Apollo lunar rover - Page 18

**kenlwest** · #**171** 08-04-2013, 10:12 AM

I finished the Left-Front Lower Control Arm. As you can see by the sloppy paint, my eyes aren't so good. Doc says I have Cateracts! But the fit and design is exactly what I was shooting for.

The Fixture works great except that the holes for the suspension pins need to be changed to fore/aft slots to compensate for the fore/aft tolerance stackups in the Chassis. 1 mm makes alot of difference in the lengths of the suspension arms.

Once the LC Arms are in place, a small drop of thin CA glue hardens everything up, and the assembly is more than enough to support the model for many years.

Also, I finally got around to painting the Seat Restraint Handles.

Ken

**eagleclaw4935** · #**172** 08-04-2013, 10:23 AM

Ken work with the cateracts first.The rover will wait.

**kenlwest** · #**173** 08-04-2013, 04:04 PM

According to the eye doctor, waiting to undergo cataract surgery does not hurt the eyes long term in any way. But my eyesight will just get more problematic as time goes on. The cost will be around $5000.00 for both eyes, so I will wait until after Jan 1. Meanwhile, my new glasses have me at 20/40, with fairly decent close vision for modeling (thank goodness)

Ken

**kenlwest** · #**174** 08-04-2013, 04:07 PM

I finished all 4 Lower Control Arms. The fixture worked great!!

I cut off the 4 ears from the fixture, so that the Chassis can remain perfectly flat while I continue the build.

Ken

**WeeVikes** · #**175** 08-05-2013, 12:45 PM

Ken,

Best of luck with the eyes. Very sorry to hear about that, but I suppose the good thing is that it should be correctable.

As a fellow engineer, the fact that you used fixturing to build this so far just makes me smile inside! I love that. It's looking amazing, by the way.

Mike

**kenlwest** · #**176** 08-05-2013, 01:48 PM

Apparently, cataracts are more common in younger people than I had previously thought. The outpatient surgery takes about 10 minutes each eye (1 eye at a time). Apparently, it's one of the most successful surgerys out there, and very safe. It's not preventing me from designing, but the build quality suffers a little bit, but I can always re-build later when I'm 20/20.

Tonight, I will be making the 4 electric drive motors..

Glad you are enjoying the thread!!

Ken

**Corvettenutts** · #**177** 08-05-2013, 05:34 PM

Ken,
My father had them done about 15 years ago, even then the success rate was good. He even was able to return to RC flying again! It was like he had seen things all over again for the first time. Great build Ken! .........purely amazing work!

Bill

**kenlwest** · #**178** 08-05-2013, 07:55 PM

Thanks guys!

Motor number 1 is complete and mounted to the LF Suspension Arms. No edge coloring needed on the cardboard edges since they will be covered by the inner fenders. Man, these motors are small!! But I am happy with how the first one came out.

Ken

**kenlwest** · #**179** 08-06-2013, 08:01 PM

All 4 motors have been assembled and glued in place on the lower suspension arms.

Once in awhile, I like to throw all of the various parts onto the chassis, just to remind myself that progress is being made. I hope you can start to see the end result in your minds' eye.

After this project is finished, I need to take some time and clear off the table!! It's a federal disaster zone. But for now, I would rather spend the time designing and building, than constantly rearranging all of the stuff on the table just to take clean photos. There is a saying "Scattered Desk = Scattered Mind". I hope that is not true!!!!

Next: The Upper Control Arms

Ken

**dhanners** · #**180** 08-06-2013, 10:14 PM

Wow. I'd say this will be one of those rare kits that truly defines the hobby of card modeling, but when you think this is a follow-up to the Command Module, you realize that Ken is one of those rare designers that defines the best the hobby has to offer. We are blessed to have him working in this genre.