The first was based on Jerry Greene's drive for R2-R9 and was made out of wood. We included ball casters for support. Since we didn't have plans, I eyeballed the rough dimensions, used the actual motor and wheel to mark drill holes and circles and made a posterboard template for the final wood pieces. It was larger than it should have been for the outer foot shell and had the motor sticking out in the wrong place, but I took it to DroidCon in May 2011 and showed Jerry, who was encouraging. Best of all, when we applied current, the motor turned the belt, which turned the wheel.
The dimensions bothered me. Early this year, I came across Ted's -- buhatkj on the group -- blog and saw a promising aluminum design. It was clean and simple, and Ted had uploaded his design to the Yahoo group three months before DroidCon. I printed the full-sized templates at Staples, and my father and I used hardboard to execute it. The design required cuts for two rectangular sides, drilled holes for the three mounting screws and the motor cap and two circles for the other end of the motor. We cut and added a top rectangular piece with some angle aluminum. With spacers, screws, the belt, wheels and motors, it also turned.
If the hardboard came into contact with water, however, it would disintegrate. My father wanted to try again with the same design, but this time with sheet aluminum. Neither of us had worked with aluminum before, but the foot drives were a project that came with full-size templates and our experience with the other two foot drives. It really was a re-execution of the second foot drive with only a few adjustments. My father ordered the aluminum, I ordered new templates, and on Saturday we went to work.
The cutting, drilling and circle-cutting took only a few hours. The problem came with the aluminum brake my father had bought for the job. We didn't really know whether it would be powerful enough for the job and ... well, it wasn't. We both tried several times and succeeded only in lifting the aluminum and brake up from the workbench and finally in bending the brake's handles.
Here's how we solved the problem: My parents have lived in Cross Plains for more than 15 years now. In that time, they've had work done to their house -- roofing, new tile floor for the downstairs workshop, that sort of thing. They're big believers in the local economy, so for these jobs they've turned to Carl, a general contractor who also lives practically down the street.
Carl said he'd be over in an hour. He arrived as my father was cutting the last hole on the second drive and I was taking video. Carl didn't have the tools to bend that metal, either, but he had a relative who did ...
The job was done Monday. Take a look:
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