1

Here you can see the grooves for the 1/8 steel rod that will be used to hinge the door. I clamped the door in place with two pieces of styrene on the top, bottom and the two sides, this was so I could keep the door the proper distance from all four sides of the door opening. The two pices of plastic would represent the styrene that will later be glued to both the door and the door frame.

After clamping the door in I ran my Rotozip along a clamped guide so I could groove both the door and frame at the same time.

3

After I was satisfied with the way the door was hinged I styrened the inside of the door frame.

5

I used a two part resin epoxy to glue the rods into the grooves on the door. After that I glued styrene on all six sides of the door and sanded.

7

Then I epoxied styrene to the front, I added some white grease to the hinge grooves before attaching the plastic. Clamp it, tape it and take a break.

9

and done.

I covered all of the front surfaces with styrene including the horizontal panels. I used a 2 part resin epoxy for this it is very smooth and has a working time of 20 minutes,I used it to fill the seams on the tread sections it dries rock hard and can be sanded easily.

P.S I got it at Home Depot it's made by the GOOP folks.

I added a bead of wood glue here. Once the tread is textured and painted it made it look like a weld.

I thought that was cool.

2

Heres the door being test fitted into the opening. I just taped the steel rods in place for this.

4

If you choose to make a soil sampler door like this it is important to remember to build it in a certain order. As you can see here I needed to prime and texture the door frame before I could install the door and the styrene for the front of this tread section that will lock the hinges in place.

6

Here is the door being test fitted, First I have to prime and texture it.

8

Hooray, done, done

10

Heres the under side of the right tread box. I wood glued two wood braces for the styrene to be epoxied to once it was wrapped around the toe. You can see the wood under the plastic on the back toe in this picture.



Also I'm making the tread wheels out of abs pipe and plexi that I cut into discs, they're being test fitted here. I figured I could save some dough making them this way, plus my tread section will not be motorized so I don't need anything heavy duty.

One thing I added to my treads was an extra piece of styrene running down the legnth of the side. See the next picture for how to finish it.

If you add the styrene down the edge you'll need to sand it so it so it blends smoothly into the curve of the side panel making the edge seamless.

Just another side blended