Sunday, December 30, 2018

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sunday, December 23, 2018

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.

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

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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.

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Here is the end cap with everything glues together.

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Sunday, December 16, 2018

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Friday, December 14, 2018

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.

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Here are the two short dowel pins installed.

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I used the sample template to mark the ankle.

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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.

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Monday, December 10, 2018

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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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Here are the finished pieces.

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