Meet Franko the 8 foot tall Robot

[K-9]

Very cool, the robot looks even more imposing with the roof above it. 

[Golddalek]

Nice job, looks like a ton of work. 

even the dog  is mesmerized by Elektro.

[Franko]

The legs are now in my office in the warm, working long hours at the moment to get a house finished for a client, but I can measure them up ready for the adjustments

its a bit odd reverse engineering, something you have already reverse engineered !!

I cannot for the life of me recall how I built the legs, so I  will  just have to gently dismantle the upper parts

[6Stelab9]

Yngenious, fun and Ympressive Pyrat ship!

[Brian..]

I can't see any reason for the neighbours to complain. 

 

 

 

[RoboCopy]

1 hour ago, Brian.. said:

I can't see any reason for the neighbours to complain. 

 

 

[Franko]

On 9/27/2022 at 10:56 PM, RoboCopy said:

On 9/27/2022 at 10:38 PM, Brian.. said:

I can't see any reason for the neighbours to complain. 

 

 

All of them seem intent on continually extending their houses, removing front gardens to park vast fleets of leased cars, and paving over the lovely back gardens, not sure why you woudl buy a 1930s house to then half demolish it to end up with a modern looking bland pile ? but what do I know

I like to make them nervous

 

heres another toy we made for the local kids

 

the inspiration, some images seen at the tank museum

 

 

[Franko]

and the finished item, along with six trench art models that I made, these are moneyboxes, each supplied with a genuine WW1 coin, and inspired by one my grandfather made, himself a WW1 soldier

one tank went to my youngest grandson, although my daughter keeps it locked away in a box until he is old enough to appreciate it

another went to a young man who was very ill, and undergoing chemo, but who I can report is now a fit strong young chap

a couple went to the local hospital as xmas presents for children

and another one was given away as a prize after the event

an unclaimed prize was donated to Winston's wish for the children play area

the colour scheme is the Solomon J Solomon design, a member of the Artists rifles, and a well respected artist in his own right,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Joseph_Solomon

and the markings are those of Flirt 4 , whose commander was badly injured in an explosion, and who passed away and is buried in the local churchyard in prestbury

http://www.cgwfa.org.uk/Remembering Pages/Inglis A.pdf

 

after the event it was dismantled and sold to raise money for Winstons wish , and now resides in a private museum in Odiham in Hampshire

 

we also had a display board about the tank, the tank museum, and those QR codes for people to see more information with

( done by a young person, after i had tried to draw one by hand !!)

 

right its Sunday and i have an empty house

a day off work, so will resume work on Franko 

ps I am thinking of making some more model tanks, although not as money boxes, but to take with me to France when I visit Deborah again, and leave them to be sold for her upkeep

 

http://www.tank-cambrai.com/en/the-story-of-deborah/

 

 

[Ranger]

Great work!

[Franko]

Somewhere in my house is a cctv camera

every time I get five minutes free, people find me and drag me off !!!

I have been working mad hours again sorting a few houses out, but do a bit as and when I can

I much prefer working outside in the sun, although that is restricted since our neighbours built a huge extension

I got my grandson to assist with dragging the legs in to the house and started work on decreasing the height of the legs, plus making the thighs a bit narrower

Mike had set up a router to make these from my template, I had drawn the shape on card and folded it over to ensure it was symmetrical, however after making  a jig and setting it all up to fast cut, they came out a bit wonky, I dont tend to trust fast ways of doing things, much preferring to work by hand, but as you can see by my markings, I reshaped the formers, used a jigsaw and a spokeshave to trim them to shape and re used them, the main support were shortened, and then the skin was refitted, after much measuring and cutting, very time consuming, I had trouble pulling the skin tight, as the ratchet straps i have only work on pulling them against the brake, someplace i have some with the ratchet handles , but i cannot find them, when I made the legs, the thigh was skinned before the boot, so we had more access, I ended up having a problem getting the skin to line up at the top, so I raised it up slightly, fixed it to the frame and then used a jigsaw to trim it level, mucho time saved, !

next leg went a lot fast, and I just trimmed the skin direct to the leg, I also made sure that all the internal parts were giving a couple of coats of black self sealing paint, this helps to keep the magic in, and hides any joints, plus gives a bit of protection against damp

Looking at the images int he book I have, the boots are greater in size than the thighs, so by cutting these down, the correct stance is given

next job, cut and shape a new mounting block, this screws into the legs, then the Torso drops on to it and is secured with screws

after a bit of filling sanding and priming with the black paint ( acts as a good primer for the Hammerite gold finish, I mounted the torso on the legs

a month has passed since I finished the legs, so this weekend I found a few hours to locate both arms, and hang one on the torso

as you can see he looks a bit prehensile and ape like, so after taking a few measurements and looking at the original images, I took the arms into the workshop, and dismantled them one at a time, one is now complete, and the second one stripped ready for joinery work, this Monday evening

my next task is to build a housing in the chest entrance, to install a couple of fake valves, and a cctv camera/microphone

I also need to locate a position for his speakers, so that I do not get feed back

I still have to install his arm motors, neck motor and tilt motor, plus build a control panel

but that will have to wait a few months now

I also purchased a quantity of toy keyring robots with flashing 2 tone LEDs to give out to the kids

my youngest grandson, used to be frightened off the robot, but now with me working on it, he has overcome his fear

I did tell my daughter that it would look nice in his bedroom

she is not very keen on that !!

 

 

[Eagle]

You're my kind of neighbor ! Outstanding.

[Franko]

well as usual time vanished, ended up working at daughters house until saturday lunchtime, then I found out that helper no 1 could not come to play as is wife was ill, and helper no 2 had a bad back !!

so a mad session finishing everything off, including stripping an arm back, as grandson pointed out the elbow was reversed !!!

but it all went together, the audio circuit worked, but one the Monday I had a mad idea and re located the speakers, and fitted a cover over the fake valve

I wired this through a dimmer switch inside, so that I could trim it back to a soft glow,

then I plugged a laptop in and left him singing odd songs to entertain to 100 odd kids that arrived, they all enjoyed it, , however next year I have an even better plan for Franko

hopefully this coming year, I can spend a few hours installing the motors to rotate and tilt the head, and to move the arms, I need to resolve a problem with the elbows, perhaps find a 2 part hinge to allow them to move a little better, then install bowden cables driven from inside to move the lower arms

I am still unsure wether to operate it all via joysticks, or a mechanical programmer

 

[Jonydroid]

Wowwww this is amazing man what a great job he did i would love to have one big, not as big as this one but i mean it's a dream i Guess a few of us have the same dream

[Franko]

On 11/6/2022 at 5:16 PM, Jonydroid said:

Wowwww this is amazing man what a great job he did i would love to have one big, not as big as this one but i mean it's a dream i Guess a few of us have the same dream

Yes perhaps I overdid it on the size , a 6 foot or 5 foot would have been easier, but I was at the back of the queue when they were dishing out the commonsense !!

next year he will be outside again, as I plan to build a car port, that will make it easier to work on my projects and not worry about bad weather

a full sized tardis is planned, plus a spaceship and an alien planet for Franko to stand watch in

what could possibly go wrong !!

[Jonydroid]

41 minutes ago, Franko said:

Yes perhaps I overdid it on the size , a 6 foot or 5 foot would have been easier, but I was at the back of the queue when they were dishing out the commonsense !!

next year he will be outside again, as I plan to build a car port, that will make it easier to work on my projects and not worry about bad weather

a full sized tardis is planned, plus a spaceship and an alien planet for Franko to stand watch in

what could possibly go wrong !!

Yes but still an amazing good work with all the oversized projects you did so well, i couldn't do it i have no tools and no space but i still have space for a big robot in my bedroom that's a project for One day to come i hope anyway Nice to see your wonderful projectscheers.