Utility Arm Hybrid Part 1

Frank Pirz' Utility Arm box + Automated Mechanical Utility Arm kit

The utility arm box was ordered from Frank on one of my last orders, he sends a flat pack for creating of a utility arm box. 

• This kit allows through use of spacers and pins to install free swinging utility arms to the frame. 
• The kit comes with spacers to align the height of the arm box to the skin (because there are various skin alignment issues.

Here is a photo of the utility arm box that Frank designed for us.

 

Here is a photo of the automated mechanical utility arm configuration

 

I started pulling the pieces out and seeing how they fit together, dry fitting.

 

Installed the motor on 1 of the arm mechanical pieces so I can see clearance if I try to fit it into Frank's utility arm box.

 

Started gluing the sides together which connects the box

 

The upper and lower parts of the box looks similar, once side has a large hole where you install a bearing piece into and the other is a small hole. 

 

Using weld-on #3 began gluing the pieces.

 

Ran one of the shafts through the 3D printed utility arms.

 

Dry fitting the arm box to see clearance issues with the mechanical arm metal pieces in the center.

 

Traced and cut clearance to fit the mechanical utility arm center piece snug.

 

this is how the center mechanical center piece will fit 1 on each side of the plastic center piece.

 

I layed them onto the center plastic piece and taped them tightly together using the existing holes between both and the center plastic piece.  Once taped and aligned, I was able to drill through box to install screws to hold them together.

 

 

I then traced the sections where we needed to cut out to allow for the hitec motors to be installed on each side.

 

I pulled out my tiny handy dandy styrene table saw made specifically for cutting plastic.

 

 

Here is a great view of the blade exposed.

 

I slowly ran the pieces through the saw cutting each out.

 

Here is the other side cutting the piece out.

 

Once complete, I verified alignment of the metal pieces to the center plastic piece.

 

I then set some screws (8/32" through the holes to see how it will align correctly.  Also verified that the metal center pieces fit correctly inside the box.

 

 

Here is a top down view of the utility arm box showing the two metal mechanical arm pieces hanging out the back.

 

Removing the metal arm holders, made sure that the box was glued and allowed to dry and harden.

After drying you can clearly see the nice aligned pieces, Weld-On #3 dries very fast and merges the surfaces together well.

 

Here is a view with the mechanical arm piece installed.

 

With the mechanical Arm piece in, everything aligns up nicely.

I counter sunk the holes in the upper mechanical arm metal piece allowing the 3/4" 8/32" screws to sit flush into the metal.

 

Installed 3 8/32" X 3/4" screws and fasted on the other side with nuts.

 

here is a view showing the bottom of the 3 pieces connected.

 

better view

 

Here is the utility arms manually connected and the inner skin attached to the frame to see alignment issues.

 

The alignment looks very good, infact the 3 pieces allow the center arms to sit perfectly to their holder cutouts.

 

Here is the test fitting of the mechanical arms to the hybrid utility arm box.  I will have to attach the gears and belts as well as the hitec armature motors to turn them.

 

yet another view.

Here is a closeup of the right arm and the gear and axle that will allow the arm to rotate and swing in/out.

 

 

Rockler Bearing installation

Rockler Installation on Frank Pirz frame

The dome will rotate riding on a Rockler Lazy Suzanne circular bearing mount.  This was purchased roughly 6 months ago (I bought 2, 1 was for the old R2 if I was going to rebuild the A&A frame and the other was for this new R2 unit).

Unboxing, the Rockler was wrapped tight in shipping plastic.  Once I unwrapped it, I placed it on the Frank Pirz frame looking for alignment marks - sadly there were none.

Looks like a even 1/4" and some odd spacing all around.  I measured and adjusted the Rockler to the outside edge since there are no noticeable alignment marks.

There is a small section on the frame where Frank had a single hole that aligns to the inside of the Rockler... still not good enough.

Here is another view of the Rockler aligned evenly to the outside of the frame all around.

Placing the Rockler back on the frame, I began pulling the white spacers off on both sides of the Rockler on the inside ring as well as outer rings too.

 

Once all the holes were exposed I began drilling using a 3/8" drill bit through the outer ring.  I also counter sink the outer holes to eventually install 3/8" flat head screws into each to connect to the frame.

 

Another view of all the holes with counter sinks drilled into them.  Had to be careful not to let the metal fragments fall into the sliding area where the bearings are... that would ruin the Rockler for sure.

 

I then sat the Rockler back onto the frame and drilled holes from the outer ring into the frame for all 8 holes.

Note: I had to do this twice because I noticed a few of the spots went almost through the ribs on a few areas.  Rotating the Rockler a few inches allowed acceptable clearance.

 

Here is the ooopsy - went almost through the RIB area below.

 

Below you can see clearly the lines I traced once I had the Rockler aligned properly on the Frame.

 

 

And now here is the frame with all the holes drilled (twice) and the alignment lines which I drew to help me later set the Rockler in place.

 

Ok had to now go out and find correct number of screws and nuts to put this thing together.

Ended up purchasing 1 pack of 3/8" X 1 1/2" flat screws to expose upward on the inner circle of the Rockler which will connect to the DOME and a package of 3/8" X 1" to connect the outer circle of the Rockler to the frame through the holes I drilled.  I picked these up at Lowe's

 

I then connected the A&A Dome gear kit from the old R2 unit.  May have a issue with the smaller gear that connects to the outer gear (which attaches to the inner circle of the Rockler.

 

 

Got 8 screws in the outer circle and 6 in the inner circle.  The inner circle has the longer screws facing up to have the Dome connect to it with the Dome Ring.

 

Now to connect the finished Large Data Port that was 3D printed from Frank Pirz for me.

 

 

I verified I could use the 2 holes that aligned over the LDP area (the large data port that sits on the upper part of R2).

I connected the Large Data Port to the slot Frank Pirz slotted into the frame and then screwed the two pieces together with a nut through the inside bottom.

 

I had to file down the corners of the top edges of the data port to have it correctly fit in the frame slot on the upper lip of the frame.

 

Roughly 45 degree angled filing made it fit perfect.

 

 

Now to work on the hybrid Utility Arm unit using Frank Pirz's Utility Arm box and a Automated Utility Arm mechanical kit I purchased last year for the old R2... Hopefully I can get the two to work together and align/fit to the skin.

You can see the 3/8" nuts exposed on the inside back of the Large Data Port.