Monday, May 23, 2011

Fixing something that has bothered me for age....the location of the dome drive

One thing I have been meaning to do, especially with R2's doors opening and closing, is move the dome drive to the back of the frame.

With the doors open, the motor is clearly visible.  It also makes it impossible to install any gadgets inside that panel....


Moving the motor bracket is just a matter of drilling two 13/64 holes for the mount and one for the spring retainer to latch it to.  Quickly tapped to a 1/4 20 thread and figured that's all it would take.  

Til I discovered the bearing inside the dome drive mount was pretty much shattered...


Despite the broken pieces, I put the bearing back together minus the fractured casing.  Since the bearing isn't exactly essential, I got the drive and linkage hooked up again.


I am not going to invest too much time in this frame but with our next appearance being on the Children's Miracle Network Telethon in two weeks, I would like to see if I can get the gripper claw working.  We'll see!