Sunday, August 8, 2010

Christmas in August

I finally returned home to a room filled with all the random machined parts that I ordered while I was away. Woohoo! It was a tiring ~15 hour drive, but suddenly I felt energized. Check 'em out!









Random plate for the Iron Man cosplay













Laser cut PTEG for the arc reactor diffuser









Some of these parts, look assembled. Apologies, I just couldn't keep my hands off them. :P


















I was satisfied to find that T-Nut assembly is very effective. The friction clamp between the parts is more than enough to hold the pieces together. What is marginally irritating is the slight taper on the waterjet parts. This means two parallel parts attached on end might have end play of some +- .001 which is enough to make tight parts difficult. I may true the ends on a bent sander if it becomes a major issue.


Getting back to my drill press allowed me to see how the truck parts fit together. upon inspection, everything seemed to fit well. That is a thrust bearing on a bronze bushing. The bushing was a tad too long, so I will have to add washers to the thrust bearing so it can have adequate contact to the mounting block.




Look at the pretty arc reactors! I still need to prep them for diffusing light. I will probably lightly scuff the fronts of the PETG parts to give it that haze. Although 6mm is pretty thin, I am hoping it will be enough. Worst case, I'll use paper or some wide angle LEDs.



Tomorrow I am hoping to hit the local-ish surplus store for some random odds and ends needed to finish the projects. First and Foremost, I need to buy some 1" square aluminum stock for the truck pivot blocks. I neglected to order those parts in hopes of finding what I would need. If this works out alright, then I don't need to order from McMaster.