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 I made Bill's shoulders with
white melamine bathroom panel. This worked OK, but I had to soak the panel
for a couple of hours in the bath. I also noticed that it began to wrinkle
around the edges.
This time I used 1/8" hardboard, which turned out
to work very well - it didn't require any soaking, and seems plenty strong
enough. It was much easier to bend too, as I built Bill and Dirk
single-handed.
Also last time, I countersunk holes in the front of the
arm box for the bolts, put them through and then covered the result with
wood filler. Unfortunately I didn't sand them enough and the result shows
through the paint. It's quite difficult to tell when you've sanded enough
until you paint, by which time it's a bit late. So this time, I built an
inner ball mounting for the arm ball and glued it to the inside of the arm
box. Wood glue is really strong, so I'm not expecting that this will
weaken it too much. The result is that the arm box has no bolt marks due
to my unreliable finish work.
This time I made separate armboxes, rather than working
around the central strut at the front of the shoulder section. I don't
think I can recommend doing it one way or the other. They both work fine.
Doing it as one piece avoids the risk of getting them misaligned, though I
don't know how much it would show. |
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Last time around I cut cardboard
stencils for the shoulders, then carefully cut the shoulder board to
exactly the same size.
This time, I cut the board about 1/2" to 1"
oversize, attached it, then went around with a saw and belt sander to take
off the extra material. Much less trouble, as it reduced the stress of
making the board the exact size. If I'd got the tip in time, I would have
pulled the nails after the glue dried and then filled the holes. |
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 The
belts were the same as last time, but I picked up a great tip and sprayed
over the templates rather than meticulously drawing around them with
a felt pen.
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Mesh and Slats, ready to go |
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The slats were done much the same as last
time... |
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All individually bolted on - took a long time. |
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The only plunger I could find in the local
stores was a weird shape, so I cut it down. This one looks too shallow,
but it's much better than what I had on Bill. Fortunately another guild
member has talked me into getting some from England... |
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If you end up painting a plunger, sand it
all over first with a 220 grit sandpaper. I found from doing Bill that in
the areas I hadn't sanded, the paint would peel off the shiny rubber.
Alternatively, use a proper rubber paint from an automotive shop. With
Bill I used Bocce balls for the arm balls. Unfortunately they are only
3.5" in diameter, rather than 4", so this time I have used
Christmas decoration balls, as for the hemis. I've painted them on the
inside to stop them scratching as they are moved. For
the plunger arm I used several different diameters of PVC pipe this time,
with dowel down the middle as before. The steel conduit I used with Bill
is rather heavy, so I'll probably change that out in due course. |
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