Finished Working on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I wrapped up work on the steel center foot shell doors, where I used some 1/16" aluminum bar to help close the gap between the door frame and the door holders to eliminate rattle.

A couple of days ago I needed to scrape off some JB Weld with a chisel, exposing a little bit of the raw steel on the inside of the foot shell. I wanted to spray some primer on that to make sure the steel won't rust.



All nice and protected.

The next time I use this foot shell, it should be much quieter.

Continued Working on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I continued where I left off with yesterday's work on addressing the rattle of the doors on my steel front foot shell.

Now that the glue had dried on yesterday's work, I checked the fit, and things look good. More important, the rattle on this door is pretty much gone.



Next, I glued in the other four 1/16" aluminum segments that I cut yesterday.



I'll let the glue dry overnight, and hit some of the spots where I scraped off the JB Weld on the foot shell with some primer to protect the steel from rust.

Worked on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I worked on a slight annoyance with the steel center foot shell I sometimes use on either droid. The doors tend to rattle when driving with the omniwheels, due to a small gap between the door and the doorframe, so I worked on addressing that. (Note that I usually use a wooden center foot with a PVC foot shell, but when I want extra stability, I use the steel foot shell with the omniwheel foot.)

The problem is due to the fact that the door frame is 1/16" thick, but I'm using a 1/8" thick segment of PVC for the door holders and pivot sticks, which leaves a 1/16" gap between the PVC and the door, allowing for some rattle. I found a segment of 1/16" aluminum bar that should help eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the rattle.



A while back I had done a very lazy and sloppy job of oozing some JB Weld epoxy where the pivot sticks rest. It was very imprecise and didn't help a whole lot.



I scraped that mess off with a chisel.



Next, I cut the 1/16" aluminum bar into 8 equal length segments, as I'll need four segments for each foot.



Then I roughed up one side of the segments and cleaned them up, in preparation for gluing.



Finally, I glued the first four aluminum segments into place.



I'll let this set overnight, and glue in the four segments for the other door tomorrow.

Star Wars Night with the Anaheim Ducks - 2021

Tonight, R2 returned to Honda Center for Star Wars Night with the Anaheim Ducks. We were joined by Matt Hobbs and Tina and R5-D4, along with Craig and Ashley Jo and their droids, and the members of the Rebel Legion and 501st costuming clubs. As usual, my former coworker and Ducks fan Rich Newman did wrangling and photo duties.



We arrived at the nearby offices around 4:30pm to sign in, and shortly thereafter relocated to the parking lot, where we unloaded. This year the characters weren't allowed to visit the ice due to Covid protocols, and there was no pre-game show being produced at the stadium.



Around 5:30pm, guests were allowed in to visit the characters, which were stationed near the entrance of Honda Center.



R2 and Jasmin (our Princess Leia for the evening) were requested for a couple of photos inside the building, for the classic pose of Princess Leia recording her holographic message.



Before the game, R2 and R5 were featured both on the scoreboard, and simultaneously on ESPN+ and Hulu's streaming feeds.



And while we were there, passers-by asked for photos.



Later in the game R2 was featured once again on the scoreboard (along with Rich).



And after that we were pretty much done with R2 for the evening. The Ducks lost in overtime 6-5, dropping R2's record to 3-3. Hopefully we can return next year to push his record back over .500.