| This is my latest creation...GARBAGE MAN! When finished, he will be a full on automaton....meaning that he will function on his own with no outside help, he will monitor the outside world thru sensors and react to various conditions. Sounds complex to you? You're RIGHT! It's a very big leap going from animatronics like SkeleTron to a full on robot. SkeleTron was designed to work with a pre-built controller and Plug and Play software....no brainer there...well, I still had to create the thing before I could Plug and Play. Anyway, the point is that Garbage Man is much more complicated. As you will see. Well, what happened to Skeletron? First of all, SkeleTron is fine, he is just on hold. It all started {or should I say ENDED} back in May 2001. I took SkeleTron over to a friend's to get pictures for this site. Upon returning I discovered that my apartment was broken into....They got my Computer, HI-8 cam and most of my tools! Like the dumb ass that I was, I had no insurance! :( I had no way to work on SkeleTron so I packed him up and put him in the closet. Now, when I have a date and she asks "Do you have any skeletons in your closet?" I just say "NO! But, I have a SkeleTRON in my closet!" I couldn't work on SkeleTron and I needed to find something to keep me busy, SO, like any other NORMAL person, I started eyeing up my Garbage Can! It kind of looked like R2D2....I thought "Hey! I can make this into a robot and I can start right now with very little tools and very little money " Now, I have replaced most of what I have lost....and I could go back to SkeleTron, BUT, I think I'll finish Garbage Man first, after all, SkeleTron as an animatronic was just his first stage....he will be a "Full On" robot when he is done. Garbage Man will give me the knowledge I need to make that happen. On to Garbage Man!! |
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| The first thing you must do before you turn your trash can into a robot, and I can't stress this enough, and that is to dump the garbage out before you do anything else! |
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| The next step {after scrubbing the thing out} is to cut out an access panel in the rear. |
| After that, I cut out some plywood to the shapes I needed and using fiberglass and Bondo auto filler, I got him all framed out and pretty darn sturdy. ;) A lot of sanding for this part! |
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