Left Foot Shell Repair, Bushing for Drivetrains

This morning I had some time to repair the damage I accidentally inflicted on the left foot shell last night, when it fell from the table as I was sawing some steel.

There were two main areas that separated. The first was along the curved area of the foot shell.



I generously applied some Oatey PVC glue, and things seemed to be holding.



The other area of damage was near the bottom edge on the other side.



Again, I applied PVC glue, let it set, and things seem better.



Later in the day, once the glue had dried, I fitted everything for the left foot. It all came together nicely, I was able to fit the motor into the battery box without having to cut a visible area of the bottom of the box.



There remained one last step for the drivetrains, inserting the 1/2"->3/8" bushing in the holes in the channels, where the ankle bolts will go.

I applied JB Weld to the bushings and pressed them into place.




What's next? Well, I still need to do a few things before I'm ready to try out the new drivetrain. Among them, I need to convert the whole droid over to 12 volts. The only item in my droid that is set up to run exclusively at 24 volts is the dome drive. I hope to address that later in the week.

Another task that awaits is the drilling of a few more bolts through the gas pipes, to lock them together better. Right now there is a little play, that causes R2 to sometimes "shrug" as he starts to move.

Finally, I need to grind a flat spot onto the gas pipe, to help the U-bolt grip around it tightly. Mike Senna reports that the NPC motors are powerful enough to out-muscle the U-bolt, and cause the angle of tilt to change when R2 encounters bumps and obstacles.