Bender rides again!

This time we went out to a friend's big BBQ.  His tummy was filled with Bender's Blonde Ale and he was empty before he knew what hit him.

I'm wearing my black denim Utilikilt here, the official man skirt of Man Skirt Brewing Co!

Bender's Day Out!

Took Bender to Gamesphere this weekend, his belly full of Bender's Best Bitter.  I loaded him up in the car and got ready to roll.  Think I can get into the carpool lane?

After carrying him down to the basement, we set him up in the corner.  He had his very own cup, which he used to catch drips from his cigar.

He was a huge hit at the party!  Everyone was very amused to be drinking beer from Bender's head.  The beer itself was a big hit too, giving Man Skirt Brewing Co. a little publicity.

No build progress...

But some interesting news.  Bender has become the official kegerator of Gamesphere, a friend's local computer gaming event.  He will be filled with Man Skirt Brewing Co.'s clone of Ruddles County ESB.

Also we have been linked over at Fatty Matty Brewing.  Check him out for some great brewing links!

Now with more beer flavor

Bender's cigar needed a band to be complete.  I thought the Man Skirt Brewing Co. logo would be appropriate.

The finished product will be in full color, but I'm quite happy with how the test print came out.

Maybe a little larger-than-life, but hey, he's a beer dispensing robot from the future.

Give that robot a cigar!

While the PVC cigar was pretty nice, I couldn't come up with a good way to mount it to Bender's face.  Then, again in my pile of junk, I found a set of extendible aluminum legs originally from a set of Rock Band drums.  These would be perfect!  I took apart the plastic clamp part and modified and shortened them to fit properly on Bender's mouth.  I later painted them white to blend in.

You can see here how the plastic clamp passes through Bender's mouth and is secured with the locking ring on the outside.  The cigar is held in place with a locking cam lever.

Quite the smile, yes?  Looks creepy without eyes...

Here's the final cigar.  I built up the shape of the cigar with electrical tape, making a bulge in the middle.  I painted the end red and covered the body with brown fabric tape to make it look like a cigar.  I took apart the picnic tap and painted the parts grey so they would look like the ask on the end of the cigar and perhaps a wisp of smoke.

And here's what he looks like today!  Next up is working on the arms and hands.

Cigar idea, part deux

So that was the first few incarnations of the cigar + faucet dispensing method: the faucet has a hose attached that runs through the cigar and comes out the tip.  Not really the best idea for many reasons.

Finally my brain started working and I installed a picnic tap right in the end of the cigar.  This puts the valve right at the point the beer is being dispensed and has the benefit of being super-simple.  Oh, and it works.

I used some foam to hold everything in place.

The new and improved Bender cigar!  Notice I've swapped out the PVC pipe eyes for something a little more Bender-esque.

Braaaaaaaaaains...

Well, brain surgery at least.  Since the electrical version didn't work, we're going back to mechanical beer dispensing methods.  Here I'm attempting to make Bender's antenna function like a tap handle.  This requires some linkage to get down to the lower head where the beer tap lives.  I made up a home made brain auger for the job.

Here is the antenna in the normal position...

And the GIVE ME BEER position.

I made the whole beer dispensing apparatus as a slide-out unit for ease of maintenence and cleaning.  It lives inside a piece of PVC pipe.

The fairly complicated and ineffective first try at linkage.  A cable ran over a pulley and activated the lever.

A later incarnation used a much simpler design, with a steel rod pulling on the lever attached to the tap.  It turns out this didn't work very well, either. On to plan C!

You can see the hinge and magnetic latch I added to Bender's mouth so it swings open to give me access to his noggin.