droid ventilation!
Hey guys and girls!I thought it was time to have a first proper post in here. So here we go then:
I found nice 1mm thick aluminium sheets at the local DIY store the other day (that DIY store is right next door, which comes in VERY handy!) and thought a good way to start upgrading R2 would be to build him some new aluminium vents!
I have never worked with aluminium before, so my first attempts at cutting it were a bit trial and error, lots of errors actually! But hey, "do, or do not", right?
However, I eventually found a way that worked pretty good for me:
First I printed out drawings of the side and pocket vents in the right dimensions and glued them on the aluminium sheet using spray glue.
I used drawings that were just recently posted on the builders club mailing board, if you want them I uploaded both of them in a zip here. Just print those PDFs at 100% and you'll have properly sized templates.
Then I took out the ruler and my cutting knife to score the outer lines. I repeated those cuts about 2 times with lots of pressure to make sure I cut as deep as possible. Then I could easily break the aluminium along the scored lines and it just needed a little filing to clean up the edges!
I repeated that 4 times and ended up with this:
As you can see I took off the paper drawing of one of the pocket vents already there. Before I did that I once again scored the lines I need with my cutting knife, only that I did it very slightly this time, just to know where the recesses will need to be.
Next I drilled as many holes as I could fit in the recess parts and after that I started filing. What followed was filing, followed by filing, followed by even more filing, oh and eventually a bit of sanding to clean the edges!
Took me half the day to finish the first pocket vent front, but then I only used hand files, no electricity involved here!
However, I'm quite pleased with the result, even it needs a little more cleaning up here and there.
What's next? Well, there are three more vents to do, so I guess I'll have to strain my files (and my arm!) a bit more. Uttini!
Labels: part building
posted by Daniel @ 20:50
Comments: 3
