Starting something new...

Thinking about trying to build another droid...  The print is kind of rough, but with enough sanding and bondo it could be good enough...

 

(02-07-2018) R2!

Here is R2 as he currently looks.  He's almost fully assembled - just a few things to do to the feet and legs, but otherwise he's almost done externally.  Internally, he has sound, lights and the ability to rotate his dome, but the foot drives still aren't finished.

Last August I spent a few weeks pushing to get him to look like a finished R2 and now he looks fantastic (IMHO).  One of these days I'll work on finishing the wiring and getting him where he can move about - but for now I'm very happy with just having him as he is.

I also have a Mouse droid in the works and started 3D printing a BB-8, but those will progress after R2 is mobile.

(6-15-2017) Long time since I updated...

I just looked at my blog and it had been over a year since it had been updated, but I have been working on R2.

First of all the skin frames front and rear have been powder coated - the next two images are of the skins just mounted onto the frame, but not glued together.

Then I worked on the rear door, put magnets to attach it to R2's frame and finished it out.  This is an image where the rear panels are being glued using some tape to hold them in place until they dried.

 Then I glued the rear skins together and added the door panels...  At this point the back side of R2 is done!

The next thing I wanted to do was finish the front skins, but I'm still waiting on some more parts (and there I thought I had everything I needed...) - so I put the front skins on hold and moved on to testing out the electronics that I built years ago...

The lights and sound work great, but the dome control wasn't working at all.  I tried to buy a new controller to see if that would fix the problem, but I couldn't find one - so I had to update my control system to something else...

This is a test with the new control system, using an XBox 360 controller, and it works great.  No lights in this video, but they work great.

Since this video I've also added a slip ring (used for things like steering wheel controls in cars) to allow power and signal to travel from the body to the dome.  This allows for the dome lights and accessories to be powered from the battery inside the body of R2.  It also makes it so that when I power up R2, the lights come on automatically, instead of having batteries inside the dome that had to be powered on separately.

I've also been working on the legs, the center leg/foot is ready, but the outer legs still need quite a bit of work before those are ready.  

And that's the status of R2 at the moment.  I'm sure there is more that I've done to him that can't think of at the moment, but he's a lot of fun to power him on and see him light up and make some noise.

(05-30-2016) Rear door

I finally cornered Jody and got him to cut the rear access door in the back skins for R2.  It's was a bit nerve wracking, but it's finally finished and it looks great!

This is with both back skins installed, but without the rear door.

And this will be the rear door for accessing batteries, electronics and other gadgets inside of R2.

Not sure what will happen next - painting the skins or mounting the hinges for the body doors.

(02/19/2016) - Powder coating continues...

This weekend I was able to powder coat the center foot, skirt and battery boxes.  I believe that all that remains to be powder coated are the skins now, but there is a lot of assembly and testing to do before those can be painted.  Things are moving along, and hopefully soon I'll have R2 finished.

(01/13/2016) Outer skins mounted

My friend Jody came over and helped drill the holes and counter sunk them on the outer skins.  I still need to file some spots, like around the coin slots for example, to allow things to fit better and I need to work on the body hinges as well, but I'm glad to see the skins on the frame.

The battery box issues that I had in the previous post have been dealt with and I just need to finish cleaning and painting them, as well as figure out a good way to mount them to the feet.

I *believe* that the battery boxes, skirt and skins/doors are all that remain to be powder coated.

(08-30-2015) Battery boxes and other R2 foot related stuff

R2 is still being worked on, but I ran into a bit of a problem with the battery boxes.  I was threading in a KHF (knurled hose fitting) that holds the battery cables on the feet when it suddenly seized and wouldn't turn any more.  I tried both ways, but it wouldn't come out, and in the end I destroyed the KHF and mangled the threads in the aluminum battery box as well.  This was a massive disappointment - but it will be fixed.

I'm now trying to find a tap that will fit the threads and re-cut them, but for now I'm in a holding pattern until I can find what I need to continue working on those.  The best news is that there is a current run of KHF on the Astromech.net site - so even though I destroyed one I was be able to buy some new ones and get the feet finished.  Usually the wait time for a part you need can take a year or more, so this was really very lucky.

I also disassembled a foot drive for test fitting and checking the mounting points to the feet.  I hope to sometime this week get the feet drilled, foot drives reassembled and mounted together - then I should be able to have R2 standing on his legs for the first time.

I've also worked on running air lines in the shop and hope to get my sandblasting cabinet installed soon so I can strip and repaint a few things that I wish had turned out better.

(08-19-2015) More foot stuff

Did a little bit more work on the outer feet by drilling and mounting the battery cable holders and plates, as well as painting the side plates of the feet.

The half-moons and battery boxes still need to be painted, and the foot drives are almost ready to be mounted as well.  Getting very close to having R2 on his feet.

(08-16-2015) Outer feet...

Today I took the steel outer feet and cleaned the cosmoline off of them with acetone so they would accept paint.

The paint flowed out very well and they look great for the most part.  There are a few spots that I wish had turned out better, but once R2 is done I doubt anyone will notice other than me.

(08-15-2015) Done with the blues

All of the blue for R2 is now painted and ready to go - it's been a long haul with lots of time spent sanding, masking and painting the parts - but the blues are finally finished.

Now to decide what to do next - feet, battery boxes, skins - so much to do and it's hard to know where to start.

(08-11-2015) Utility arms, large data port and more...

The utility arms and large data port are now painted and I started masking painting the power couplers.  Still a ways to go on the blue parts - maybe one more evening of masking and painting will get it finished, and then again I may redo some parts again to get a better finish.

(07-30-2015) Gettin' the blues...

Tonight the side vents got stripped, sanded and repainted and while I was at it I painted the battery harnesses, octagon ports, pocket vents and the corners of the power couplers.

That leaves the centers of the power couplers, large data port, utility arms and the dome topper without paint.  I also may repaint the octagon ports, coin slots and the center vent surround - but I'll have to look at them close before I make up my mind.  Painting all of the blue parts is very close to being finished, finally.

(07-29-2015) Side vent painting - FAIL

I painted the side vents for R2 this evening, and while they look okay - the finish doesn't match the rest of what I've done on R2 so I'm going to strip the paint and do it again.  The inner plates have a glass-bead beat finish that just doesn't work for me.  I'll strip and sand them to make them match the rest of the panels next chance I get.  I'm trying to push and finish up painting most of blue parts that remain for R2 in the near future.

(07-26-2015) Center ankle finished

Today the center ankle is now finished.  It took forever to get the ankle cylinders mounted, but they're on and now it's time to start working on the feet. *whew*

(07-25-2015) Ankle cylinders finished

Finally, all of the upper legs are painted and ready for final assembly.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I finished painting all four of the ankle cylinders, even though in this picture there are two still waiting power coating.

(07-11-2015) Outer ankles painted

Edit:  Just noticed the ankle details are on backwards.  Don't put yours on like I did.  You'll notice as soon as you start fitting the ankle cylinders that something is wrong.

Tonight I was able to get the outer ankles painted and the ankle details installed.  The ankle bracelets and the leg struts aren't attached yet, just sitting there.  Also, the ankle cylinders and wedges aren't ready to be installed yet - but that will be coming soon.

Pro Tip: If you're going to powder coat your ankles - be sure to install the bushing AFTER you paint them.  The bushing has oil in it, and when you cook the paint on the ankle, then oil comes out of the bushing and make a big mess and shortens the life as well.  It's a lose-lose situation.

(07-11-2015) Booster covers finished, almost...

Today the painting of the booster covers is finished.    They're fully assembled, except for the leg strut (it's a silver cylindrical thing that goes in the middle of the booster covers (blue things on the legs).  I won't be able to fully mount those until the ankles are painted and mounted onto the legs.

I found the after painting and letting them cool, I was able to use an X-acto knife to clean up the masked edges for much nicer looking edges.  Not sure if I would do this on normal paint, but it looks great with powder coated paints.

(07-09-2015) Bushings and booster covers...

Today I tried out the press...  and it's AWESOME!  Five minutes and the bushings were pressed in and ready to go. 

I also sanded more on the booster cover, but I'm not happy with 2 areas that have some deeper scratches and so I will have to go back to a coarser sand paper and sand down those areas again.  It's getting close to being ready for paint, but not quite yet.

(07-07-2015) Pressing on...

Bought and (mostly) assembled a 10 ton press for pressing the bushing into the ankles, as well as for other uses in the shop.

I've also been sanding on the second booster cover and I'm now down with the hard sanding and getting the booster cover flattened out (60 and 100 grit), so now it's on to 220 and 400 sanding.

(07-03-2015) Fist booster cover is painted

After hours and hours of prep work - sanding with 100 until flat, then 220 and finally 400 to get a nice brushed metal appearance.  The paint isn't perfect, but I think it looks really good.  Now to do it all again for the other leg.