Still Cutting Those Ankles

Yep, I'm still in the kind of dull cutting phase: score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, SNAP! That really is TEN passes with the exacto blade for each edge. It's not the most exciting part of building a droid, but, as I tell myself when I find I'm putting off any tedious part of building, "that droid's not gonna build himself!"



I decided to chamfer these ankle parts before doing the long cuts -- that way the chamfers would be even, and I'd save myself a little bit of effort:



I clamped my bastid (haha) file to my work table -- this saved a bit of effort too!



I think the chamfers came out really nice -- and only about 20 minutes of filing per edge, too!



I did scrub that file between chamfers.

For a couple of the cuts it looked like I needed to cut the thick styrene curves by hand. This left some little tabs of styrene at the break edges.



So I clamped the curves piece to my table...



And filed those little tabs off!



Then, more chamfering. Here is a before and after kind of shot:



A single day's work! Not done, yet, but still a pretty decent effort!



Next I'll finish off the small detail cuts on those pieces. I also re-installed my router in preparation for cutting the last of the curved pieces, and truing up some of those long straight pieces that go inside the shoulder hubs and legs.

I've gotten used to every part of this build taking 2, 3, and even 4 times longer than I estimate! I will confess, though, that I REALLY hope to finish this year -- yes, a droid in 2011 is my dream. There, I've gone and done it and gone public with my deadline! Bwahahahahaha!