(06-17-2012) Working on the rockler bearing

On Father's Day, I worked on the rockler bearing.  I took all of the original ball bearings out and cleaned the races with alcohol.  The races were smooth for the most part, but there were a couple of spots where it seemed very rough.  I took some 360 grit sand paper and sanded the entire inner and outer races so that they were very smooth, then I used some mothers aluminum polish and gave them a quick smoothing and cleaning and then I reassembled everything, but this time I installed acetal ball bearings.  The bearing assembly moves much smoother, but it's also much noisier because of the lack of the heavy grease used in the bearing from the factory.  I think I will work on it more this week to get a smoother and quieter motion from the bearing.

I also worked on getting the pieces of the dome mount all assembled and tested.   I tested the rockler bearing with the A&A drive gear, the white plastic dome mount ring and an aluminum dome mounting plate (for the day when I might mount a life form scanner or periscope).  I'm still not exactly sure if I'm getting all of the pieces in the right order, so I'll keep researching until I get it right.

(06-09-2012) A small update

It's been quite a while since I've had an update on R2.  I've been getting parts as I can, the biggest change recently have been the addition of legs.  As each piece of the puzzle arrives R2 becomes more and more complete, but it's a slow process.  I have a few projects (not R2 related) going at the moment, but I hope to have some time to devote to working on R2 very soon.

(04-15-2012) A little update on R2

The past few weeks I've been working on R2 when time allows. The lights have been completed (video) and the exterior dome is being sanded currently - slowly but surely. Last night my son and I wanted to see how R2's body is coming along, so I popped out the body panels and fitted what body pieces I have at the current time to see how it looks. Nothing is mounted, except for the large data port, but it's encouraging to see R2 taking shape to some small degree.

(03-08-2012) The needle files...

I spent some time with some "jumbo needle files" and the dome this evening. Everywhere a panel was cut on the outer dome created a small lip on the inside of the outer dome. I used the needle files to file down the inner edge of all of the panels at a 45 degree angle. The result is a very nice fit of the outer dome to the inner dome, especially at the top pie panel area. The bottom of the outer dome seems a bit stretched, but maybe it's fixable by slightly bending the bottom frame of the outer dome, or if that doesn't work the old "duct tape" trick may need to be employed. I'm very happy with the fit now. Marking and cutting the inner dome are next. I'm very nervous about cutting it up.

A little video of the lights in action

(03-04-2012) Teeces Lighting is 90% done

Today I was able to finished soldering up the all of the boards, except for the remaining LED's - those will need to be soldered in a checkerboard pattern to go with Milkbone's alterations to do the "slide" effect. Joymonkey's kit is super easy to put together, and it has great printed instructions as well as videos to help in assembly.

(03-03-2012) Rear Logic Board is done

Today the rear logic board is done, tested and working well. The only problem I had was several green LEDs in backwards, and they stayed lit all the time instead of flashing. It took a while to use solder braid and remove the offending LEDs, but it was very fun to build. Looking forward to finishing up the lights in the next week or so. I also want to make the PSI changes M1lkbone made to give it a more correct look.