Not the most substantial update but I wanted to share my top cap solution for the winch in place pulley. In this photo, you can see that I cut out a small piece of the clear plastic from strawberry container into a little square and poked a hole in it with sewing needle then pressed it onto the tack firmly till the tack jutted out a bit like 1mm. Then I glued the tack to the top cap with 401 glue. This keeps the pulley from coming off the winch when the motor is upside down which it is now.

Another small update is I just ordered some plastisol to experiment with for robot skin making or even other parts of the robot like the artificial lungs or even ligaments perhaps. I ordered the hard and the soft versions which you can mix together to get medium variants. This is the stuff used to make fishing lures but the harder formulations make pvc medical skeletons. It is a thermal plastic so its like TPU but unlike TPU, not so fussy since you can microwave it for 3 minutes and use it - much easier and lower fumes. You can reuse it too by just microwaving it again. So that's a improvement over silicone. The worm fishing lures are quite durable. It comes in clear and you add pigment. I plan to add acrylic paint and may switch to dies or lacquer paints to see what works. I think using this as skin is being slept on. It seems like it could have huge potential. You can shoot it into a mold or apply it over a 3d model by spray or brush or knife application methods. Then peel off and use. I love that it can cure instantly in theory if you spray the hot surface of it with upside down compressed duster can - this is how I get hot glue to insta cure. A instant cure is amazing for fast results. I like super glue/401 glue because it insta cures with accelerator spray. Anything with no wait time for curing speeds up workflow and enables me to move quicker in getting steps done. This would make it superior to silicone due to no wait times. A power mesh backing fabric will give it the rip resistance it needs just like silicone mask makers use.