Thursday, April 03, 2008

Glued Support Rib for Top of Back Door

Tonight I broke free of my sloth-like building habits. I kept it simple, and just glued a support rib for the top of the back door.

I decided to go with the rib that I cut out of one of the frame's rings to support the top of the back door. This rib is only 1/2" tall, and I really need a support that is closer to 1" tall. I could have cut some pieces of 1/2" plywood for shims, but I had some 1/4" MDF handy, and it's easier to cut, and I'm lazy. So I just cut six pieces and decided to double up.

I sure prefer cutting MDF to plywood or steel, although the dust is probably more deadly to breathe.



I glued these in three pairs.




After the pairs had dried, I applied more glue to one side of each pair, in preparation for turning them over and gluing to the support rib.




With those shim pieces glued on the support rib, I then turned the frame upside down and glued the shims on the support rib to the underside of the top of plate of the frame.



Now there is a layer of wood for the top of the back door to rest upon, when the time comes. The door itself will be held on with brackets and screws, just as with droid #1.

3 comments:

Calvin Thomas said...

Victor,
I noticed Mike's frame prints on the builders page and I was wondering if there was anything you did different than what was drawn.
I also noticed there's a set of prints that looks like they can be printed out for a full scale model, Is this correct?
:o) I'm allready talking about droid 3 and still got to finish mine and Brenda's, But I want to use Mike's frame this time.
Calvin

Victor Franco said...

Calvin,

The frame drawings that Michael Davis uploaded the other day are indeed meant to be printed for template use. The prints that Matthew Henricks uploaded today (4/15/08) are meant to be used for scratchbuilding and measurements, but not necessarily printed to size for templates.

For my first frame, the dimensions are very close to what Matthew published (and theoretically close to Michael Davis' prints also). Matthew's blueprints make some small concessions for the limitations of the CNC vacuum table, as he needed as much surface area as he could get for some of the cuts.

The frame for droid #2 was supplied by Matthew, so they should match his prints 100%. As you probably saw, I removed some extra material in some places to make it easier to fit some of the alu parts (pocket vents, power couplers, shoulder-to-body hubs). Nothing major, though.

Feel free to follow-up if I didn't answer what you were asking.

Droid #3?!? And I though I had it bad. :)

-Victor

Calvin Thomas said...

Thanks Victor,
Yeah you answered my questions :o)
HAAHa I have 1 more Aspect dome and it's been staring at me and wanting a face.
Just don't know what it will be yet.
Thanks again.
Calvin