More fun with the utility arm

So after gluing the three sets of half-components together last night, I brought them in to the makerspace after work to sand down the seams:

This largely went well, the only main problem being that on one piece I accidentally sanded the top layer off (if you look at the picture below, you can see the damage on the left).

Fortunately, this is fixable. I broke out the XTC-3D and slopped some over the damaged area, as well as the seam where the other two components were joined, as seen below. I'll let them cure overnight, sand, and I should be ready to combine them and paint.

Meantime, holding off on printing any other components for now. A major resin part maker is having a "scratch-and-dent" thing going on, so I'm trying to see what I can snag--almost got some holoprojectors, but a miscommunication happened. Oh well. I can always get the pristine ones.

Actually, I think I may be getting close to the end of what I can 3-D print. Mostly ankle and foot parts, and some large bits that aren't really condusive to 3-D printing, better off getting as resin cast. For example, the boosters on the side of the legs come in 3 parts which are hollow but that leaves a lot of empty space for support structures when printing. Then there's the "skirt" that goes under the main barrel. I did some tests yesterday and worked out that to print it (in PLA at least) would cost a bit over $120 in PLA using standard settings and a 20% fill rate. On the other hand, A&A does a styrene one for $60, so...yeah.

In the meantime, I'm concentrating on the dome, and particularly the dome light system. I'm goign with Teeces, which is based off of arduinos and has multiple "sketches" (arduinese for programs) including random blinkenlights and one that would let me control them via an iPhone app (once I wire up a wifi connection and all that jazz. That can wait.) I ordered the set of 5 bare boards for it, and a bunch of the standard ICs, resisters, sockets, etc with which to populate the board. Good thing the makerspace has a soldering station. I'll be sure and detail every step of it when I create the lighting system.

Until that stuff all shows up? Well, I've got plenty of dome stuff to do.