Sunday, November 18, 2007

Started Working on Parade Platform

R2 is scheduled to be in a Christmas Parade in December. He'll be on a float/trailer, and I need to make sure he's secured and can't move around. I pulled the wooden base off of my droid cart, and started converting it to double as a parade platform.

First, I drilled six holes in each of a pair of 2x4s.



I used 2" long #10 screws to secure the 2x4s to the underside of the platform.



With all the screws securing the 2x4s, I was able to turn the platform right-side-up again.



Next, I brought the platform inside and set R2 on top of it. The elevated platform handled R2's weight just fine.

I took a U-bolt and looped it over the rear axle of the drivetrain.



I marked where the U-bolt landed on the platform, so I would know where to drill holes.



I removed R2 from the platform, and drilled 1/2" holes. Then I set R2 back on the platform to test the fit. It was good.



I repeated the process for the opposite side.

Now R2 can be secured to the platform with the U-bolts. Well, almost. I need to chop down the 2x4s by a few inches, since the U-bolts pass through them currently. I need to be able to secure nuts (probably wing nuts) to the U-bolts without any interference from the 2x4s. Hopefully I'll get to that in the near future.

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