Xan_Dewaegemaker Thanks, I need to take a look at the guitar angle too then. I don’t have a manual or anything so I’ve been doing everything by guess. Maybe I have my plumbing connected wrong. I will be sure to make a video as I fix or adjust things 👍
That's looking great! Although I think the actuator for his head tilt might need to be worked on since Billy Bob's head is normally not tilted at the slightest in default when he's aired up.
I was a little surprised when I saw that you just got a new cylinder as I thought that you were going to keep it as original as possible. Is that a common enough cylinder to order? He still seems to move really good after all these years! Cheers, Joe
My Life In Collecting Yeah the company who makes the cylinders is out of business but I was able to get the same exact cylinder make and model basically old new stock to replace. So it’s still a vintage cylinder but not used. Yeah these robots were designed to industrial standards. They were made to withstand running 15 minute shows throughout a 12 hour showbiz pizza store being open. They are very well built. He does move nicely. I’ve been adjusting the amount of air that flows to the cylinders to give him smooth fluid movements as well. Like I said I’m having a great time working on him. It’s very satisfying 👍
Start To Continue Agreed. When you order the part they refer to it as a U-cup, but the CAD drawing shows it as a V shape inside. Also when you look at it , it’s a V to my eyes. Yeah this restoration is super fun and relaxing to me. I’m trying to keep the videos short too so that if someone is restoring their own Billy Bob character they can just refer back to each segment instead of fast forwarding through to find the repair they need. 👍
This is really neat! Do you have any advice on how to repair old animatronics in general? Did you look at old service guides or something or did you just kinda experiment? Or just prior experience with pneumatics?
Good question. My character didn’t come with a valve.bank so all the hoses were cut. I don’t have a service manual, but I’m fairly good at taking things apart and putting them back together. I learned a lot on how the valves and flow controls work as I had to plumb it all from scratch. I don’t have any specific advise, but If you’re the type of person to take things apart and can put them back together, I’m sure you will be fine with restoring a character. The more you work on a character the more you will learn and can apply it to any pneumatic animatronic as the basic principles are there. Aside from pneumatics, I also learned how latex works and how to repair cracks in masks. Along with that teaching myself on how to use an airbrush. All in all it’s fun to step away from our screens and learn mechanics to fix real world objects. 👍
I appreciate the response! I loved to dismantle and rebuild stuff as a kid and still do (done a little bit of transformers customization and modification actually)
The Crabby Archives Very cool. Yep I’m a Transformers fan too. I have a Rockafire playlist with all the Billy Bob restoration series videos, if you wanted to see my progression from start to almost being finished. Still have a decent amount of work to do before he performs a song. 👍
Lotus Stark ok thanks I’ve been looking for a character for what seems like 10 years so i always like seeing these videos and getting info on replacement parts for if I ever get one.
what type of actuator did you use to replace the old one can u leave a link so I can buy it myself and if anyone knows where I can get cheap actuators let me know
The pneumatic cylinder is from a company called Chicago air. Unfortunately it went out of business so I had to look around on eBay. I would recommend measuring your old cylinder stroke and bore then calling Clippard who is still in business and can match to the specs you need. Also Bimba is another company who makes pneumatic cylinders.
Google U cup seals. McMaster-carr will pop up. You can use a micrometer to measure the inner outer diameter of the seal you need to replace. McMaster-carr shows all the specs for each seal. 👍
