The Challenges of Building a Dalek: Part 21
Be sure to read the previous parts of The Challenges of Building a Dalek. Since the last update, our progress has slowed down quite a bit. With the weather shifting between cold and warm temperatures we have shifted all our work inside. By working on the mechanical aspect of the eyepiece as well as the tray that would hold the circuit boards.
We have been collecting and started the assembly of the circuit boards. They would control the lights, the animatronic for the eyepiece, the voice modular, and the head movement. For the voice effect, we can get the chilling dalek voice from Project Dalek. A group that we have been getting all of the original blueprints, plus it gives us the availability to take to others who have built Daleks who can help us with any issues.
3-D Printing
With dads’ newest toy, the 3-D printer, we have successfully made the whole eyepiece assembly. The downside is that it takes time to print. The eyepiece alone took about 18 hours to print; we kept having some slight print issues before getting the final product. We were able to get the 3D files from the Project Dalek group. This group has everything, you could even 3D print an entire dalek. Dad jokes that he will be doing that for the fourth dalek build.
We are just about finished making all of the resin hemispheres and have now also started to print up oil seals. They are basically rings that go around each hemisphere, and we choose to make these rings a metallic green to match the forest green but stand out against the black of the hemisphere.
Current Design
Currently, the neck is about 10 inches in height; and about 16 inches in diameter. When you add it to the base it stands at 62.5 inches, 1587.5 millimeters, including the wheels. Derek the Dalek is currently a bright hunter green and will be having soul-sucking black hemispheres around the base. Since we are playing with a 3D printer, we are currently looking for another electric wheelchair so that we can print another type of dalek.
