Finished Cutting Booster Covers, Utility Arm Work

Today I was able to finish cutting the booster covers. They are nearing completion.

First, I chopped off the bottoms of the booster covers, finally opening up the "tuning fork."



Next, I cut the grooves in the booster cover bodies to match the grooves in the legs.



I wrapped up the cutting by routing areas in the back of the booster covers to accommodate the mounting of them on the legs. The plan is to glue down MDF in the routed areas, and then put a partial slot in the MDF, that will allow the booster covers to hang from screws in the legs. Picture a phone mounted on a wall and you should get the idea.



Of course, I had to dry-fit everything together to see how it looks. I haven't cut the holes in the legs for the shoulder hubs yet, so they just sit on top for now.



I also did some minimal work related to the utility arms. These are to be held in by a fixed piece of MDF, and a screwed-down piece of aluminum stock. Each of these pieces will have half of a circle cut out of them, supporting the rod that goes though the pivot point in the utility arms. I cut eight pieces of aluminum total, but I really only need four. I figured it couldn't hurt to cut extras, especially since some of them didn't turn out so great.



Finally, in order to support the arm swiveling open via a servo, I plan to insert a rod with a hole at the end that will be attached to the servo via a paper clip or something. This rod will go into the pivot end of the arm. I only cut the hole in the rod and cut the rod down to size, I haven't drilled the arms to accommodate this rod yet.