Sending in Reinforcements

Today was reinforcement day for the foot shells for droid #2.

I started with the reinforcements where the curved part meets the flat part above it on the outer feet.

A scrap piece of a cross-section from droid #1 shows how two flat pieces of 1/8" PVC bond to the top of the 1/4"-thick curved part. Then, another 1/8" piece of PVC is glued behind the joint to help reinforce the bond. (As usual, Senna's idea, not mine.) This is what I wanted to work on first for droid #2 today.



I needed to pull out the table saw for the first time in ages, and I started cutting the reinforcement strips.



I cut one end to the proper angle, and then measured and marked where the other end should be cut by putting it up against the outside of the foot shell, and repeated the process for each strip. The strips that overlap the curved part and the flat part are cut slightly longer, since they sit lower.



The miter saw also got some work in.



Time to start gluing. Gloves? Who needs gloves? I prefer to spend 25 minutes scrubbing my hands raw when done.



On one of the outer foot shells, I needed to use a small clamp to lightly press the strip in place.



Next, the strip that overlaps the curved part and the flat part is glued down. It's not obvious, but it does get glued in on top of the seam.



Finally, time to put some more A&A foot shell scraps to work. These are for reinforcing interior corners.



Not pretty, but it seems to do the job.



I had a bunch of these scraps, but between the center foot shell and one of the two outer foot shells, I used almost all of them up! They are hard to see because they are camouflaged by PVC glue, but they are in the top and bottom corners.



I'll probably need to cut a few more reinforcements for the interior corners of the other outer foot shell later.