wobble!

R5-D4's Body Skin 1.6 [Power Coupler 1.3]

Cut out a recess in the base to accept the power coupler.

Not the most tidy'est of work, but it works lol.

Did some more spraying:
Primer sprayed up the coin returns No1 & 2 of 3. Later to then spray them white.
Primer sprayed up one of the lower side flats. Later to then spray them both in white.

Gave the second Power coupler a coat of silver.

And here's the front Power Coupler and front Coin Return, mock-up.

R5-D4's Body Skin 1.5, [Power Coupler's 1.1]

Started to cut out the five vertical slots in the lower front recessed vent. Two now done. Again, it was late, so used a Stanley knife to score/cut through, being carefull not to let it slip!!!

I then marked up a piece of hardboard that will fit behind the slots, re-enforcing the area and also it will be sprayed blue.
Cut the front location for the front Power Coupler. I also trimmed the lower [internal] lip, off the Coupler to aid fitting of it at a later date [see last picture, primer sprayed]. The Base needs to have a recess to accomadate the rear diameter of the Coupler.

R5's skin with another hole. The blacked area inside the hole is what I have to 'cut-out'.

Power Coupler, straight out the box, but with the lower lip cut off.

Power Coupler, 1st coat, sprayed with primer.

 Next is to cut out a recess in the base for the Couplers to fit.

R5-D4 Body Skin 1.2

Filed the extra extensions to which the lower side flats will be fixed too. These were made when I originally built the frame, and were a little bit wrong lol. Whilst I was at it, I filed the front up-rights by adding a slight curve to their fronts. This was so the skin fitted flush with the frame, top ring and bottom base. Next I drilled holes and screwed, to secure the curved parts, either side of the flats to again help them keep thier curved shape :). Once this was done, I could then finish off plaining the skin edge, flush with the base.

Screw holding body skin curve.

Using a cardboard template, I then cut a curve out of 3mm hardboard & glued it to the lower side plate no1. See picture above.

Fiitted top rear strip, above where rear door will go. Cut, drilled, nailed in place with panel pins. Applied some wood filler, later to be sanded & re-applied. This piece is now fixed in place.

Using the cardboard template, I marked out the first coin return onto some sheet metal and cut it out. Then bent it to shape.

Has since been modified to actually fit against the inside face of the skin/body frame.

Cut out first leg hole, as marked. But it wasnt quite central, so had to re-do it. Now I need to fill the gap. Already know how I'm going to fix it lol. What I did to correct this was to locate the leg disc onto the bolts. Shoulder disc fitted onto bolts, shows large gap :(

Hole in body skin, off-centre :( this will need some filling.

Base - blanking 1.2

Base insert. Cut out & filed it to fit in the gap. I used a simple cardboard template.

Now glued into place. Just needs some extra filler and sanding etc.

Base - blanking 1.1

Prepared and applied several coats of grey primer to the two blanks I had to fit to the base. See post:-  'Base - blanking 1.0'

Next, after some light sanding, I'll then spray it up white and then clear.

Base - blanking 1.0

Filled another one of the gaps in base with a blanking plate [wood] and P40.

This cut out was done when the base was made as I didn't have a router to achieve the correct depth. Just need to sand smooth, prime and spray white.

Work so far.... Shoulder Hydraulic and Centre Leg work

Friday in work: I milled flat the rear of the shoulder hydraulic unit. Also drilled two location holes, for fixing it with dowels into the shoulder hourse shoes. 0.25hr (20mins).

I off-set the top location hole on purpose ;-D

Then at home I drilled the bolt holes in the seconed shoulder disc. Sanded the wood filler on its edge. Extended the clearance in the underside of the top ring so shoulder disc fitted correctly. (1hr)
Next I marked the position of centre leg. Drilled out then cleaned edges with file & dremel with sanding wheel. A nice snug fit.  Need to find some more aluminium angle, to secure leg in place. (1.5hrs)

Saturday 23.07.11
How to make the radi parts of leg? Have seen a few ingenious ways from being shaped from solid block to frame work with sanded wood filler.

I started of with the idea of building up the curved section, which would then be filled in & sanded curved to finish. This was gona take a long time, then I found a piece of wood that when cut correctly, would be just right, to complete the curved section. Just needs a few saw cuts & shaped with a file.

Base Plate

Saturday I cut out slots for the Power coupler and Octagon Ports. This is because the depth was the same as the base and wasn't possible to recess them, will worry about this later. Did manage to recess where the coin returns  & lower vents will fit. Cut to size the lower plate that will support the lazy suzan and rotary piece for the dome.

I had drilled out 6 holes for the leg bolts, but with the lower plate in place, I'll only be able to use 5 off. Not the end of the world.

Also had time to mark out the top plate O/D and I/D.

Base marking progress

Rechecked angles and other dimensions.

Base marking has begun

Got home from work last night and managed to get started on marking up the base plate for R5. I'll be able to 'cut wood' at the weekend, hopefully. But for now I feel good that the real build has begun 😊