Front & Rear Logic Cutouts:

Trying to carry on with the momentum of cutting holes into my inner dome, I thought I'd cut out the openings for the front and rear logics. I used a diamond cut off wheel with my Dremel tool and hoped for a steady hand. Check back soon to see pictures of these openings filed and finished. Also, a quick update: My dome panels have been filed, sanded and prepped for painting and are currently out for painting. I even sprung for the proper R2 Blue mix from House of Kolor. Since my painting skills are a little lacking, I decided to use a professional. I'll post pictures as soon as I have them back.

Filing, Sanding and More Filing:

The hole left by the hole saw is a little rough...so my son, Nathaniel helped me file down the edges with a small metal file, then a coarse emery board and finally some 400 grit sandpaper. The edges are nice and smooth and ready to drill the mounting holes for the holo-projector cowling.

More Dome Work:

I decided to mount the HDP ring that comes with the 300mm dome to the inner dome. First, I drew a pencil line around the base of the inner dome at the height of the plastic ring. Then I marked drill holes every few inches in the middle of the ring. I then counter sunk all the holes with a counter sink bit and attached the ring inside the inner dome. I bought new screws since the ones supplied with the dome require a Torx screwdriver, that I didn't have, so I picked up the same size screws with a Philips head instead. Once the base ring was mounted, I got to work tracing all the panel lines onto the inner dome, using the outer dome as a template. Now came the part that had me a little nervous....cutting holes into the inner dome! I broke out my trusty 2 1/2 inch hole saw and drilled a pilot hole into the upper pie panel to create an opening for the top holo-projector.




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Dome Work:

I finally decided it was time to work on my 300 mm dome. Cole and Daren did a great job on these and even though they come laser cut, there is still a fair bit of cutting and de-burring of each panel. I started by labeling each panel, hopefully making reassembly easier. I cut out each panel with a small hack saw. Then used a small metal file to smooth down all the tabs left by the laser cutter. I then used a small emery board to smooth out all the edges of the panels and the corresponding cut outs on the dome. I also wanted to smooth out the spin lines left by the tooling machine, so I used my trusty mouse sander and sanded down the dome. Staring with 80 grit paper, I moved down to 120, then 220 grit. I'll finish off with medium and fine steel wool to hopefully get an even mat finish. Notice the switches I picked up from Allelectronics for use as my dome bumps. I think they look great. Not sure yet if I will actually have them control anything yet. Once the panels are all prepped, I can move on to priming and painting.