Saturday, July 28, 2012

Subject Delta’s Drill Arm 2012 Edition

 

Last year’s drill was huge and heavy.  Wearing it actually did mess something up in my elbow and it hasn’t fully recovered.  So if I was going to do this again this year, I had to keep it light and build in better supports.

Keeping it light means using some materials that may not stand up to the drill motion.  That means it might not spin.  If it does, yeah!  If it doesn’t, yeah!  As long as it doesn’t cause me pain, I’m going to be happy.

Like last year, the main structure is PVC pipe.  Unlike last year, it is lighter amounts of PVC and has some flexible supports.

IMAG0702IMAG0703IMAG0704       IMAG0705IMAG0706IMAG0708

Everything is held in place with pop rivets.  The two cuffs actually help to distribute the weight to my whole arm and shoulder.  The blue pipe is actually a flexible PVC wire conduit.  It’s been used in a lot of builds this year.  Now on to the mechanics.  Time for another drill to die.

IMAG0698Pretty well gutted.

IMAG0700The new support system.

IMAG0710IMAG0711Not a lot of clearance for fingers here, but you can see the custom made pistol grip.  Much more comfortable than last years model.


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                                          Beer.  So many uses.

Now for the *%$&#(#$$! cone.

I struggled with this for a while, but managed to get it eventually.IMAG0723

Now for resin and then fiberglass.
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Now, the blades.
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Lots of sanding, Bondo, sculpting putty, primer, and paint later and it’s done.

IMG_7238IMG_7239IMG_7240IMG_7241IMG_7242IMG_7243IMG_7244IMG_7245IMG_7246IMG_7247This is the battery pack for the drill.  The intention was to keep the whole thing self contained so I could take it off if I needed to without much help.

So, the big question, does it spin?  Sadly, no it does not.  Something broke lose on the drill shaft inside the cone and it does not spin.  Honestly, that doesn’t bother me at all.  I just wish I could get the drill motor out so I could lighten it up even more.  Plus with thing being made of fiberglass, if it did spin, it could actually hurt someone.  It still has enough oomph behind it to make a good melee weapon or a good “Either get on the escalator or get out of the way!” convention prod.

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