Tools To Repair Robots

[Eagle]

Laserman:

Do you use the old Vacuum form technique,that when the plastic starts to droop in the oven ,it's ready ?

What type of plastic sheet do you use ? Styrene/ABS ? What is the max thickness you have been able to work with?

[laserman]

Eagle,

Yes, with my toaster oven, I wait until I have about a 1 1/2-2 inch droop before I remove the plastic and place on top of the mold.

I've used .040" styrene and .030" clear Vivak on these these units with this shop vac doing just fine. I could go a little thicker without too much loss of detail, but have not done it yet. I understand ABS works great, but just have not tried it yet. I buy my plastics (Styrene, Vivak, Acrylic, etc.) from U.S. plastics as they will sell fairly small quantities.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/category....clickid=leftnav

I have a large project (15 x 20" molding area with a 7-8 inch draw) coming up where I may need to upgrade my entire system, but that's another story.

[Eagle]

Sounds like the wife will be getting a new stove . I Guess you can't use this system to duplicate original parts as it would be too large on the outside radius and too small on the inside ?

[laserman]

Eagle, to the first part, I will probabaly use our oven. But heaven help me if that plastic droops down and makes a mess. I may get by just building a bigger box with hookups for two shop vacs (borrow the second vac.).

As to making parts for robots. The large vacuum forming box pictured previously has a molding area of 7 1/2" by 9 1/2". The smaller box has a molding area of 4 1/2 by 4 1/2". If you are making canopies, domes, or other items that need to be hollow, this is your process. Resin casting is another option if the item can be solid, such as robot arms, which has been discussed on this forum many times. Ok...back to my cave.

[Blechroboter]

For removing paint I use sodium carbonate lye. Works fine.

[The Toyman]

:) Hi guys and gals, here are a couple of pictures of tools that may be used for certain things when repairing or modifying robots.

First a small hook tool that I believe came in an old sewing machine tool kit. It has a small hook on the end and can be used on the tin toys that have the tabs bent over into a hole where you cannot reach behind to get it straightened back out for disassembly.

Also pictured is a similar hooking tool that I made from MIG welder wire, you can also bend it from a small coil spring that you can unroll. I made a loop on the back end because some of these tabs are tought to pull.

Next is a crimping tool for leg pins on robots that I made from a pair of side cutters.

I used a dremel tool to cut a notch in the jaws so that I didn't cut the pin, but smashed a crimp on both sides of a notch to look like the old toys.

It works, as the picture shows, but on larger steel 1/8 inch pins it is very very hard to squeeze enough.

I would recommend starting with a very long handled pair of side cutters so that you have even more leverage. With these it takes me both hands pushing down onto my leg with all my strength to make a crimp in a robot foot pin. This is stressful upon reassembly because of the danger of everything falling onto the floor if the pin breaks or slips.

I found a light duty crimper at the craft store recently that works wonderfully on light alloy or copper or brass pins but these are not strong for steel pins.

-Larry7

Hi, go to "Retropopshop" on Ebay.co.uk, they sell a watch case opener that is perfect for lifting tin tabs. ( £1.69) its made from bright orange nylon and fits the hand perfectly and has a rounded blade that opens the tabs with ease ( a tip is to smooth the blade off slightly as its new ,and may be a little sharp) I have opened many toys with this little tool and it's just great, good luck! ;)

Noel.