More Leg work

In my last entry, we got the rockets assembled and fitted inside the leg.  Now it was time to remove everything, inspect the pieces again and paint the leg.

As I have done in the past with the white parts, the legs got primed with etching primer and three coats of Satin White Rustoleum spray paint.  Since some of the inside of the leg will be visible when the rocket boosters are extended, I waited until I had the cut outs and holes drilled to do this.

Multiple light coats is the secret to priming with the etching primer.  You're natural inclination is to get a complete coating but resist it or face running paint lines!

First coat is on

Second and third!

I used painter's tape to cover the area for the under shoulder details.

These newer JAG legs have a hole already drilled out for attaching the under shoulder detail piece.

I replaced the 10-24 thread screw with a hex head since getting a screwdriver, or ANY tool in that small space difficult.

The leg cut out makes this awkward but if you take your time (and play good music in the background), you eventually get it installed.

Under shoulder detail piece installed.  The hex head allows me to really torque it in since I know R2 will rattle these guys loose otherwise!

Since I had painted the shoulders the previous week, I installed the detail pieces back into them and installed them onto the leg.

Legs with shoulder horseshoes attached...my cat "Mokey" looking on.

While the resin pieces will obviously work, there are some that I would like to replace with aluminum version.  Why?  Namely reliability.  There aren't many resin parts I have used that move around.  After two years of watching my first R2-D2 shake, rattle and roll things loose, I wanted to beef up those structural areas.

A $4 piece of aluminum from my local metal supply store, Lane Supply.  Foreground is the resin piece we are going to replace.

My friend Fred from East Coast Sign Pro was kind enough to cut these pieces down for me.  Straight cuts are essential!

Using the breadpan piece as a temple to line up and mark the holes to be drilled.

For a 10-24 sized thread we use a 5/32 drill bit.  Small piece can be tricky to drill out...and they get VERY warm so use a guide, wear gloves, mask and eye protection.  Use a chisel or punch to pre-mark the holes to drill to prevent the drill head from wandering.

All the pieces drilled and tapped.  I used a file to remove the sharp edges on the corners.

 I mentioned to Fred that there were a few pieces that I wasn't exactly sure what to do about...keep as resin and take my changes, or see about crafting a metal version.  Fred was already assisting me with the hinge piece and suggested letting him take a try with his new CNC machine that he built himself.  I left the piece with him and caught up with him the next day.

Watching the CNC machine work do its thing was amazing.  Fred made multiple measurements of the resin piece and crafted it up in his software he uses for sign making and engraving.

Due to how the piece get molded, it was a tad too wide, so Fred changed the measurements in the computer software, imported the file into the CNC machine and just like that, the bit went to work removing a very small amount of material around the entire post.

The final result.  Nice!  Now I have to drill and tap a hole in the bottom, where it attaches to the leg.

Wayne (http://www.worrparts.com/index.html) was able to do something incredible, he made a resin copy of the metal hinge piece that actuates the top of the boosters.  Its extremely fragile but nothing beats having that piece in your hand to help figure out how to replicate it.  Fred took measurements on this and we started work on it on the CNC machine.

We ran out of time today but we'll resume working on this.