Sunday, March 21, 2010

Maintenance and minor repairs

With R2-D2 home for a bit, it was time to dismantle the little fella and make sure everything is holding up from all the travels.



One area of concern was the center foot.  Several weeks ago I made some changes to how the casters inside function.  I added two small pieces of rubber under each.  This has worked out very, very well .  Driving across un-even surfaces wasn't quite has scary as it had been in the past.  

However I noticed the foot seemed to be leaning forward more than it should.  Upon removal from R2's body, some of the lock nuts had come off.

 
The fix is quite simple.  The nuts that popped off were the ones I did not have nylon inserts in them.   With some help from "Momma Cat", I made sure each bolt was secure, aligned the rubber "puck" piece and put the casters back on.  I used a washer, lock washer then the nut with the nylon lock inside.


With the center foot fixed, it was on to some body work.  To get the skins off requires the legs to come off.  


There are a few things I need to repair on the front skins.  The piece that goes around the center vents popped loose again.  Its a difficult spot to bond the blue faceplate to.  To further complicate things, on one of my travels, R2 banged into a door and the faceplate is rather warbled.  That needs to be fixed.  

The front skins had the door hinges re-installed....

The skin mount spots on the frame are going to be lengthened so a longer bolt will hold them in place.  The current .25 inch screws seem to be working themselves loose from time to time.

The frame is also going to have a modification made so that a special sensor piece can be installed.  This device will send data to R2's computer and report the location of its head (where it is pointing).  

And finally, I am going to work on adding some more shock-dampening material to various locations.  When R2's legs take a jolt, it transmits that right thru the frame.  I am going to experiment with a few ideas to help quell that.

That's all for now!