Things have been busy, so I haven't had much time to work on droid #2 lately. However, I did get just a little bit done today, as I dropped by Mike Senna's place to join Michael McMaster as he compared WALL•E plans with Mike.
As for me, I wanted to get a coat or two of primer onto the dome switches and resin eye, so before heading over, I masked the threads on the screws in the eye, and the portion of the switches that go inside the dome.
Shortly after I arrived at Mike's, I started applying Rustoleum white primer.
Although I'm pretty happy with the way the primer on the eye turned out, I noticed a scratch in the resin underneath the circular opening of the eye that will need filling of some sort. (It's not really visible in the photo, but it is in person.) I might be able to shoot some more primer in the area, but I may end up going over it lightly with Evercoat.
The fun part about the dome switches is that they must be primed and painted with the switch in both positions, for full coverage. Waiting 10 or 15 minutes before toggling the switch position is sufficient.
Collin also dropped by to drill the ankle bolt holes in his wooden legs.
Lastly for me, I wanted to ask Mike for one last (I think) favor on droid #2, to cut the maintenance openings on my battery boxes, which I marked up. The opening is to be 5"x5.5".
Mike uses the Dremel as an extension of his hand to cut very straight lines.
The main cuts are done, the corners just need to be finished off, which I'll do later, probably with a hacksaw blade.
The last item of business for Mike and Michael was vacu-forming some lenses for WALL•E's eyes. Mike sandwiched a piece of Lexan between two MDF templates that have circles cut out to the exact diameter of the lens. The whole thing goes into the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.
Once the 10 minutes are up, a vacuum/suction is applied to the lens by resting it upon the eye assembly. I was busy working the vacuum hose, so I wasn't able to take pictures of that part of the process.
The end result is a perfectly shaped lens. It's hard to photograph a clear object very well, but suffice it to say that the lens curvature looked perfect in person. It just needs to be trimmed from the surrounding material, and it will be ready to go.
Hopefully I'll get a little momentum going again on droid #2, now that I've at least gotten a little something done today.
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