Sam's Gift
Oh boy! This is where the good stuff happened, or the best stuff so far... I made a new friend called Sam! Again he's from the UK Builders group and a few months earlier I expressed interest in a wooden frame and Sam was selling one. Firstly I want to thank Sam for his patience as he has sold me this same frame for nearly three months but due to unexpected bills I had to keep putting it off. Anyway at the end of last month I was finally able to buy it. Not only did I get the frame but Sam kindly sent me a lazy Susan, lower ring, 3D printed horse shoes and a great 3D printed gear system. What a great guy!
Dry Fitting Of The Frame
After what seemed like years of waiting (it was a few days but again I felt like a kid on Christmas eve) they finally arrived. I instantly put my frame together and noticed it didn't fit fully together. Re-reading my messages to Sam, he did say this frame has had nothing done to it, purely just cut out. After a few days of sanding, refitting, re-sanding and refitting it finally fit together! Woo hoo I have something finally that looks like a form of a droid! Now the question was do I glue it together? People have told me on the forums to make sure if you glue it, that is the last thing you do or it will not come apart again! So I decided not to glue it but I didn't want it to fall apart, in the end I found some perfectly sized screws. I drilled and counter sunk the screws and filled in some gaps. Oh yes, my counter skin drill attachment suddenly went missing after this day. It was on my desk before I went to work and then disappeared! Still, cannot find it to this day...
Bad Frame Piece
The biggest problem I had was at the front of the frame, at the bottom there is a piece that goes horizontally across the four vertical pieces.
The problem was this wasn't cut correctly and what I put it in, it pushed all the other pieces out of alignment. I wondered for a while whether it was a
vital pieces, after asking a few different builders I decided to remove it. Since I don't have any skins yet or electronics I have an empty frame.
This is where I think I "matured" a bit as a builder and decided to take my jolly time with the frame on the sanding. Piece by piece I sanded using both an
electric sander, hand sanding (when it was at night) and my dremel with sanding attachment. One thing I found with the dremel is it is not very good for
taking little bits off. If you leave it in one place too long you end up with waves. My advice would be use either an electric sander or some sand paper.
Now my frame is sanded I was wondering whether to paint it white. My main thought for this was eventually I will have opening panels and I don't want the
inside of the body to be taken up with boxes to house the gadgets so you will see the inside of the body. When the weather clears up a bit I will get some
spray paint and paint the frame. Once thing I have decided I will do however is whilst the frame is in the early stages, I will try to get hold of all the
body parts and work out how they will be attached so if I find it easier to take the frame apart to attach at bits then I can do that I mean, why make it
hard for yourself? I have also sanded and glued the 3D printed horse shoes together. I did have to cut a small strip off however because the center line
wasn't in the center. I was using Silversil glue.
This stuff is fantastic but it comes with a big warning. Basically sand both surfaces (it can glue pretty much anything) and you have a liquid in one
tube and a spray can. You kind of need to be quick with this and I would recommend a ventilated area as well, apply the gooey stuff to one side,
I must stress if you use this not to get any on your hands or skin. The other part you're gluing to needs to be sprayed with the can. Spray that and then
quickly but carefully stick them together. You'll want to hold it for about 5-10 seconds and if they are sanded enough they will have bonded.
The glue dries extremely quickly however I would always leave it overnight with a clamp on (if possible) just to be sure.