Almost Done

July 20, 1969: Man walks on the moon.
July 20, 2011: The Big Droid Put-Together comes to a conclusion.

I'm not quite done, but it's close.

This morning I painted the utility arm backstops black.



In the evening, I glued them in place.




As I did with yesterday's test-fit, I located the backstops such that the arms will close flush with the skins when the back of the arms make contact with the backstops.



With that, I worked on final assembly of the droid.

First, the left leg.



Then, the right.



Followed by the middle leg.



Next, I attached the feet. I propped up the outer legs off the floor, so the foot shells wouldn't get damaged under the weight of the feet.



Back on three legs, I added the leg decorations.



Oh yeah, this. I expected the bottom knurled hose fitting to bump into the front wheel since it happened with droid #1, and it did, just a little.



I shortened the fittings with a hacksaw by removing a couple of threads from the end.



That's better.



Everything is on but the dome (well, almost everything, I'll get to that in a moment).



And finally, the dome.



Droid #2 on the left, droid #1 on the right.



So, what's left? Well, after I take a bit of a breather, I still need to install the back door and rear power coupler.



I also have some minor things to do, like gluing the backing strips for the ankle bracelets in place, installing the electronics panel, and tweaking the dome screws on the Rockler bearing to get the proper height for the dome. I'll also cut and install some ankle locks to keep the feet from pivoting on the ankle bolts. None of these should be too much work.

I'm not going to make droid #2 remote-controlled immediately, but he'll be ready when the time comes. In the meantime, the electronics panel will automate sounds and dome rotation.

Phew!