How I Built Fred

Part 6

The Head

Barbecue grill at store
The head piece was one of two items I had to have custom made. I bought a barbeque grill and cut down the edge to the approximate point where the flanged edge would begin.




The bits that had to go
Steel band welded in place prior to puttying
 

Looking at dome from above

Eyestalk pivot pieces in place prior to cutting slot in dome



  The Eyestalk

Eyestalk bits

 I built the eyestalk assembly out of a piece of 2" x 4" and some pipe that was laying around, along with some miscellaneous hardware.


           In case you need a closer look

Pieces assembled and in place

Different view to show nut and bolt placement

View from directly underneath

The eyestalk so far
(Version II's head?) smoothed out and the eyestalk mounted.

 Back to the head for a moment: Originally, I smoothed out the rough spots with a layer of body putty for cars. This had a tendency to crack in some places, though. Amazingly, what worked even better was using layers of Elmer's water-based wood putty. It sanded extremely smooth and was very easy to work with. I incorporated this when I did Version II of Fred (I stripped off the old stuff on the dome and started over).


The Ball and Socket

The first attempt at a ball and socket assembly using a toilet float and roof flashing with a rubber seal didn't work very well. I broke down and had some wooden balls custom-turned and used an improved ball and socket arrangement constructed by a friend, Tim Lindsey (shown here). This worked infinitely better.

Socket boards

The two board pieces were cut much in same way as the ports themselves, with a hole saw, a saber saw, and then filing and sanding.

Ball and socket assembly side view

The ball is then sandwiched between the two pieces. Notice there's a slight angle to the front piece. A little graphite helps make the ball move smoothly.

Ball and socket assembly front view

The ball and socket assembly in place. Note a hole had to be cut in the back board for mounting the speaker.



Ball and Socket support board
Back Next

Back to Workshop