Thursday, March 23, 2006

Glued Domes Together

This morning I glued the inner and outer domes together with silicone. I just zig-zagged a bunch of silicone about midway up the dome, then smeared it around. I then carefully aligned and lowered the outer dome on top of the inner dome, kind of like when the Vader mask is first lowered onto Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. I got resourceful and used my vacuum cleaner as a pike on which to rest R2's head, so the dome layers would not fight gravity if turned upside down or left rightside up.



In the evening I went around the rim where the dome edges meet, and applied some more silicone along the ridge. I used 51 of those little clips to clip the dome edges together while the silicone dries overnight. (If you think that's bad, check out Started JB Welding Back Door. I bought all those clips, and by golly, I'm gonna use 'em.)

3 comments:

Calvin Thomas said...

I have'nt glued my dome together yet,
Because I hate J.B.weld. Sometimes it holds and sometimes it does'nt.
Do you think the silicone will hold and what brand did you use?
I can't wait to see the results.
I polished the outer dome and really don't want to use J.B.
Please let me know how well it holds.
Thanks
ctx3201@comcast.net

Victor Franco said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Victor Franco said...

[Deleted previous attempt and reposted/reformated for readability]

Hi Calvin,

> I have'nt glued my dome together yet,
> Because I hate J.B.weld. Sometimes it holds and sometimes it does'nt.

I have mixed feelings on JB Weld & JB Qwik too. I know Keith swears by it, but I'm probably not mixing it as well he does. I basically squirt the two tubes onto a paper plate and mix it and apply it with a plastic knife like peanut butter.
It has held for me, but it's a mess to work with, and I have to watch the ooze and clean it up with a damp paper towel to make sure it doesn't start showing up where I don't want it.

> Do you think the silicone will hold and what brand did you use?

I used GE Silicone II (clear), it comes in large caulk-gun tubes, and also comes in easier-to-handle "big toothpaste"-sized tubes. I'll try to remember to send you a picture of the tube when I get home tonight. Available at any h/w store, usually in the paint area. Do not use caulk. I've heard that some people mistake caulk for silicone, with bad results.

I do tend to think the silicone will hold because a) Mike has done it with his original R2 with good results (and is doing it again with his R2 #2), and b) my skin panels are holding together very well with silicone. Plus silicone on the skins pretty much eliminates rattle. Also, if I ever do need to separate things bonded with silicone, I have a prayer of doing so with a lot less damage than JB Weld.

> I can't wait to see the results.

Yeah, me too. :)

> I polished the outer dome and really don't want to use J.B.
> Please let me know how well it holds.

I can tell you that I did have to make a second pass this morning on the dome rims, mainly because I missed some areas the first time around, not because the silicone
wouldn't stick. The main area that I siliconed seems to be bonding the two dome layers well, although I admittedly have not tried yanking at them really hard.

Thanks for writing and keeping tabs on the blog, I also enjoy your updates!

All the best,
Victor