Ankle Cylinder Wedges

The next part of the ankle is the wedge that goes between the cylinder and and the slopped part of the ankle.

I started by making templates from the plans and then cutting the parts out of styrene.

Here is the part glued together. Once the the glue was dry I wrapped a piece of sand paper around the same PVC pipe I used to make the cylinders and sanded the curve to get a good fit to the pipe. You also want to be sure to sand down the edge of the top part so it will also fit tight to the cylinder.

I glued the wedge to the cylinder using model glue. I got things a little out of sequence here. You can see that I had painted the cylinder before attaching the wedge. The be sure the glue held I had to sand off some of the paint before attaching the wedge. This really wasn’t a  problem since that center section will be blue when finished anyway.

I used some hobby putty to smooth out the connection between the wedge and the cylinder. I also used it on the edges to fill any place where it didn’t fit tight to the cylinder.

I also used some hobby putty on the back to strengthen the connection. You can also see in this picture that I used some small strips of styrene to make it easier to attach the sides, but this wasn’t really needed and I didn’t do it on the later pieces.

Ankle Cylinder End Caps

To make the end caps for the ankle cylinders I needed to cut styrene disks. To cut the disks cleanly I found a metal washer that was the correct diameter which I screwed through the styrene to a block of wood. I then used an X-Acto knife to cut out the disk.

Here are the finished disks. The hole in the middle will be covered by the tabs that go on the end on the cylinder.

To make the tabs I started with a piece of oak cut to the correct height and width, I then cut the individual pieces to the correct length. To get the angle and round over on the end I use my small belt sander.

Here is the end cap with everything glues together.

Ankle Cylinders

The next part is the ankle cylinders. There are four of these in total, two on the inner leg and one on the outside of each of the outer legs. They are basically the same except that the cut out on the back of the cylinder is a different size for the center leg then the outside legs.

I made the cylinder out of a piece of PVC pipe which was the perfect size for them. I started by cutting the pipe to the correct final length. The next step was to cut the groove that g around the cylinder. There are six of these grooves, two right near the ends, two a little further in, and two right by the blue part. To make these cuts I used a mini table saw with an abrasive blade that can make a fine enough cut. I clamped one block across the bed of the saw to roll the pipe against, and second block to establish the position of the groove.

I placed the pipe against the two stops and then rotated it to make the cut. I moved the end block to make each of the cuts.

The next step was to cut out the back of each cylinder so that it can fit around the ankle. I made these cuts on my full sized table saw using a special jig to hold the cylinder. A block on the side and back of the jig hold the pipe in position. I drilled a hole through the end of the pipe so I could screw it to the jig to prevent it from rotating while I made the cut.

I adjusted the saw blade to make the correct depth cut which is about half way through the pipe. I then placed this again my miter gauge and made multiple cuts along the length of the pipe.

You can take the time to make enough cuts to totally remove the material. I made fewer cuts, broke out the pieces and the cleaned up the edges with a file.

Here is the part with the cuts complete and edged cleaned up. I eventually filled in the hold with some hobby putty.

Ankle Detail Part 2

To attach the ankle detail to the ankle I used a couple downs to pin it in place. The template I used to cut the parts has two marks where the pins can go do I used this to mark the location on the part. With the template aligned I used a sharp nail to mark the center and then drilled the holes.

Here are the two short dowel pins installed.

I used the sample template to mark the ankle.

Here are the holes drilled to accept the dowels. For now I am just using the pins to hold the part on but I will eventually glue them.

Ankle Detail

I made the ankle details out of some veneer plywood which has a relatively smooth surface. I used plans to make a full size template and cut the basic shape on a bandsaw and then used a drum and mini belt sander to cleanup up the cuts.

One edge of the ‘L’ portion has is angled, so I started by marking a line where the slope will end. Remember that the two pieces on each leg are a mirror image of each other.

I made the angle using my mini-belt sander with the table tipper to the correct angle.

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Here is the finished angles.

At the top of each part there is a shallow cut out. I laid this out and then cut the edges with an EX-ACTO knife, and then carefully removed the rest of the material with a chisel. 

There is a tab that comes off the top of each piece.I made this from a piece of MDF and created the angles on three sides with the mini-belt sander. I then glued the finish pieces together.

Here are the finished pieces.

Ankles

The sides of the ankles both on the outside and center legs have a rounded over section. I found this part to be a little challenging to create. I look at various methods others had used to build it and eventually settled on a method using a plywood frame and styrene covering. I Initially tried to build this directly on to the leg, but found it to difficult to clamp the styrene sufficiently while the glued dried. In the end I decide to build them as sperate components and then attach it afterwards.

Here is a look a the basic structure of the part. The frame is made from three pieces 1/2” plywood, two curved pieces and a rib that holds the two pieces together. I cut the styrene using the template from the styrene R2 plans and glues it to the frame using clear Gorilla Glue.

For the end cap I again used the styrene template to cut the part. I left the curved part larger then necessary and sanded it down after gluing it up. Before gluing I sanded the part of the left gently on the belt sander to get a proper angle on the edge of the styrene so there would be sufficient gluing surface. For this type of sanding I generally just move it across the belt sander belt without the sander turned on. The running belt is just to aggressive to safely use on styrene.

To add a little more strength to the joint I applied some hobby putty to the back at the joint between the two pieces. I also put some strips of styrene around the slot to build up it’s depth.

Here is the part after the front piece has been sanded smooth.

To mount the part to the leg I used dowels to attach the wood part, you can see the holes drilled in the leg and the corresponding hold on the part in the previous photo. I also added some strips of styrene to the leg to give the styrene something to attach to.

To attach the part to the leg I used wood glue on the wood frame, and styrene cement on the styrene surfaces. Once the glue dried I used hobby putty to fill in the seams.

Battery Box Harness Part 4

The final part of the battery box harness is the small block at the goes on the bottom. I made these the same way as the top block. I started with a piece of hardwood and cut the notch on the router table. I then cut the pieces to length and angled the sides on my mini belt sander.

To attach the hinge to the rest of the harness I drilled a hole in the end of the harness and the end of the hinge piece and connected them with glue and a small dowel.

I also used a down to connect the hinge to the battery box.

Initially I attached these incorrectly to the batter box. I thought the hinge attached to the front surface of the box so I had drilled the lower set of holes. After looking close are reference pictures I realized that it was supposed to go into the bottom of the half moon part, so I drilled another set of holes there. These holes would have been much easier to drill if I had done it before attaching the half moons. I had to drill these holes a little bigger then the dowel to be able to get the dowel into the hole. I will eventually fill the other holes, and they will be mostly hidden by the harness.

Battery Box Harness Part 3

In my last post I showed the first part of the hinge, next is the part that mounts to the battery box. This piece was made pretty much the same way as the first one.

I started with a piece of hardwood long enough to make all the parts and also the correct thickness. I laid out the shape of the part and then drilled the hole for the hinge pin. I also cut the width of the finished part using a bandsaw.

Next I used a drum sander to create the round over.

Next I cut the finished thickness on the band saw.

Finally I cut the piece from the piece of wood I started with.

Battery Box Harness Part 2

The next part of the battery box harness to make is the hinge at the top. I started by cutting some templates for the shape of the hinge pieces.

I started with a piece of hardwood cut to the rough dimensions of the final part and long enough to make all four copies of the part. I then traced the template on the wood being sure to also mark the center of the hole.

Before making any of the cuts I drilled the hole through the part.

Next I cut the rough shape using a jigsaw.

I then used my mini belt sander and files to clean up the cuts.

Next I used a second template to layout the fork shape on the end of the part.

I used a bandsaw to cut the fork.

The bandsaw doesn’t leave the bottom of the cut very clean, so I cleaned it up with a file.

Here is the finished piece.