The first step was to install the round brass pivot piece into the ankle.
Having installed these before on the first droid, I used a file to take the edges down and working the file all around the surface. You want to take some of the material off but not too much.
With the first portion able to fit inside, I used a piece of wood under the ankle. I used another piece of wood and lightly tapped with a hammer, slowly putting the piece in place.
Go slow because you may have to wiggle the brass barrel a bit to correctly line up with the other side.
With the ankles ready, I found that the ankle fit into the foot groove with ease. On the other droid, it was a lot of grunt work to get them in the groove, then trying to line up the foot so the bolt could pass thru. On this droid, it went very easy. Despite being bolted in as tight as I could make it, the ankle pivots with ease.
With this "uber" version, linear actuators and ball-screw drives, under computer control, will actuate the ankle and shoulders, allowing them to pivot into 2-leg or 3-leg mode.
I do not have the "stop plate" used in the shoulders installed to lock the shoulders into the 2 or 3 leg position, so everything moves rather freely.
While trying to get R2 into a stable 2 leg position, I had to work hard on finding a good balance for the picture. As I was grabbing the camera to take the picture, R2 fell forward, breaking both utility arms. No biggie, those were old resin ones I was testing paint color on. But that's the last time I want to hear the THUD of the Jawa-face-plant.
Here's how it looks in two-leg mode.
With R2 being so unstable in 2 leg mode, in quickly put the center ankle and foot together and installed it inside. Here's R2 in 3 leg mode...
That's it for tonight!
