kproche | Yesterday's work

I got in a full 6+ hours of woodworking yesterday on TDK, getting the basic neck bin structure made.

First cuts (to be used later) preparatory to cutting neck bin plates
These pieces were actually carefully figured and cut first from the end and side of a 2'x4' sheet of 1/4" plywood before cutting the remainder into two squares. These will be used later to build the gun box that holds the ball joints for the arm and gun.

plywood screwed together preparatory to cutting neck bin plates
There are actually 3 pieces here: 2 are 1/4" plywood and the third is a circle of 11/32 ply (cut from the center of the shoulder bottom plate). I need 3 identical radius circles

Another view of the pieces screwed together prior to sawing

First cut on the plates

another shot
They are not (alas) perfectly round, and the edges were not quite square on the sides (the jigsaw tilted). I went back and cleaned them up a bit and drilled some pilot holes (including the center pivot hole) before unscrewing the stack. I also marked a one-way pattern across the edges of all 3 so I could orient them properly to each other down the road.

Finished plates
from front to back: Bottom of neck bin (11/32), top of neck bin (1/4"), support plate for dome and eyestalk (1/4")

Bottom plate for neck bin

Top plate for neck bin
the flange into the center is for the anchor pivot for the dome.

Support plate for dome and eyestalk
Test fit of this into the dome revealed it's going to need some tweaking before I mount it into the dome

Test assembly of compressible neck bin
The neck bin is the inner frame that supports the mesh and rings in the Dalek "neck". There are 6" pieces of 1/8P lamp pipe coming up from the bottom plate, and 6" pieces of 1/4-20 threaded rod coming down from the top plate, slid into the ID of the lamp pipe. A stack of springs holds them apart.

Neck bin, uncompressed
It's the correct height, about 10.5"

Neck bin, compressed
Note it squeezes down to 6" or less. This worked as a proof of concept, but I need to replace the threaded rod with smooth 1/4 rod threaded only at the top end, so that it will slide more smoothly inside the lamp pipe.