R2 Builders Club Mega RSS Feed

J2 Featured on icanhasforce.com (Ray's R2-J2)

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:16:13 +0100

Leg to Ankle Upgrade (Dan's Got Astromech Blog)

Samurai — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:13:00 +0100

Well the leg to ankle upgrade is complete, well sort of. I plan on adding a 1/8" plate that will run all the way down the ankle to the axle, but for now there are just some nuts JB Welded to the ankle. i used Grade 8 bolts to ensure that they would not shear and drilled out the ankles and legs to fit the new bolts.

I JB Welded nuts to the plate inside the ankle to give the bolts something to screw into. As mention before, one set of nuts is there until I create the 1/8" plate. Right now they only keep the leg in place.

I got some 1/4" aluminum plates and drilled them so they will fit between the leg and ankle and keep the correct spacing on the bracelet.

All Assembled

Finished Gluing Side Support pieces for Skirt (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:20:00 +0100

If you thought I barely did anything yesterday, today I managed to do even less.

I finished gluing the side support pieces together. Only the right post remained to be glued for each side.

Here's a loose-fit. The four pieces that form the box have not been glued down yet. I think I will first use Evercoat to smooth over the edges on the base plate. I also want to chop a little more material off of the corners of the box, to allow extra room for the curved styrene pieces to sit snug on the baseplate without running into the box corners.

Frames Finished...sort of (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:11:00 +0100

Jayson and me have been putting it off for a while but last night we finished our frames
We made the notch for the coin slot
Cut the 5 inch strait lines on the bottom
and cut the skirt holes as well
Later we need to sand the outside diamiter just a hair because no amount of stretching the skins will fill this gap.
I'm beat, we are done for the night.

Dome Stuff (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:33:00 +0100

My Picaxe boards came in yesterday along with the resistor pack chip to make servos work. I changed out the chip and cut the resistor to seperate power. My actual PicAxe 18x chips will be here today.
Changing chips....
On my dome I filed the rear display to the right size and JB welded in some 4-40 bolts to hold everything together.
Next I traced out the hole for the rear PSI
I taped of the dome to protect it and drilled out the rough shape of the hole.
Then I filed the hole up to the pen line...
and then took off the burs with a smaller file.
I THen Taped off the dome to keep overspray off of it
I then primed, wet sanded, and painted the area.
I took off the tape and paper and set it aside to dry. Today is Wednesday so hopefully it is cured enough by Saturday.

Dome Servo Power Upgrade (Chris - ARTOO-DETOO.NET)

Chris James — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:00:28 +0100

At the recent Clone Wars events it became clear that the little Power Distribution Board that was supplying power to the dome servos wasn’t going to cut it. It would work for a while, but the onboard 7806 regulator would soon overheated and shut down to protect itself.

I’m not surprised, I currently have 8 servos in the dome, 4 for the pie panels, one for the front Holoprojector, one for a side panel, and two for the periscope - with more to be added. Idle, each requires around 8-10mA, but when active they can easily require an Amp or more under heavy load, which can add up fast when you have a few things going at once.

Space is tight on the power board so it’s hard to add decent heat sinks, and even if I could I wasn’t convinced that the single 7805/ 7806 (which can deliver a maximum of 1Amp) was up to powering all the servos from one IC.

One of the problems with servos is that they can sometimes stick and not return to neutral fully, and will continue to draw more power than necessary. Anyone who’s played with servos will know that if they’re even slightly misaligned or put under stress in the neutral position will cause them to hum (which means they’re drawing more than the normal 8-10mA). I’m pretty sure that’s what happens on some of my dome servos, but not all the time. It’s virtually impossible to adjust them all to be perfect, especially as things can move or shake in a fast spinning dome.

The dome is fed by a 12VDC supply coming up thru the slip ring, and servo/signals are connected to a custom board at each end of the slip ring. The 12VDC routes to the power distribution board in the dome that then re-creates the various voltages I need, from 5VDC all the way to 24VDC.

The solution to the servo power/overheating problem is to use a better DC regulator to replace the 7806, but I had a bunch of events coming up fast, was short on time and resource, and basically needed to fix the problem overnight.

So I create a simple power board with parts I had on hand, including three 7805 regulators which would power only 4 servos each, plus I added a big heat sinks on each one and a fan to help keep them cool.

Here’s the board coupled with the original servo board. It’s somewhat clunky and I will replace it at some point with a more streamlined solution and a single better regulator, but for now it worked fine to get me thru the events.

If you’re interested in makng your own servo power supply or even a fully blown Power Distrubution Board, it can be done for not much money. 7805 regulators are easy to find, most surplus stores carry them for around 50c, or at a pinch you can pick them up at RadioShack for under $2. Versions that can deliver higher loads are also available, but can be harder to find or sometimes a lot more expensive.

Google on “7805 circuit” or “7805 power supply” you will find dozens of examples of simple circuits to make your own boards. Here’s a good example.

The regulators also come in 6, 8, 9 and 12V varieties. So as I said you could make a distribution board for not much money if you’re up to the challenge.

I also have to stress again that I’m not an electronics expert. Please double check anything before trying to copy me. In this case there are definitely better was to ‘fix’ this problem.

Related:

Started Gluing Skirt Supports (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:43:00 +0100

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've been busy with out-of-town relatives and other stuff.

My workbench gave out, and I had to buy a new one.

I was going to go another day with nothing to show for myself, but I figured I could at least start gluing the internal supports for the skirt.

These supports will stand upright. Wood screws come down from the frame above, and screw the "crossbar" areas into the bottom of the frame, lifting the top of the skirt flush up against the bottom of the frame.

Most of the support pieces have been glued together, just the right supports for the left and right sides remain to be glued.

See More Skirt Gluing for the big picture of how everything will fit together.

Motor Mount Work_Set Ups (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:40:00 +0100

Here is how much "stuff" goes into a set up to drill a hole. Looks like it's on freakin' life support! I need to hold that darn thing still AND hold the channel rail solid while I drill the first hole. Then I stick a bolt into the hole to hold the rail position and continuing along and drill the other holes. Continuing to drop in a bolt in each hole to keep things aligned. This is a technique airplane builders use while riveting. Keeps the sheet metal from creeping along and the holes aligned.
Close up of the set up. See the bolt head in the first hole on the right? I have just drilled the second hole.

R2ing and Star Wars Miniatures (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:07:00 +0100

Last week was the release of the new Star Wars Miniatures set called "KOTOR" and most of us builders are also avid fans of the game so we decided to have a build/Booster opening party.
Notice Patches looking at the 6 and a half cases of boosters. Jason and James and I got most of the pieces we wanted. After opening boosters and checking out Denny's new Scout trooper helmet from episode 3 and stuffing ourselves with pizza we helped Clay build some new motor holders with my old motors and wheels. His old power wheel set up was to loud.
It is not a fancy A&A set up but it works just as good and now his R2 is nice and quiet.
I also made a new aluminum mounting bracket for my dome motor and put some traction tape on the lazy susan. Now no more squeaks or hang ups :)
You can also see my temporary fire extinguisher.
Patches extinguisher will eventually be in the dome some day.

More Dremel Tool Work (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:18:00 +0100

Next, I used a diamond cutting disc in my Dremel tool to cut through the holes I drilled earlier. The drilled holes help alot with guiding my disc and helped me keep the Dremel steady so it did not not run off on me. Once this is done, you should have four "pie panels" and you should be able to CAREFULLY bend each panel back and forth until they release from the dome.

Here is a photo of the "pie pieces" being pushed out.

Here is a picture of the hole after the cut panels have been removed

Drilling With My Dremel (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:54:00 +0100

In this step, I took my Dremel tool and a drill bit and drilled small holes around the perimeter of each area to be cut out. You must be steady in this procedure so that you do not drill outside the lines or allow the drill to run off along your expensive dome...OUCH!

For the circular panels, I also drilled holes in a "X" pattern through the area. See picture below.

A Photo of the Inner Dome After Removing the Outer Dome (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:52:00 +0100

Cutting the Inner Dome (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:11:00 +0100

To prepare the dome properly, you first need to determine which electronics you want to install. The main electronics that need to be installed on a simple R2 unit is the logic display lights (front and rear), the three holoprojectors (one on each front, back and top), the PSI lights (front and back) and the mood light which is located on the left side of the dome. These are the only electronics in which I am installing. Veteran and Master builders can install way more sophisticated electronics such as opening pie panels, body panels, etc...etc... Check out some of the direct links on the home page to check other builder's progress and ideas.

First, I had a fellow builder named Glenn Pipe help me place the outer dome perfectly on center of the inner dome, we then added painter's tape to hold it in place. Then, we took a fine tipped Sharpie permanant marker and "stenciled" in all the dome panels onto the solid inner dome before removing the tape and outer dome.

Guessing Game (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:07:00 +0100

Can you guess what this is and what it will be used for?
Answers in the next post.

Small Door Update (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:05:00 +0100

Just a quick pic of the rear door sides painted.
I was'nt trying to hide the magnets, Just clean up the jambs.

VEX RC Controller Decoded (Chris - ARTOO-DETOO.NET)

Chris James — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:03:02 +0100

Just read this really cool blog post on decoding the VEX RC signal for use on Arduino or similarly cheap micro-controllers.

Check it out. Looks very straightforward and is probably very similar to what Scott is doing on the Jedi system to decode the signal.

But for those on a budget and want to try their own hand at connecting the VexTX/RX to a microcontroller without having to hope thru an intermediate RX this could be a good solution.

From the post:

The nice this about this, is that all of the channels are on a single line. This makes it very easy to interface with a microprocessor. A quick review of the PPM format:

20 ms total before repeat.

Each channel is sent as a high signal followed by a 1 ms low. The width of the high signal determines the value sent. A zeroed channel has a width of 1ms. A full positive channel is 1.5ms and a full negative channel is 0.5 ms.

On the Vex there are six channel (The six peaks that you see) for a total of about 12ms buffered by approximately 8 ms.

To interface with a microprocessor, simply plug the output of the receiver into your microprocessor. Send 5V to Vdd and Ground to Vss. Tie the output of the receiver to 5V over about a 10K resistor. Start measuring pulses on that channel. If you measure at least a 6ms low(The buffer) start recording pulses. (These are your data pulses.) Record all six channels and then decode the length of each pulse.

Update: I just got a message from fellow builder Jamie who has also worked on something similar. Here’s a thread over on the Arduino forum.

Just Thinking (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:39:00 +0100

I plan to weather my R2 and I noticed when I sanded the rear door
in the cracks around the panels it got a off white look and the
actual part that the sand paper did hit, It got a brighter white.
So what I'm thinking is to sand the entire body to match the rear door
then do the weathering.
After the weathering is done it should add a nice effect around the panels
and really look more authentic.
I don't plan to go extreme with the weathering, Just enough to give
it some character and the panels will be more noticeable in the sunlight.
R2 in the Empire Strikes Back is the model I'm using and the weathering
was mild in most of the movie.

Parade and Movie pictures (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:05:00 +0100

Not much to report build wise this weekend but here are a few pictures of a parade and some other theater pics.

Over 20,000 Served (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:56:00 +0100

Today we went over the 20,000 visitor mark here at http://vfranco.blogspot.com. Wow, that's a lot of visitors!

Congratulations to our visitor from Houston, who wins... the satisfaction of being the 20,000th visitor.

It took 1 year, 10 months and 24 days to get to the 10,000 visitor mark. (Oddly enough, that's almost exactly the amount of time it took me to build droid #1.) It only took an additional 1 year and 17 days to reach the 20,000 visitor mark, which translates to an acceleration of around 80%. I'd say that's an indication of how much the R2 Builders Club has grown. Working against the visitor count is the fact that the entire building diary for droid #1 is available for download, so that greatly reduces the need to visit this blog for information on droid #1.

At any rate, I'm very happy and grateful to have so many people visiting, and I hope this blog remains a useful source of information.

Happy Building!

-Victor

Motor Mounts_continued (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:02:00 +0100

Here is a shot of the motor mount with the channel I made up from scrap left over from the mount box. The aluminum channel on top slips up into the foot shell. The foot shell has its own plastic channel inside, just visible in the photo.
The fit came out really nice. The motor mount just slips over the foot shell channel and locks itself in position front & back.
Note the little cutoffs at each end of the channel. They fit right up against the inside of the foot shell. I got this to fit so nice because first I made a cardboard template. just traced it on the metal and cut.

Below is a shot showing the complete motor mount bolted up and ready for motor & wheel.
What's that plate sticking out the side you ask?

That plate is supposed to support the block under the ankle. These foot shells are plastic, and if anything leans on them they would split at the seams. This plate will take the weight of a support block mounted under the ankle that should keep the feet from going pigeon toed.
It will also keep the foot from tilting as it will have a 1/8" Dia. screw going through it and through the ankle near the pivot hole. This second hole will lock the foot into its horizontal position as it stands up on one wheel.
I posted a detail drawing here. The gray area is this plate.
http://russellr2d2.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

Door Rework (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:25:00 +0100

The signatures are gone ;o(
I sanded the paint on the outside of the door getting it ready for
a new coat.
I also put some Bondo around the magnets for a smoother finish.
Once the rain stops, I'll repaint and put the power coupler in place.
On the inside I plan to cover the frame with Styrene and this will give me
a nice panel for signatures again.

Side Vents (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:02:00 +0100

I decided to make my own side vents for R2 from scratch. I used the tutorial in Astromech.net's files to make it. Although I am a rookie builder, I don't believe that this is too terrible of a job. In fact, I'm quite pleased with the outcome. This is a photo of the side vent after I finished building it. One down...One to go...

This is the side vent after I painted it.

Reese and R2 (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:00:00 +0100

Helping Hands (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:58:00 +0100

Helping Hands (Gary's R2 Blog)

Gary Stover — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:55:00 +0100

Clone Wars event (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:44:00 +0100

The R2-central builders went to another opening at the 20 Grand last week. R2-CM meet his first clone trooper and so did I. Very cool!
The theater had steady flow of people so not too many photos but here is one more of half the group.

The Big Day (Matt's R2 Blog)

Matt McCormick — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:38:00 +0100

It's a very important day in every boy's life when he gets his dome:

Lots of work to be done on it. I'm starting to review everyone's blogs about the steps they went through preparing their domes.

MM

Extra Skirt for Sale (Matt's R2 Blog)

Matt McCormick — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:20:00 +0100

When I was building my skirt, I ended up cutting two bases. So I took a bit of time recently and got the second one finished up. Full disclosure: the full length of the piece is about 1/4" short from the specifications. But everything else fits fine. I'll sell it for $90, plus shipping. It's made of MDF. It's been sanded thoroughly and touched up. It should be very close being paintable. I can cut the center square out according to the plans for a retractable middle leg if you want.

Barnes and Noble Clone Wars Event (Army Scout's R2 Blog)

Army Scout — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:18:00 +0100

R2 was invited to join the 501st and Rebel Legion at a local Barnes and Noble for a Clone Wars Event. Got to hang out with all the shoppers.

My youngest fan EVER!!!
Ops, not a fan....the smallest Stormtrooper EVER!!! (Hi Zoe!)
The Empire has failed.... this little girl was not scared of us at all!
All the troopers at the end of the day.
Overall great event! Thanks Victoria!

Battery Box Mod (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:57:00 +0100

I had to lower the battery box and drop the ankle mount lower in the frame.
I was planning to use 2- 12v. 12Ah batteries as my main power source.
But I found a set of 12v. 20Ah batteries that would almost double my power supply.
The pics show the difference where the box was mounted.
I need to make a mounting block to go down into the center ankle for a solid
mount for the ankle.
After I get past this part, I will finish the skirt and move on to the feet
and battery boxes. Once these items are complete, All I will have left is to
start wiring everything and hopefully be ready for the next MegaCon.

Clone Wars Weekend (Chris - ARTOO-DETOO.NET)

Chris James — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:15:25 +0100

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks getting Artoo ready for Clone Wars and attending 3 screening events. Started off with the pre-screening in San Francisco on Monday which was great, followed by the midnight opening on Thursday at the local Theater in San Bruno, then an all day event with the Rebel Legion and 501st down in San Jose for Saturday.

Thursday night was fun, but very quiet with not many people turning out for the midnight showing. Maybe 40 or 50 people tops. I guess the days of blockbusters are long gone

I did get to see the movie again, and enjoyed it just as much the second time around. The lip syncing still bugged the hell of of me though.

Saturday was a little busier, but not by much. The Rebel Legion were there in force and throughout the day one or two 501st members popped in and out.

The Rebel Legion did a great job organizing a raffle for each performance giving away t-shirts, figures and other prices to those in attendance.

More photos in the gallery

My 5 second review of the movie:

Lots of action.
Replacement voice actors did a great job.
To me, it’s clearly 3 TV episodes bolted together.
Considering it’s TV roots and budget the animation wasn’t bad - but not in the same league as Wall-E or even the much older Toy Story.
Somewhat weak plot - why they had to pick a Hutt story for the movie is beyond me.
The lip sync issue drove me nut.
Inconsistent style for the characters, e.g. Obi-Wan is blocky and jerky where as Asajj Ventress is almost life-like with smooth flowing animation.
What’s with the Ziro the Hutt speaking English?
Hated the new nicknames banded around, from “Stinky” to “Artoo-ee”. I guess little kids will love it.

Having said all that, I enjoyed it, really looking forward to the weekly TV show. Overall rating a B-.

Couple of technical highlights from the weekend:

When I switched to the Futaba, I replaced the original 600 mHa NiCad battery pack with a 2,100 mHa NiMH. Runtime went from just a few hours to over 11 hours. More than enough for a days outing.
Periscope worked great with a few minor problems.
With so many servos in the dome (8 at the last count), the little 7805 5VDC regulator IC on the power distribution board wasn’t up for the job (it can only deliver 1A at most). It would quickly overheat and shutdown stopping all servos in their tracks, so I had to quickly make a new beefed up power supply on Friday night.
The new CTEC keycoder worked out great. I can’t see how I used Artoo without it.

Motor mount boxes finished...whew! (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:45:00 +0100

Amid all the hoopla about blades I installed a steel blade with carbide tips and used it to make two simple cuts down the sides of the last aluminum box. I only raised the blade 1/16' above the table and ran it on both sides. Then raised it another 1/16 and finished off the cuts. Totally smooth, no resistance at all... little chips of metal all over. Now It's done.

A pair of motor mounts below. They are twins, but they mirror each other so the motors stick out toward the curved side of the foot and into the battery boxes.
The result is that one motor is mounted backwards, but I am told this is not a problem. I did test run both motors and , one motor is much quieter than the other. One has a loud electric motor sound. I think it is the belt actually, but next time I take apart the motor mounts I will run the motors by themselves and see if it is the motor.

Magnets (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:17:00 +0100

If you can see it in the pic, I installed the magnets inside the rear skin opening.
They are hide from the outside view and they hold the door in place very well.
All I have to do is bring the door close to the opening and you can feel the magnets pull the door into the correct position.
Once the glue dries that's holding the magnets, I will finish the rear door and skin the inside with styrene for a smooth area for new signatures.

Business cards for DragonCon (Chris Lee's R2-G4 Blog)

Chris — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:18:00 +0100

Came up with this simple business card layout so I can have some cards to give away at DragonCon at the R2 Builders table. People always ask for them.

The background image is one of when R2-G4 was completely disassembled and spread out on the work table.

Table saw...questions/answers/more questions (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:06:00 +0100

Well after getting warned about using a "cut off blade" in my table saw I removed the blade. After getting it out I read the label again. It says its rated for 9450 rpm and made for a circular saw application.

Well, my table saw runs at 5000 rpm max, so it looks as if this blade would be much less stressed than it's capable of. Also, the label shows it is made for a circular saw application. Turns out its not a "chop saw" blade at all.

Any one who know about such things care to leave a comment about using this blade on a table saw. And cutting metal in general on a table saw? A big "toothey" saw blade for metal just seems wrong...wouldn't a grinding wheel type blade be better solution for metals?

I see a machine shop next door to where I work, I'm going to ask them about this particular blade and it's use.

Evercoat Glazing Putty for Center Leg (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:02:00 +0100

I'm running out of excuses for not working on droid #2, so tonight I gave in and did a little work on the center leg.

I whipped up a batch of Evercoat Glazing Putty to smooth over the small bumps and grooves in the center leg. Evercoat is similar to Bondo, but it sands to a smoother finish.

Evercoat sets very fast. In 3-4 minutes it starts to harden, and within 15 minutes it's sandable.

I sanded the top and "nose" of the leg, but I stopped after a while, because sanding kicks up a very fine powdered dust, which is not good in a garage environment. I think I'm going to have to wait until I can do this outdoors, and probably while wearing a mask.

I'm happy with the results of the sanded areas, but I need to be careful to apply the Evercoat more evenly.

Clone Wars Movie Event (Army Scout's R2 Blog)

Army Scout — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:41:00 +0100

The 501st was asked to join the Regal Entertainment Group to help promote the release of the Clone Wars movie. So I took A1 the the theaters in Newport Beach, Ca and we had a great time.
We invaded the local MacDonalds for new Clone Wars toys....
Mingled with the crowd outside the theaters....
Posed with the boss!
And the three stooges (Me, Victor and Vince) pose with our works of art.

Painting 102 (Dan's Got Astromech Blog)

Samurai — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:59:00 +0100

No real pictures of this... not very interesting. All leg pieces have been masked and primed.

Rear Door Magnets (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:21:00 +0100

I started working on the back door again and glue the Magnets in place.
The inner frame I installed on my rear skins also have hidden magnets,
So as the door comes into position the magnets will hold it in place.
My rear door has really gone downhill since I 1st painted it and the signatures
I have on the outside will be lost due to the need of repainting the door.
I hate to loose them, But the door looks terrible.

Big Update (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:31:00 +0100

First I started out by widening my holes for my dome bumps. I want then flush to the inner dome.

I then sanded all the JB weld and edges of cut lines so everything is flush.

I put the two dome halves on a level surface to make sure the lip was evenly spaced at the bottom then redrew the lines on the inner dome darker.

I then drilled some holes in the non used pie plate areas and sanded them smooth as well.

I am using Super 77 to bond my dome. Unlike most domes mine outer one is actually bigger than the inner so the very bottom back side is not bonded....yet.
R2 looks like Pinhead from Hellraiser LOL.

While the dome dried I sanded the bondo on my resin eye and primered it. It will not have time for paint to dry by Friday so no paint for now.

I also put a makeshift extinguisher together till my solenoid comes.

The next day after work I hot glued his panels in place real quick because I had an hour till I needed to be at the Theater.
His lower ring is way to big and needs to be cut and re-welded, that is why it is not painted.

Here is R2 "Patches" at the Clone wars release party!

Painting 101 (Dan's Got Astromech Blog)

Samurai — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:04:00 +0100

Not much done physically to R2 over the weekend. The Olympics were on and while watching and listening to the stupid comments from the commentators I took apart R2... again. I was hoping to get the new plates to update the leg to ankle joint and have him up on his feet and assembled for a progress picture. Now he is in pieces again, but they are now all masked off and ready to be primed and painted. I hop to have the primer coats on by the end of Tuesday. The final layers may have to wait as they are calling for some major rain here.

Skins (Matt's R2 Blog)

Matt McCormick — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:16:00 +0100

I dove into the skins project this weekend. I had been thinking about how to proceed with the full size plans I got and getting them transferred to the sheets of .040 styrene I have. I tried copying them over with a pencil and ruler but this was time consuming and inaccurate. A pencil mark is pretty wide and sloppy. I also tried using some spray on adhesive and gluing the plans down to the styrene. The first try didn't work out. The stuff on the left from Elmer's leaves a residue and really screws up the styrene.

So I tried the stuff on the right. It's supposed to be lighter duty for tacking art pieces down. I also applied it to the paper not to the styrene. That seemed to help. There is still a residue left over when you peel it off. But denatured alcohol seems to take it off quite effectively. So I'll just rub down the droid when the skins are all on.

Styrene is cheap--$15 a sheet--so I am anticipating taking a few tries to get this right. There are a lot of alignment issues with the frame, the front and back skins, the second layer skin, and top and bottom edges, and so on. And a little screw up could be really visible. I am also trying to sort out which of the panels on which layer--inner or outer--I need to cut out. And I am going back and forth about doing a back hatch. I know that having one would be really handy for working on the robot's insides and electronics, but I know that alignment is going to be an issue and it'll be really hard to get it to look clean and good. Furthermore, in all of the pictures I have been able to check, the real R2 does not have a back hatch. So that big cut out rectangle on there is bugging me. The alternative is to access everything inside him through the top after taking off the dome. I'll know more about what I want to do once my dome gets here. So here's the inner front and back layers on, or at least, an early attempt at cutting them right:

Starting to look like the real thing.

FIRST MOTOR MOUNT CUT/DRILLED ! (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:39:00 +0100

DANGER! DANGER!
I used a "cut off wheel on a table saw....
I am told not to use this type of blade in a table saw by at least one member of the group.
(and he has a gun so I'm going to do what he says! :o)

Here is a cut piece of the big box section extrusion. I spray glued this paper blueprint of my design right onto the side and used it as a drilling template...no measuring! All holes came out perfectly aligned, and the belt has a nice tension to it....just enough without being too tight.
The lower part of the metal box is cut away after all holes are drilled. I want the structure to be solid while drilling and cutting the big hole for the scooter motor to poke through.

Here is the biggest piece of crap ever made excuse for a tool. From Harbor Freight Tools.

Now don't get me wrong I am not complaining (well maybe just a little) because I knew this buying the darn thing. I use these things and then throw them away. This is #3.
These are totally not up to the task of cutting through 1/8" aluminum. It took over and hour to get through. I think I will take off one blade and this may help for the second motor mount.
They are loud, messy (fling oil and grease all over you) and heat up both the part and the motor on the drill press ! I put a fan on the motor while using this thing. The hole came out OK after and *hour* of work.

I deliberately made the hole about 2/100's smaller than needed, and sanded it out to "slip-fit' over the motor. Worked out great, the motor is in solid as a rock, but slides right out when I want it to.

DAHHH-DAHH !
My first mounted motor ! Big deal yea?....a box. But it's a great box!
It works too ! Motor is in there nice and strong. See Video of it running below!
Note that tight fit around the motor !

Clone Wars Make-a-Wish Event (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:54:00 +0100

This evening we gave another go at drumming up enthusiasm and fundraising for Make-a-Wish at the Regal theater in Fashion Island, Newport Beach, CA. Lots of costumed characters appeared, including Darth Vader, Boba Fett, many Clone Troopers, a Tusken Raider, and Obi-Wan, among others. Chris Romines brought R2-A1, and Vince Sanchez brought R5-D4, to join my R2-D2.

We spent some time in the lobby, but most of the time was spent outdoors in front of the theater.

The droids paid a visit to the window of this curious kid at the Red Robin restaurant, adjacent to the theater.

Toward the end of the evening, the droid builders posed with their creations.

Best of all, we got to see the movie for free after we were done. R2 enjoyed it, especially when his friend R2-KT made a cameo.

Pictures and a few changes.. (Thomas's R2 BLog)

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:39:42 +0100

Well..I finally got my camera back and its kind of a great feeling to see the before and after results. I have a long ways to go still but its coming along nicely. I got so anxious to take the pictures that i put a vent in upsidedown, lol A few things to note. First as [...]

Periscope Movement (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:28:00 +0100

I used a geared motor out of my Wowee Gorila head.
I really did'nt care much about this head and I bought it cheap.
I allways buy stuff like this for parts and it paid off.
The gear motor I added a drive wheel and a line spool for the
nylon string to curl on.
All I have left to do is finish mounting the motor and fine tuning
the lift. I will also find areas to trim down weight from the lift.
This will be controlled by my Vex micro inside the dome, Which gets
the signal from the 12 Ch. Ebay remote to activate the lift.
I will add limit switches at the top/bottom for stops.
So far, It has turned out pretty good and I will be glad to
move on to the next project.

More steampunking (Chris Lee's R2-G4 Blog)

Chris — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:43:00 +0100

Most of the body panels - especially those with blue areas - are being clad with thin copper foil sheeting. I'm using the same foil that roofers use for flashing under shingles. It comes in a 10" x 25' roll. No need to
adhere it, just bend the corners around and work it into the seams and creases with a dull wooden stick.

Steampunking R2 for DragonCon (Chris Lee's R2-G4 Blog)

Chris — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:39:00 +0100

Everything blue will become copper or bronze. These are spare resin booster covers - don't worry, the aluminum ones are safe...

Trimmed Horseshoe Pocket Corners (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:57:00 +0100

I crack myself up sometimes. You know those horseshoe pocket templates I was working on? I decided not to use them!

The template for the hydraulic pocket came out fine, but the template for the button pockets did not produce perfectly square shapes. Rather than trying to make another button pocket template, it occurred to me that I could recycle one of the old A&A horseshoe layers that I never did use for droid #1, so I decided to use that as my template.

First, I lined up one large layer from the A&A horseshoes on top of the back side of my partially-glued-together MDF horseshoes. Once the pockets were perfectly aligned, I taped them together.

Next, I drilled some holes through the PVC layer, and just slightly into the MDF.

I nailed four small nails into the layers, locking them together.

Then I used my new 1/4" diameter flush-cut bit to route each corner down to size. Here is the "before" picture, with a 1/4" radius in each corner.

Here is the "after" picture, with the new 1/8" corner radius.

Not an earth-shattering difference, but it is an improvement.

If I weren't so lazy, I would now take a file, and square each corner. Actually, it's not so much that I'm lazy, as it is that I'm concerned that I'll file the corners improperly and end up with trapezoidal pockets. I haven't ruled out giving it a try, but it's not a priority for me.