Drilled Holes for Motor Mount and Channel on New Right Drivetrain Body

Tonight was pretty much an exact replay of the work I did last night, which can be found here, so I won't go into quite as much detail.

The first step is to remove the motor mount bracket from the old drivetrain body.



Next, I measured and marked centerpoints, to translate the motor mount location to the new drivetrain body.



Once I had determined where to mount the bracket on the new drivetrain body, I clamped it down tight and got to drilling.




With holes for the motor mount bracket done, it was time to work on the center channel piece. I measured, marked, clamped, punched and drilled. Unlike last night's effort, this time I didn't use the bracket as a template when I did the actual drilling, as the punch left a sufficient location on where to drill.





Everything looks nice and centered.



And now the new right drivetrain body has its motor mount and channel holes drilled.



Next I'll work on installing the bearings.

Drilled Holes for Motor Mount and Channel on New Left Drivetrain Body

It's happening in slow motion, but I'm working on getting the new drivetrain bodies ready for action. Recall that what makes these drivetrain bodies different is that they will have bearings within which the axels will spin, rather than stationary flanges. This will help with the problem of the axel slowly milling material from the flanges, described in this post. The cutting and drilling of the new drivetrain body is described in this post. I should also mention that I owe a huge thank-you to Matthew Henricks for milling out the bottom edge of the drivetrains to accommodate the wheels.

Step one is to take apart the left drivetrain, seen here with the new left drivetrain body, which has holes drilled in it for the bearings.



I removed the motor mount, and found something I didn't even recall, a thin 1/32" shim layer underneath the motor mount, that helps align the gear on the motor with the gear on the axel, so the chain will be straight.




Next, I used my handy ruler with a center finder to mark the center of the top edge of the drivetrain.



After that, I placed the motor mount back onto the drivetrain, so that I could make a centerpoint alignment mark on it. I also measured how far from the top of the drivetrain body that the top of the motor mount bracket resided (about 3mm).



I then used the ruler to locate and mark the center of the top edge of the new drivetrain body.



Next I measured how far from the top to locate the motor mount on the new drivetrain body, and align the motor mount to its centerpoint.



All this alignment is to ensure that the motor fits inside the battery box of the droid, and to hopefully be able to recycle the same chain by keeping the distance of the motor and the drive gear the same distance. This second goal is quite touchy, even a millimeter or so difference may lead to the need to either build new chain, or change how the motor needs to be shimmed from the motor mount.

I clamped everything super tight and started drilling the four holes, using the motor mount itself as a template. After each hole was drilled, I dropped bolt into it. I think the clamp was holding everything so tightly, the motor mount wasn't going to wander, but this adds a degree of confidence that all the holes will line up.



Once the holes for the motor mount were drilled, it was time to turn my attention to the top channel piece. It is held onto the old drivetrain body by a couple of short 1/4" diameter bolts and nuts.



I measured and marked center points on the new drivetrain body, to ensure that the channel would be centered on it.



I removed the channel piece from the old drivetrain body and centered it on the new one, and used my trusty punch to indent the point at which to drill the first hole.



As with the motor mount, I tightly clamped down the channel piece to the new drivetrain body, and drilled.



I repeated the process for the other hole, and temporarily fitted the motor mount and channel piece on the new drivetrain body.



Still lots of work to do. First up, replaying the whole process on the right drivetrain, and then I'll need to press-fit the bearings and start checking if the existing chain from the motor to the drive gear will fit (I'm expecting it probably won't). I should be able to use the chain on the other side of the drivetrain body if I don't mess up, since there is an idler gear that takes up slack on the chain, and it can be placed anywhere it's needed. (That will be clearer when I get to that step.)

Star Wars Day at the Corona Public Library

Today R2 joined several other characters for Star Wars Day at the Corona Public Library.



The event was a combo indoor/outdoor event, with the Saber Guild doing their show outdoors, and lots of activity stations indoors. I parked R2 by the build-a-droid coloring station (which had its own inherent risks, but he came through unscathed).







Everyone had a good time and I'm sure we'll be back next year.

R2LA XVI

Today was the big day for 2019, R2LA XVI!



I've been going to R2LA since 2005, and it just keeps getting bigger and better every year.

I arrived around 9:30am with donuts that I promised I'd bring for Mike Senna and Michael McMaster.



A few of us arrived early and setup the huge canopies that Mike Senna has, to keep us protected from what would be a 96°F day.




After setting up tables and chairs, it was time to start unloading the droids and bringing them into the backyard.





Aaron Lane demonstrated his new DO droid, which was very impressive as it drove around.



Craig and Ashley Jo put their mouse droid to good use for anyone that needed a cold one.



Darren Moser set up the console work-in-progress for K2-S0. K2's head was animated as well.



Ed Perello had added a couple more gadgets to his droid since last year. He said he still has a couple more to go.



Kevin Holme brought his Mandalorian-style droid. It was quite the surprise.



Around 3:20pm we assembled for the group picture of the humans, which Mark Chu Lin expertly took of us, as seen above.



Afterward, it was time for the droid group picture, which is more of a challenge, since the droids have to squeeze into a more confined area. But we always manage.





As the sun was getting ready to set, we went out front for mouse droid races, where we exercised plenty of poor judgement. (I didn't subject my mouse droid to the abuse.)




Things started winding down after that. Around 10pm we took down the canopies and stacked the tables and chairs, although some of us still hung around indoors.



As usual, things got goofy as it got later.




I would blame it on the full moon, but we all know these guys would be goofy regardless.



It was another great year, and thank-you as always to the Senna family for hosting such a great event.