Shell Work, plus Side Greeblies News

 In the scope of my Mouse Droid build, the most labor intensive part was always going to be cutting and sanding excess shell material. To figure out where to cut, I insert the inner frame into each shell half and mark a line inside the shell barely above the frame. 

After that, cutting and sanding tools of choice are used to make the shell edges even with the inner frame. 

To cut off the excess, I used a combination of a utility knife, a cutting tool, and a jigsaw. I made sure to cut conservatively and slowly. Taking off material is easy, but adding material back can be very difficult. The material is so thick that took all three tools and a couple hours to cut most of it off. The knife was ok, but pretty slow and less agile than the cutting tool. 

Safety Tip: I have cut myself deep enough to leave a small scar, so I would wear gloves when using knives. Even some tough gardening gloves may work in the pinch. And try to cut away from yourself, aim the knives. It's worth the extra time and effort. 

The cutting tool is actually made to cut metal, but worked here. This plastic is quite thick, so it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

The jigsaw worked very well (seen in the far back), but was too big to fit into some corners.

Safety Tip: Keep your hands, and generally yourself, out of the path of the jigsaw. You may want to use safety glasses when cutting to avoid fragments getting in your eyes, especially if you need to get up close and personal with your work. You may also want to wear a mask to avoid breathing in particles, especially plastic.

I did some of the edges sanding with 60 to 100 grit sandpaper, and used a block to hold it in a more comfortable position. 

Safety Tip: It may be a good idea to wear a mask when sanding plastic to avoid breathing in any dust. A glove always helps keep your hand comfortable.

The near end result looks quite messy, but I prefer a slow and steady pace. Measure more than you ever cut to avoid potentially costly mistakes. I was able to mostly use a jigsaw on the top half of the shell, which is why it looks much cleaner. A small gap between the shell halves is perfectly normal. 

More work will need to be done on this later to remove excess, high ends, and make smoother edges.  And for this task, I finally bought I tool I've been thinking about for years....a dremel kit. This will make cutting and sanding more complex parts easier and less error prone. This kit came with 15 attachments that will definitely make a difference later. 

In other news, some parts for the side Greeblies arrived today. The two dark gray PVC panels will be the main base of the details for each side. They are pretty light, though I may do a driving test to make sure it's not too heavy or anything. I will likely be attaching these with strong velcro in case I want or need to make changes later.

On top of that, about six PCB's (printed circuit boards, like breadboards) will make another layer of detail. I could not find a 6x6 inch PCB, so I bought a few that are 2x3 inches, (or 5x7 cm), and will attach them to the PVC panels with velcro in case changes are needed or wanted later.

 Next, decorative IC's (integrated circuits) will be fit into the PCB's with a special detail....

I want to give my Mouse Droid some flair and personality, and purple is my favorite color, so I went with black and purple rhinestones. I will likely glue anywhere from a dozen to 20 of these to the PCB's.

There are some small vertical side details on the Mouse Droid that are yet to come, but this is most of the material for the side Greeblies.