On goes the Shell ...

The other night I worked on the shell. Elon and I did some cardboard mock ups. He helped me measure with "stretch" as he calls it from the tv show Handy manny. I heard today he told his preschool teacher about how he and his dad are building a food computer. I must say, these are the types of memories I hope he retains when he is all grown up.

I measured out the dimensions and marked the insulation using a sharpie. I also noted which side was up and down as I didnt want to make a wrong measurement. Which happened once or twice with the cardboard mock ups that Elon and I started with.

 Once the pieces were cut, I mocked them up to check the fit. The next part I would say was pretty difficult given the puny hot glue gun. You really need a glue gun that can squeeze out quickly giving you enough time to place the panels together before the glue cools. I fumbled through it and got to taping the seems with foil tape.

 Once foiled and glued, I spent some time on the motherboard panel. I do not own a hole saw, and didnt want to spend the extra 30-40$ to buy one. So out comes the dremel and the circle cutting jig. You get one shot at it, sometimes my holes were not just right, but they are close enough.

 With the holes cut out, I checked the fit. I used the dremel circle jig on the heater project box as well.

 Next, I mounted the fans and louvers. It turn out I ordered the wrong fans. But hey they sure look cool. Hopefully amazon will correct my mistake soon.

Tomorrow, Elon and I will head to home depot and get some more supplies. I ordered some lexan on amazon that was 24in x 24 in, as this is not a standard size at home depot. To keep the cost lower I decided not to buy the full sheet at 100$ and this will allow me to see the motherboard panel. The 24x24 lexan should be large enough to cover the window area with some magnets that I purchased on ebay.

On another note the wife acceptance factor (WAF) is increasing. I think the whole family will be catching the Food Computer bug shortly.

Still waiting on some important components to arrive.... Grove Shield, Grove Cables, Temperature and Light sensors.