AUTOMATA - "DiggerBot" Pt.7

Here's your base-model DiggerBot...no radio, no air-conditioning, no power-steering. I spent most of the weekend on this project, and am so glad to have finally gotten to this stage! Now that the basic automata works, I move on to the fun part of adding the "steam-punk" elements like rivets and more details. After that...the finished paint job!

Let's take a look at the new added-on bits since my last post. I needed to give a little more stability to the gear-box, so I made some framing in the front. Next I glued on the stationary "shoulders" part of the digging arms. In the back, I added the piece that holds the dowel that will allow the head to move up and down. The larger dowel acts as a "neck", and keeps the smaller dowel from going crooked, as it moves.

Here are all the parts that go together for the head. Underneath, I have drilled a hole large enough to fit around the "neck", and also the hole for the dowel. I wish I was a better craftsman with making all of these parts...nothing is squared up, and looks very "hand-done". (How about we just say it "adds charm" that way? There I feel much better.)

One adjustment to my original idea for the head movement...I added a little peg near the neck piece, so that the head would have a slight turn towards the person cranking the handle. Before that, the head was loosely turning all around, and looked a bit goofy.

After the head was done, I started to box everything in, and created the form of the outer body. I also added some more wheels on the sides.

The last piece to make was the boiler tank with double exhaust pipes. This view is of the inverted DiggerBot...I turned it this way to keep the tank from sliding as the glue dried. As I look at the photo now, it reminds me of one of those two-legged walker machines from Star Wars. Hmmm...ideas for later, perhaps?
Here are a few more shots of the semi-finished DiggerBot. Next time, I'll be making piles of "dirt" for the base, completing the tank tracks, and adding more "doo-dads" all over.