Dome Motor Assembly

I put together the dome motor assembly by attaching the copier motor I got from Clay Cardwell.

Jeff's Motor Mounts

Jeff worked on his motor mounts tonight. We didn't have an air compressor in the house, so Jeff had to pop rivet them together manually.

Up On Two Legs

I worked on my motor mounts during the build day. I needed to add the U-bracket to hold the omniball. Jason helped me line up the brackets, drill the holes for the omniballs, and pop rivet everything together.

Once the modified Dan Baker motor mount/ankles were put together, another builder helped me attach them to the outer legs. Even though the temperature got hotter once the sun came out, I'm still not sure if I was being protected from the sun or being blessed.

Once the motor mount/ankles were attached, I got a little help disassembling R2-NU. I wanted to add some chocks between the feet and legs stand R2 on two legs during OSFest next week.

While I had the legs off, Jeff and Dawn wanted to see you I routed out one of the shoulder hub leg spacers to hide the leg bracket and hardware.

As I was showing off my shoulder hub, another builder decided to walk around the garage with my newly assembled legs as crutches.

I cut chocks the size of the game between the outer leg and the motor mount. I then drilled a hole in the center of the chock and held everything in place with a nut and washer.

FINALLY!!! R2-NU is up on two legs!!! Everyone was amazed at how stable R2 seemed without any kind of attachment for the center connecting pipe. R2-NU leans forward just a little. This will all be taken care of later when additional hardware is added for the 2-3-2 functionality, but he looks pretty good now!

Ankle Meet Mount

Steve helped me attach the ankle pieces to my motor mounts tonight. We started out by setting the distance of the ankle channel to be closer to the outside of the motor mount then the inside. Once in the correct position, it was clamped in place with a c-clamp and a vise-grip while holes for pop rivets where drilled.

Once all the pop rivet holes were drilled, a builder held a washer in place on the underside of the motor mount while I used the pop riveter to secure everything in place.

I used seven pop rivets in the center portions of the ankle/motor mounts. I'm going to try flush rivets that Moose suggested on both ends of each ankle/motor mount to reduce the visual impact.

A couple wheels, motors, belts, and omniballs and these might look pretty good.

Motor Mount Meets Ankle

Steve got the bulk shipment of sleeve bushing, bearings, spacers, pop rivets, screws, and washers earlier today, so the group met to continue our work on the motor mount/ankles. Rather than use screws, washers, and nuts, the group decided to use 3/16" pop rivets and washers to attach the ankle aluminum to the motor mount aluminum.

We installed the motor and wheel to make sure there would still be enough clearance after the pop rivets where installed.

The ankle u-channel is offset on the motor mount, so the crew measured the distance using Moose's A&A motor mounts and JAG's foot shells to get the exact measurement.

The motor mount and ankle pieces where held in place by c-clamps and vice grips while the holes were drilled and the pop rivets installed.

After two pop rivets were installed, the spacing was checked again.

Okay, maybe we got a little crazy with the pop rivets; but this thing is solid.

With a couple of ankle pieces attached to their motor mounts, internal u-brackets where cut and bent to hold the omniballs. Getting the bends right on these pieces seemed more like an art than a science, but the end product looked pretty good. A hole was drilled in the bracket for the omniball and then the crew held it in place with vice grips while they drilled holes in the side of the motor mount and through the sides of the bracket. The bracket was held in place by using the same pop rivets used to attach the ankle to the motor mount.

Spacers And Ankles Finished

Steve setup the metal lathe and I finished drilling and tapping the remaining spacers. Steve used the bending brake I got from Harbor Freight to bend the ankle pieces.

After I finished the spacers, Clay and Jason assembled the the rest of the motor mounts. The next time we meet, we will have to cut the offsets for the motors and attach the ankles to the motor mounts.

Final Motor Bends

Steve and I worked on the motor mounts tonight. I used Steve's metal lathe to add threads to all the spacers we drilled at our last build night.

While I threaded all the spacers, Steve finished bending the motor mounts. The brake is a little too big for the ankle pieces, so he took it home to see if he could make some modifications and allow for more shallow bends. The group discussed ankle to motor mount connection options. Dan Baker used nuts and bolds, but we decide to use pop rivets.

Once all the bending and threading was done Steve, Jason, and I assembled six and a half motor mounts (that is all we could do until we drill out some more spacers).