John's Droid Building Blog

Second Layer Started

2012-01-29T17:04:00.002-05:00

Today I glued on the second layer to the neck area. Used the painter's tape to hold it on.

I also rough-cut the second layer piece for the face. Once I take the tape off, I'll test fit it. I made it 1/8" wider so it would line up with the neck more seamlessly.
Still working on how to measure and cut out the panels. I decided to cut out the panels as separate pieces so I can try to line them up on the head and space them out before I cut into the second face layer.

John

Glued Main Styrene Piece

2012-01-22T18:10:00.002-05:00

Glue is dry and holding. After doing a test fit, I decided to go ahead and glue it on....before something goes wrong. As you can also see, I have more than enough room on top to install the fiber optics so I don't have to wait.

To glue it onto the head, I'm using the Jem-Tac I used before as I fear the Gorilla Glue might expand in undesirable ways.

Next will be adding the 2nd layers of Styrene. The trick here will be cutting out the panel details. Still working the thinking cap on that part.

John

Baby Steps to Finished Head

2012-01-21T22:29:00.003-05:00

I'm getting there. Little by little, I'm getting there.

This is the piece of styrene that will wrap around the main "face" area of the head. In the second pic you see how I have glued a strip of styrene onto one edge. This is so I can bend the other end around and glue it together, making a cone shape with the tip missing.

Here's the "face" piece clamped down while it drys. Will be done by Sunday evening.

The glue I'm using for this is the Gorilla Glue. I'm using it because I need the extra strength it has. I also sanded the surface so the glue would have a rough surface to bond to. This is actually the my second attempt at this piece. The first time I used a different glue and it didn't hold very long. Remember when using Gorilla Glue that it expands as it drys, so make sure you place a lot of weight on it with a clamp or a heavy object so the joints don't separate as the glue expands.

While I've been messing around test fitting and such, I accidentally broke off one of the top support ribs. No easy way to fix it, though I might not need to. I'm going to try to fit the top styrene piece without it and see how it feels.

Speaking of messing around, I wanted to play a little bit by connecting the PSI's and approximately placing them and rotating the head. Of course I recorded it so you could join in the fun.

I recently started a new job which means I'll be busy learning it for the next few months, but it also means better money down the road, which means the ability to purchase everything else I need to finish R6-C9 faster. I hope.

Also coming up on Feb. 4th is another Mid-West Droid Builders Gathering. Note the date is one day before the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl just so happens to be in my home city of Indianapolis Indiana. Traffic is going to be like many choice words. If you know what I mean.

John

Styrene Test Fitting and Shoulder Hub Rings

2012-01-13T21:06:00.003-05:00

Remember the aluminum strips I was using to cover the shoulder hubs? Yeah, well rub that idea. The aluminum was coming off and it was getting scratched and all messed up. So since I have all this styrene laying around, I thought I'd just use that.

Just paint and they're done.

For the head I made the top styrene piece to test fit.

I cut a circle and then cut a line across the radius. Then I lined everything up and marked where the overlap was. Cutout the overlap and you have a perfect fitting pointy hat.

John

Nearing the Finish Line

2012-01-07T12:26:00.004-05:00

OK, boys and girls. We are getting close to being done building the head....finally!

I've been working on this for the past week so lots to show you. Not only do I have the electronics tray installed, but I've started adding the skin as well.

So here's the head with the electronics tray mounted. I even have the Logic LED Tubes mounted, just need the fiber optics now. I put connectors on the PSI wires so I can disconnect them if needed.

I soldered wiring to the PSI LED's and then used heat shrink to protect the solder joints. Once I have the skin done I will mount these and connect them to the PSI circuits.

I used a triangle hinge to mount the tray to the head and a single screw to hold it closed. With the main switch on the bottom, I shouldn't need to open it except to replace the batteries and/or do maintenance. Works pretty well I think.

This clamp is holding the neck piece of styrene while it drys at the seam. Had to cut two pieces before I got it right. Once this is dry, I'll test fit the main piece but I don't want to glue it on until I get the fiber optics finished. Trying to installed the fiber optics after all the styrene pieces are on will be next to impossible. However, I've already cut the main piece and it looks like it will fit well. I'll know for sure once I get that clamp off.

Should have more to post soon.

John.

First Post of the New Year with Head Work

2012-01-01T22:07:00.004-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012!

So I'm sitting at home playing my new favorite game, The Old Republic, all the while R6-C9 is sitting next to my desk, and I can't help but start thinking between killing Sith Lords and such how to solve various droid building puzzles, such as fitting all the electronics into R6's head, when I start having a brain storm and next thing I know I'm off to the shop to make one little wooden piece and drill a few holes and....well....in a span of 3 hours (give or take) I made an electronics mounting tray for the head. Check it out.

So I got thinking about how easy or difficult it will be to work on the head's insides so I thought a removable tray like the body has would be ideal. Thus I came up with this:

This is the piece I cut out from the bottom of the new head. I thought, "it will fit perfectly and there's plenty of room to mount all the techno stuff."

The Processor State Indicator (PSI) circuits.

That hole is for the main power switch for everything in the head. Typically me, I didn't think to drill the blasted hole until after I started mounted the PSI's. Silly me. Had to remove them so I could drill the hole. The wood is 3/4" thick so I had to drill a larger hole most of the way through so I could mount the switch.

This is for a set of sub-power switches so I can turn off each component if needed. Most of the time they'll stay on and I'll just use the main switch.

PIC LED Flasher circuits for the Logic Displays mounted.

Sub-Power Switches installed.

Everything wired. This setup will use two 9V batteries connected in parallel for double the amperage. All the black wires are tied together while the red wires connect the switches in series to the main switch. I'll make a schematic some day to help that mess of wires make sense.

Next up is connecting the tray to the head in an easy to remove fashion. Wish me luck.

John

Christmas Present...a hole

2011-12-20T13:52:00.003-05:00

I actually found some time today to do one quick thing in the shop. Today I finally cut a hole in the bottom of R6's head. With that done, I can freely skin him up while still being able to access the electronics that will eventually go inside. I took the pictures with my phone (because I spaced and didn't bring my regular camera) so the format will be a little different, but oh well.

Here I'm using my small circle router attachment to cut the hole out. I used several passes, slowly making the circle deeper until I cut all the way through.

And the finished result.

That will be it for now. See you guys in the new year.

John

Peek-a-boo

2011-12-04T18:23:00.002-05:00

I'm Not Dead Yet!!! Really! See? I'm feeling much better.

Sorry I've been MIA for the past two months. Lots of Real Life stuff such as moving to a new apartment and busy working, and with Christmas around the corner, probably won't be doing any updates until sometime in January. But let me give you a sample of what you can look forward to once I do get back into the grind.
I messed up and put waaaay too much clear coat on the last two skin panels so I'll have to sand, paint and clear coat again. Still need to cut a hole in the bottom of the head and still need to buy more Styrene to skin the head.

On another Star Wars related note, I recently got to beta test the Star Wars: The Old Republic for three days and OH MY GOSH! That game is awesome and I can't wait to play it when it goes live (launch date is Dec. 20th). I pre-ordered the game so I'll get early access which I believe starts one week before launch date.
Of the different classes I tried the Jedi Knight, the Smuggler, the Trooper, the Sith Warrior and the Sith Inquisitor (I didn't get a chance to try the Jedi Consular, Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent). Of those five I did play, I liked the Smuggler and Jedi Knight the best. If you call yourself a Star Wars fan, you should play this game. Period.

And Let us not forget to give an honorable discharge to the original Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies. Sadly, SWG will be discontinued this month about the time SW:TOR launches. SWG has been online for about eight years and has seen many good and bad times. Many players, past and current, are very upset about the game being shut down and all kinds of accusations towards Lucas Arts and Sony Online about not caring about the players have been thrown back and forth for the past few months. Regardless of the motivations for the shut down, SWG had a great run and will be remembered for years to come.

Until next time,

John

Final Skin Pieces and Midwest Gathering

2011-09-25T11:30:00.003-04:00

The 2011 Midwest R2 Builders Gathering was a lot of fun last weekend. We had six droids, of which only 3 were mobile, including mine. Funny thing happened though. When I assembled R6, I found I had forgotten the two bolts that hold the leg pipes to one another. Without them, the right leg had too much movement in it to drive R6 around without the right foot catching on the ground. And so once again R6 had to stay stationary. When I got home I found the two bolts and did a test drive in my living room. I'm happy to say R6 handled well being on carpet. Only thing I still to work on is the body tends to drift to one side on the leg pipes and sometimes the legs will rotate if too much pressure is applied (such as pushing R6 manually). Will need to find a way to better lock down the leg pipes.

One of the attending builders made a 2-second time lapse video of the gathering. It's only a couple of minutes long, but I think it sums up the event well.

Another builder took a lot of photos of the gathering.

So now that that is over and done with, back to building.

I've started working again on the aluminum skin panels. I have primed the remaining panels already J.B. Welded and have J.B. Welded the last two panels.

I'll prime those last two panels and then paint all the them together. When that's done, I'm going to get the others out and apply clear coat to them as I've done with the feet. After that, all that's left is to paint the main pieces and install. Maybe I can have that done before New Years?

John

More painting and Head Assembly.....continued....

2011-09-15T21:00:00.003-04:00

So far so good. The head is turning out wonderfully. Glued on the top ring tonight and finished painting the feet.

One thing I forgot to do was figure out the center foot's ankle lock. One idea suggested to me at Droid-Con was drilling a bolt through the bottom of the foot into the bottom of the ankle. I think that will work. I'll save doing that for Saturday morning. Love last minute modifications.

John.

More painting and Head Assembly

2011-09-14T18:10:00.003-04:00

Sanded and applied final coat of paint and clear seal today to the feet. Should be dry by Friday night.

Glued the styrene circle to the head base plate last night. This morning solid as a rock. So now I am gluing the four upright ribs and the middle disc to the base plate.

Should be dry by this time tomorrow. Then I just need to glue on the top disc and then maybe the other piece of styrene to the neck. This new head is going to be awesome!

John

New Head, Ankle and Painting Feet

2011-09-13T18:02:00.003-04:00

Today I was able to spend a little bit of time in the shop to finish the head and center ankle.

The new center ankle has all it's mounting holes drilled. One thing I forgot to do, which I will have to wait to do on Saturday at the last minute, is cut out a section of the ankle on the top. You can see where I need to do this in this side-by-side comparison of the old and new center ankle. Always something.

The head I'm happy to say is about done. All the pieces fit together like I wanted. All that's left is to glue it together and then cut a hole in the bottom.

That last picture is the two styrene pieces I cutout. The full circle piece will go on the base plate and the partial circle piece will wrap around the neck. I will need to by more styrene to finish it.

Before I glue the head together I'm going to glue the full circle styrene piece to the base plate first, otherwise I'd have to cut it to wrap it around. I'm testing an adhesive at the moment to bond the styrene to wood. If all goes well, I'll glue it tomorrow.

As for the feet, I just need to apply one more coat of paint plus clear coat and then I need to paint a few spot on the bottom of them. I hope to have this all done my Saturday morning (no pressure).

John

Back Log of Updates

2011-09-11T20:01:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been working on R6, but work has kept me busy and so I've been putting off posting updates. So get ready to be bombarded with progress.

First bit of news is the upcoming Mid-West Droid Builders gathering in northern Indiana this weekend. To prepare I've been repainting the feet, rebuilding the center ankle and repairing the wiring from everything that happened at Droid-Con last May. Wiring is done and the new center ankle will be ready as soon as the glue drys and I drill the mounting holes. The Feet are primed and just need to be painted and clear-coated.

And now some progress on the Logic Displays. Wait....what? The Logic Displays?! Really? An actual update on the Logic Displays?! Yes, it's true. It's been awhile hasn't it. But don't get too excited. It's not much. All I did was drill a hole.

This hole is where the fiber optic strands will fit into the LED tube. All that's left now if to make a block to fit each cord of fiber into so they're arranged correctly. Just need a flat board of black ABS plastic.

Most of my work this past month however has been on the head. Shortly after my last post, I finished cutting the ribs and did a test fit.

So far so good. But before I start gluing it all together, I finally bought my first sheet of Styrene, a PVC type of plastic commonly used in professional sign making and related things, to perform a test fit to make sure the plastic would retain a smooth circular shape when wrapped around only four ribs. It's a good thing I did this because the test failed. At first I thought I needed to add more ribs. But then I tried the same piece of styrene on the original head and it wrapped around perfectly. The reason is because the original head has rings going around it that help the styrene maintain a smooth bend around it. So that's what I needed to add to head v2.

I decided I needed to add a ring to the middle and the top of the head. I will use 1/4" wood and will sand the edges to the same angle as the outer edge of the ribs where the rings will be. The middle ring will need to be two 1/4" rings glued together like a sandwich with each ring's edge angled differently to match the face/neck angles (very much like the original head).

Here I'm cutting out the middle of the middle ring. Both 1/4" halves are already glued together. I'm making each ring only 1" thick from outer to inner circumference. The notches on the inside are to fit into the notches I put into the ribs.

The ribs with the notches for the rings cut into them.

Here's the head assembled with the top ring and a close-up of how it fits together. Not a perfect fit but close enough.

On Tuesday I will test fit the middle ring and drill the mounting holes into the center ankle. If all goes well I will be able to glue the head together.
One more thing I need to do is make the ankle lock for the center foot so it doesn't tilt when moving backwards.

John

Tatooine Days

2011-08-02T21:00:00.002-04:00

No work done this week due to the near 100 degree heat. The shop is just too hot. Maybe next week will be better.

I'll continue once the temperature is at a reasonable level.

Later,

John

More Ankle and Head Work

2011-07-26T18:57:00.002-04:00

The weather was much cooler (but still hot) so I was able to get more work done today compared to last week.

The center ankle is nearly to the same stage as the original after gluing on the other side piece. I made a few changes this time around. You'll notice the two side pieces don't go as high as the center does. I did this because they really don't need to go that high and to save weight.

For the head I cut the grooves into the base disc for the ribs to fit into. I'm going to try to use just four ribs. The reason is because the back ends would pump into each other preventing a good fit. So not wanting to modify the rib design I'll try using just four. We'll see how that goes.

I was also able to drill the mounting holes for the rockler bearing and rough cut the four remaining ribs.

Here you see how the ribs and the rod will fit together.

Next week, weather permitting, I'll trim the head ribs and test fit them. I'm going to try and get a sheet of styrene too so I can test fit it to see if it'll maintain it's circle around the head with only four ribs. I hope it does.

John

Continuing Ankle Work

2011-07-19T20:42:00.002-04:00

HEAT WAVE! Today's heat index was 110 degrees!

Due to the extreme heat today the shop was literally an oven so I didn't get everything done I planned to do before it got toooooooo hooooooot! All I was able to do was make the outer two pieces of the ankle and glue one of them on. The head will have to wait until next week....providing the temperature isn't too high.

Last time I made the center ankle I used the band saw to manually cut the curve in the two outer pieces. This time around I used the router and a small circle cutting attachment.

Oh winter, where art thou?

John

Center Caster, Center Ankle v2, and Head v2

2011-07-12T18:27:00.002-04:00

Went to the shop today, despite the heat, and did some more work on the center foot's caster wheel, the new center ankle, and the new head.

I trimmed off half an inch from the caster wheel bracket to make all three feet the same height.

The only things I did to the center ankle today was drill the foot mounting hole and trim off excess from the top.

For the version 2 head, I finalized the measurements and cut out the new head rib template. I also made an 18" in diameter by 1/2" thick disk to mount the ribs to.

In comparison to the original head, the new rib looks identical in height plus the crown of the head.

Next time, I'm going to make the next two pieces for the center ankle and use the new head rib template to make eight more. I will then arrange these eight in a circle on the disk I made. I will route grooves in the disk for the ribs to sit in. A half-inch wooden rod will sit in the center of the disk to help align the ribs together. I will also bring the Rockler Bearing to align on the bottom of the disk.

John

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-05T20:44:00.003-04:00

Well, the fourth of July was yesterday, but better late than never.

I've been busy at my new job so I haven't had much free time (or money) to devote to R6-C9. But I got a three day weekend this holiday so I was able to find a little bit of time to continue building.

Finally got the holes drilled to mount the head motor on the other side of the body. Looks like it'll work. Now I just need to install longer wiring on that side of the body for the head motor (existing wire isn't long enough).

My first attempt at remaking the center ankle didn't turn out very good so round 2.

Now about the head. I have confirmed the top of the head is wider than it should be. It's wider by about 1/2" to 3/4". How I did that I don't know. It doesn't match the notes I made during it's construction. As for the full scale layout I had printed, i recently discovered it is 1/8" smaller than it should be. That's the last time I go to Kinkos to have something this big printed. So after compensating for the scale difference, I have determined the correct diameter of the top of the head. Instead of trying to modify my existing head, I'm going to make a new one, and this time I'm taking a different approach to it. I'm going to make eight vertical ribs made to be half of one full side of the head. I will place these on a disc in a circle and then wrap them with styrene.

I'm going to try to make time to work on this at least once a week. Hopefully I can have the head mostly done before next year. The head is going to be my primary focus until it is finished.

John

Star Wars Celebration VI Announced

2011-06-03T06:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Star Wars Celebration VI was announced for August 23-26, 2012, and once again it will be in Orlando Florida.

First it seems odd they're doing this one year early from the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi. Maybe they something additional in the works for that. Oh well.

At least this time I have more than a year's worth of advance notice. Time to start saving up for this trip and getting my droid more finished. I also plan to enter R6-C9 into the droid races this time around, now that I have his drive system working.

Let the "fun" begin.

John

Center Ankle Redo

2011-05-31T22:08:00.002-04:00

Had some free time this holiday weekend so I decided to get some "corrections" made.

First up is the center foot and ankle lock. I decided to completely remake the center ankle due to some minor imperfections and needing to make some changes for the ankle lock. Using the leg template I used before I made two new 1/2" pieces and glued them together. Next I'll make the outer 3/4" pieces and glue them one at a time to the sides, but it may be awhile before I can do that because of having to spend a lot of time at my new job. In the mean time I'll do what I can at home.

Other changes I'm making will be moving the head motor to the right side of the body so I have room to install the battery. The motor was getting in the way during Droid-Con so I had to install the battery through the side, which won't be possible to due once I put the skins on.
Also all the feet need to be repainted again in certain areas. One of these days I'll be done with that.

John

Droid-Con: Before, During and After

2011-05-22T14:56:00.004-04:00

First I'd like to say I'm sorry for taking a whole week to post updates about last weekend. I started a new job last Monday and I've been very busy with that.

So, to start, on Thursday, May 12, I assembled R6-C9 for a test run of the foot drive and to check all the other parts and electronics.

Here's the new mounting bolts I mentioned in the previous post.

Here's a video of R6's first time trying to move.

Now the Director's Commentary:
Part 1:
Funny how few things work the very first time the way you thought it would. What's that noise? A loose belt in the right-foot. Easy fix. But here's where I make my first mistake which I'll regret later on. I started out with the wheels in the front of the foot shells but while I was fixing the loose belt I flip-flopped them so the wheels were in the back of the foot shells. I had reasoned that having the wheels in the back would give better weight support. More on that later.

Part 2:
OK, bigger problem here. If you look closely at the outer feet you'll see the front of them touching the floor. That's why R6 couldn't move. The feet were dragging into the carpet. I had forgotten I needed to lock the ankles (center foot included) so the foot shells don't rotate on the ankle onto the floor. Now here's where I went brain dead. Normally I would have waited until I could get to the shop to study the problem and make some wooden blocks to hold the foot shells in place. But because the Droid-Con was the next day I decided to cut some metal blocks in my apartment and J.B. Weld them to the foot shells. In order to J.B. Weld I needed to sand the paint off a spot on each foot shell where I would place the blocks. Clamp the pieces in and let dry over night.

Part 3:
Friday Morning, First day of Droid-Con.
OK. So it didn't work. Except for the center foot, the blocks held in place, however, the wood is too soft and so was bending around the blocks, or the blocks where digging into the wood. I had to think fast. Only a couple of hours until Droid-Con starts. I decided to drill a whole through the foot shells and the ankles on the outer feet and use a bolt to hold them in place. I placed blocks under the feet to hold them in the position I wanted and drilled away.

Part 4:
It works!!! OK, disassemble, load up and head out. Next stop DROID-CON!

One problem I was still having was with the center foot. While going forward it works fine. But if I go backwards the foot tilts up and R6 gets stuck. During the 'Con I got several ideas on how to fix this (bolts, ankle blocks, different ankle design) which I'll deal with later.

So I get to the Hotel, assemble R6 in the parking lot and as luck would have it....more problems. Because I flip-flopped the motor brackets the steering was backwards. Left was right and Right was left. A simple wire flip-flop corrected this. But then the power went out. Turned out to be a loose wire between the main switch and the PCB tray. I did a temporary fix and off he went.

Here's some photos and video I took while there.

Now notice how R6 has trouble turning. This is mostly because the wheels are far from the center of the body. So if I switch them around again I'll be able to perform tighter and better controlled turns. Locking the center ankle and foot will also help.

Had a great time at Droid-Con. I met several people who live in other parts of Indiana. There were several panels with someone talking about a particular aspect of droid building such as weathering, dome building, electronics, etc.. The Hotel staff was also very friendly and let us get away with things like using the droids to "floor-ski" in the hallways. Some of the guys are a little crazy, LOL. There's already talk about the next one and it very well may be back at the same Hotel.

So post 'Con work. First is to put the drive wheels in the front of the feet as I originally had it, and which I have already done, although this required drilling new ankle locking bolt holes in the foot shells.
Second is to buy the styrene I need to finish the head. I had an idea about getting a cone shape on the top which would negate having to make a new head....if it works. I'll explain that when I try it.
Third, the center foot is a half-inch higher than the outer feet. To solve this I'll just remove that much off the bottom of the center foot wheel mount.
Forth, everything else.

I'm going to take a little break (about a month maybe) so I can settle into my new job. Then back to building.

John

Scooter Foot Drive Complete....and other stuff

2011-05-10T17:52:00.002-04:00

At long last the foot drive is assembled and working. I tell you I've had more setbacks with this one component than with the rest of the droid put together. Here's hoping it stays that way.

When I first placed the new wheel on the bracket I noticed a problem. The hole I drilled near the wheel to mount the bracket to the foot was in the way of the wheel. Oops. Drilled that sucker a little too high. So back to the shop to re-drill. This time I decided it would be easier if a longer bolt went all the way through the bracket. So I also drilled matching holes on the other side. Another problem I found was the motor being 3/16" too long preventing the bracket to rest against that side of the foot shell. I solved this by adding a nut between the bracket and the inside of the foot shell. Hopefully this will work without any problems.

All that's left now is to clear coat the foot shells and then I can fully assemble R6-C9 and make him walk for the first time. I've already clear coated the center foot and will clear coat the two outer feet tomorrow.

Droid-Con starts this Friday. Be there!

John

Wheel Bearings Arrive

2011-05-06T07:08:00.002-04:00

Got the bearings for the wheels Wednesday. Fortunately they fit.

Right now I'm working on finding the best way to mount wheels onto the drive bracket. This involves trying out different pieces of hardware (nuts, bolts, washers. spacers) to obtain the best free movement of the wheel. I have an idea on how I'm going to do it, but I need to do one or two modifications to the bracket at the shop this weekend. I'll explain the details of this once I'm done.
I'm also still repainting the foot shells. They're just about done. One more coat and then I can clearcoat them.

John

Received New Wheel....but......

2011-05-01T20:28:00.003-04:00

Quicker than I was expecting, the new scooter wheels from China have arrived....buuuuut there's a problem. When the eBay description said "fresh from the factory" they meant it. The wheels do not have any bearings. Why is this important you ask? Allow me to explain. [Takes deep breath] Two bearings go inside the center hole of the wheel so a. the wheel will sit level on the axle and b. so despite the weight on the axle, the wheel can still rotate smoothly. As soon as I realized my problem I sent out an S.O.S. to the Club asking for advice hoping for a fix. Luckily someone was able to direct to where I could purchase the bearings needed. So all's well that ends well. The bearings are on order and should arrive shortly. Need to be more careful when buying on eBay. Especially when the item is coming from China.

Anyway, pictures of the bearing-less wheels below. Enjoy.

In other news, today I gave a fresh coat of paint to the feet. Over the past year they've been knocked around a bit from transporting them to and from the shop so chipped paint has occurred and exposure to the light has dulled the color a bit. This time I'm going to try finishing up with some clearcoat to help protect the paint and give it a bit of a shine. I'm also thinking about painting some of the chipped paint spots an aluminum color for a weathering effect.

Laters,

John

Turning Heads

2011-04-24T10:36:00.003-04:00

The wheel I ordered for the head motor arrived Friday and I wasted no time installing it.

I got the wheel from ServoCity.com. They actually send you two wheels. In addition I had to order a 1/4" wheel hub to attach it to the motor shaft plus screws.

Video shows the wheel working without and with the head on. Another long awaited mile-stone reached.

It's a good thing I got a stronger tension spring. I tried it with the first one I got and it wasn't pulling the bracket hard enough for the wheel to get good traction on the Rockler bearing. Using a shorter and stronger spring fixed that.

I also received shipping conformation for the belt wheels with am estimated arrival time of "varies." God willing the wheels will arrive in time for me to install them before Droid-Con.

John

2011-04-22T07:33:00.004-04:00

Got a few more things done yesterday. I got the hole drilled for the head motor and adjusted its tension spring so it's tighter, finished the center foot's caster wheel, added a quick disconnect for the battery so I don't have to keep using a wrench and screwdriver to remove the wiring, and I ordered the wheels for the foot drive. Sadly the wheel for the head motor hasn't arrived yet.

About the foot drive wheels. The source for better wheels I was given was out of stock. So after searching and searching the Internet I eventually checked ebay. There I found the original Razor E100 belt driven rear wheels I was told can't be found. And for only about $17.00. Just one thing. They're in China. I bought two of these wheels but because of them coming from China, I don't know if they'll make it here on time for the Droid-Con. I tried working with those "other" wheels I have but there's just no way. So here's hoping they get here with time to spare.

John

Center Foot & Head Motor

2011-04-18T19:02:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I continued work on the Center Foot's caster mount. After test fitting the block I made I discovered I had miscalculated and ended up being a full one inch short. So I had to make two more half-inch blocks and glue them on.

Next I started work on the mounting bracket for the head rotation motor. Using scrap aluminum from the foot drive brackets, I made a flat piece measuring 1-1/2" x 4-1/2" x 1/8". I then drilled two holes to mount the motor, one hole for the motor shaft, one hole to mount the bracket to the body frame, and one more to connect a tension spring to. The tension spring's purpose is to pull the wheel (that will be on the Pittman motor) snug against the inside of the Rockler bearing. The other end of the spring simply connects to a hook of some sort on the body frame. To secure the motor to the bracket the motor is pre-tapped for #10-32 machine screws. To secure the bracket to the frame I'm using a 5/16" x 1" hex-bolt with 2 metal washers and three nylon washers. The nylon washers go right above and below the bracket. They help the bracket move while the bolt is tight. For the spring I used spare screws I had laying around.

Two things. One, I feel the spring I got is too long to give the amount of pull I want so I'm going to get a shorter one. Two, in the last photo you can see a half-circle drawn where the motor shaft is touching. This is where I need to remove some material so the motor can be close enough so the wheel will touch (I'm just a few fractions of an inch off). This Thursday I will take the body to the shop and carefully remove that spot. Hopefully the wheel will arrive by then so I can do a full test fit and then a powered test run.

John

Outer & Center Foot Prep

2011-04-15T20:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I drilled the holes needed for the wiring in the top of the outer feet and started work on mounting the caster wheel in the center foot.

Before and after. Used a half-inch drill bit.

For the center foot, I needed to make a block big enough to secure the caster to and extend it enough to get the proper height from the ground. Most builders extend the wheels out about 1.5 inches so I'm doing the same. To obtain this, I made a wood block out of 3 half-inch thick pieces of plywood. The top block I made to fit the inside of the foot while the next two blocks are the same size as the caster wheel's mounting footplate. I have two more pieces to make which will provide a way to secure the main block within the foot.

I'll share the measurements and other details once I prove this setup will work.

I've also started designing the head rotation motor bracket and have ordered the wheel for this motor. Basically the wheel will rest against the inside of the Rockler bearing and make it spin. I'll be using the scrap aluminum from the foot drive.

Soon I'll be able to order the main wheels for the foot drive and then R6-C9 will be able to walk for the first time. It will be a true milestone for this project. I can't wait.

John

Drive Bracket ready

2011-04-11T07:18:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I continued work on the foot drive bracket. To make it fit properly in the foot shell I had to cut off about half an inch from the top corner on the wheel side.

With the corner cut off I can position the bracket so the motor has clearance.

To secure the bracket inside the foot shell, I decided to use two 1/4" x 1/2" hex bolts through the side. Using the horizontal drill press, I slowly drilled two holes through the foot shell and drive bracket.

All that's left now is to get the new wheels and install the motors.

While I was at the shop, I finally remembered to get the 1/4" spacers on each side of the center ankle so it will fit without sliding from side to side. As you may remember, I accidentally made the mounting rails too far apart.

One thing I did forgot to do was drill a hole in the top of the foot shell for the wiring from the motors to the leg wiring to pass through. Will just have to wait until Thursday to do that.

One more thing I was able to do at home was finish painting the two blue panels. Now I can start on the remaining pieces.

John

Painting and Wiring

2011-04-08T20:01:00.003-04:00

It was a nice day today so I was able to get a little more painting done. The three panels I've been working on are finally done and I put a third coat on the two blue panels.

I also started to wire up the legs for the foot drive but ran short of those Anderson Power Pole (APP) connectors. More are on order. Since I'll have to remove the wiring later when I'm ready to paint the legs, I'll be using temporary connectors on one end of the leg wiring so I don't waste any of the APP connectors.

Still saving up for new wheels for the foot drive. Hope to be able to have them in time for the Droid-Con.

I need to make one final adjustment to the foot drive brackets before I install them. For some reason they don't line up right inside the foot shell for the motor to fit. I've determined if I cut off one corner on the wheel end then I can make it fit. Will try to do this on Sunday. I also need to get a caster wheel for the center foot.

So much to do, so little money.

John

Made Motor Brackets

2011-04-04T13:25:00.002-04:00

Friday I received the aluminum tubes for the foot drive motor brackets and Sunday I started work on cutting and drilling. To cut the aluminum I used metal cutting drill bits and my Dremel. I started by cutting the tubes to the desired length of 8-1/2" long. Then I taped the drilling patterns to each side of the tubes. Using a drill press I slowly drilled the holes needed for the wheel axle, the motor and the motor's mounting screws. Once that was done I used the Dremel and about two packs of cutting wheels to cut the wheel axle slots and half of the bottom to give the wheel clearance.

Tada! All done.

There is, however, one problem. The wheels do not fit. I tried everything but they will not fit inside and spin. The fit is just too tight to work. So that's $80 bucks down the drain. Luckily I have been shown another wheel that will work. They're half the price too. Wish I found them earlier. So other than the wheel problem the foot drive is nearly ready to install. Only thing left to do is devise a method to secure them inside the foot shell in such a way as to be able to remove them.

In the meantime I will either start work on the new head or start mounting the skins.

John

Some Foot Shell Work

2011-04-01T09:23:00.003-04:00

When I was assembling R6 at Celebration V, I discovered the bolts which hold the ankles to the feet wouldn't fit through the holes in the feet. The bolts were the correct size, but the holes were just a bit small. So yesterday I fixed that by using my Dremel with a small sanding drum to widen the holes a bit. Now the bolts will fit so the legs and feet can be securely connected.

While I was at the shop I started working on a new head for R6. The main problem with the current one is the crown, or lack there of. I had thought I could add it on later but my attempts to do so have fallen short in good results. So my new design for the head will be to made the vertical ribs one whole piece, including the crown. I'll be making 6 ribs (fewer than the current head has) mounted to a base that will sit on the rockler bearing. My first attempt at making the first rib leaves some room for improvement but with a few adjustments it should work this way. Once assembled I will continue as originally planned and wrap the head with styrene or sintra (both are similar types of PVC based plastic). Can I get all that done before Droid-Con? Maybe, but I'm more eager to get the foot drive system finished first.

Speaking of the foot drive, I ordered the aluminum tubing and it should be here any day. Maybe Sunday I can start on that.

John

Foot Drive Prototype Complete

2011-03-26T21:25:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday I modified the 2nd wheel and made the pieces for the Foot Drive prototype.

The Foot Drive in its final version will be made out of aluminum square-tubing with one side cut off. But for the prototype, just the two sides will suffice.

Mostly assembled. Still need the belt and standoffs between the motor and wall in front of it. Speaking of the standoffs, the screws I'm using to hold the motor in place are a little too long. Will have to get shorter ones.

Yesterday I got the standoffs, shorter screws, and the belts finally came. I reassembled the drive with the new parts and did a power test.

Of course I also test fitted the bracket in the foot shell. Good news is it fits. Now I need to order the aluminum tubing so I can make the final product.

As for painting, it suddenly got real cold again so painting is out until Spring decides to stay.

John.

Return of the Belt Drive

2011-03-20T20:31:00.004-04:00

Today I humbly acknowledge I jumped the gun ordering the chain-driven scooter wheels & motors. When I received the chain version, I discovered the chains where the same length as the belts and the wheel axle was about the same as well (though the wheel itself was slimmer). So I got on the Club's forum and pleaded for enlightenment. In a short amount of time I was told to use a shorter belt (was given a size to try) and to replace the axle. I was also given a scooter drive bracket template to use to build my own.

Why didn't I ask for help in the first place? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

So with a pair of smaller belts on order, 399mm instead of the 447mm I bought, I now will try to return all the chain-driven scooter parts. If I can't return them, I should be able to sell them to someone in the club.

So today I went to the shop to try making some modifications to my belt wheels.
Here is a close-up of the brake drum on the wheel hub. The original Razor E100 belt wheel didn't have this part so I decided to try to cut it off.

Here is that long axle, now off the wheel. It was being held on by the two inner nuts. Once I took off the nuts the axle came right off. In it's place I'll put a shorter bolt of similar diameter.

The wheel without the axle. The brake drum I discovered is screwed on. I discovered this after I cut it off with my Dremel. Will note for the other wheel.

With the brake drum off I used my Dremel to cut off the extra 1/2" of hub. Now the hub is flush with the bearing.

I noticed something blocking the axle hole from inside the wheel so I removed the three bolts and the wheel hub became two pieces. Inside was a loose spacer the axle goes through.

Next time I'll do the same to the other wheel and build a bracket prototype out of 1/8" MDF using the design given to me. If this design works for me I'll order aluminum tubing for the final product.

John

Painting Begins Anew

2011-03-17T16:25:00.003-04:00

Today's weather proved to be perfect for painting. The three panels I already started I gave another coat of Satin White. Once they dry I will lightly sand them and give them their final coat. I also took the two pieces I already primed and gave them their first coat of Blue Metallic paint.

I have just a few more panel pieces to JB Weld and then I will start priming and painting the remaining panels. I could start the main outer skin halves except I don't really have a good place to place them while they dry. Once I figure that out I will start them too.

New motors, chains and wheels on order. Will retackle the foot drive once they arrive.

John

I Give In

2011-03-14T20:37:00.002-04:00

I just ordered the chain version of the scooter motors and wheels. Because the generic belt wheel I got is wider than the original Razor part, and because the belt is too big to have both wheel and motor close enough for both to fit inside the foot shell, I have to admit defeat in trying to make it work. Oh well. Live and learn. I did some reading today at Astromech.net and other people have said not to bother trying to get the belt version to work without the original wheel.

So now I have two motors, two belts and two wheels I cannot use or return. Drat. Well I know there are other people who use the belt motors (they have the original wheel). Maybe I can at least sell the motors and belts.

John

Let the Building Begin!

2011-03-13T21:53:00.003-04:00

It's March. Shop time!

Today I started working on the motor/wheel mounting bracket for the foot drive. Unfortunately all I have to show for 3 hours of work is one big problem. I'm having trouble with the scooter wheels I got that are supposed to be compatible with the Razor E100. The axle is 4-1/4" long which is about all the room I have inside the foot shell. This leaves little room above the wheel to build a bracket (the foot shell walls slope in towards the top). Another problem is when the belt is pulled tight the motor is too far on one side to fit in the foot shell.

I'm not sure if I can find a way to make this work. I may need to consider another motor/wheel type. Uuurg. How did others make this work.

John

Blog Labels

2011-01-27T23:04:00.003-05:00

I recently realized how hard it is to find specific information on my blog, so I started adding labels (or tags) to each post indicating the topics contained there-in. The listing of these labels are on the right-hand side of the screen.

This list is not yet complete. Thus far I've only labeled the last two years. I should have the rest of my postings labeled by next week. Enjoy.

John

[UPDATE: Labeling is complete]

New Year, New Challenges; Bring It!!!

2011-01-17T00:07:00.010-05:00

Welcome to 2011! We're only 17 days into the year and already it's shaping up to be a fun and challenging one. Many things to report so without further delay, on with the show!

To start, my Dad was able to rent a space to setup the woodwork shop again. Its only half the size of my Grandparents garage, but it should work just fine. So once Spring comes I can jump right back into working in the shop.

This year I have some extra motivation to get more work done on R6. This May will be the very first DroidCon, a national 3-day R2 Builders gathering. It's purpose is for all members who can to be able to get together and learn from each other. Basically a geeky classroom show-and-tell. The location for this gathering of nut jobs will be Indianapolis Indiana so of course I'll be going (I live there after all).

Then in June the Mid-West Droid Builders Gathering will take place in Illinois. I plan on attending this as well if I can manage it.

Since Christmas, I've been tweaking the wiring in the body. First I installed these special high amperage connectors called Power Pole connectors. I used them for the main power to the fuse block and for the wiring going to the foot and head motors.

In this above shot, you can see the wiring for the foot motors on each side wrapping around to the other side of the shoulder supports where they will connect to the wiring that will be inside the legs. You can also see another set of wires hanging on the left side. That is for the head rotation motor.

Last week I finally received the scooter wheels I ordered. They're a bit bigger than I thought but should fit fine in the foot shell. These wheels came with brakes on them, but those are not needed so I easily removed them.

I couldn't resist hooking up the motor and testing the wheel on it.

Next up for the foot drive is buying the material to make the bracket to attach the motors and wheels to. I will need the shop to make this bracket so maybe in March I can start on that. Other goals before the DroidCon are getting the skins finished and installed, skinning the head, possibly remaking the head, and finishing the lights for the head. As far as the light go all I really have left to do is get more optical fiber for the rear Logic Display and make mounting plates for the optical fiber.

Link for the Power Pole connectors: http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/connectors_powerpole.html

Link for the Scooter Wheels: http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/curewhasbedr.html

Later,

John

Wheel of Motion

2010-12-27T22:28:00.003-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

For Christmas I received a little spending money and what do you think i spent it on? That's right! I bought the scooter wheels I've been saving for. Just now ordered them.

So how was your Christmas???

John

Belts, Smoke and Dead Buttons

2010-12-17T19:29:00.003-05:00

Got the belts for the scooter drive today. They're smaller than I imagined.

Yesterday while I was testing the motors I had the electronics tray sitting on top of the body. I accidentally pulled a wire causing the whole tray to fall back inside the body. As I was pulling it back out, a wire cap fell off and the exposed wire touched the battery level meter causing a puff of smoke. I quickly hit the main power switch (should of done that earlier when the tray fell) and inspected everything. Luckily nothing was damaged.

Later, I powered up the sound system but couldn't get the VMusic2 to trigger. After trouble shooting I discovered the problem was with a bad signal coming from the C6C receiver on ch5. Once I moved the wiring from ch5 to ch6 everything worked again....but what was wrong with ch5? After more trouble shooting I have concluded the problem is with the ch5 button on the PS2 WiFi controller itself. A bad button. I wonder how long before the ch6 buttons stop working? Oh the good times a hobby brings.

John

Learning to Walk

2010-12-15T21:02:00.003-05:00

So yesterday I got those scooter motors and today I wired them up for testing. While I was at it, I, of course, made a video.

Here's some pictures.

Now for the inside details.
As I mentioned in the previous post, these are 24 volt 100 watt electric motors used in the Razor E-100 toy scooters. I have them connected to a dual channel Electronic Speed Controller (ESC), specifically the Dimension Engineering Sabertooth 2X25 (picture on right), which is then controlled by the C6C receiver. These motors are the belt driven version (now discontinued by Razor and replaced with chains). I chose belts over chains because I didn't want the extra noise. Belts are already on order (the official Razor ones) but the belt driven wheels are no longer available. However, I did find a generic compatible scooter wheel that should work just fine.

The ESC has a set of 6 jumper switches to configure the ESC for battery type, controller type, and other options. I had some trouble at first setting these correctly because I was looking at it upside down. So take note. Always make sure you know which way is on and off. Once I got that sorted out, I had to flip around the wiring on the left side motor so it would run in the same direction. Don't worry, most electric motors are polarity reversible. This is important to pay attention to because when I install the motors into the feet, they'll be facing opposite directions thus the wiring must be reversed on one of them.

Once I have the belts and wheels I'll have to build a frame to mount each motor and wheel to and then mount that into the feet. I don't have all of that figured out just yet, but with dozens of examples from other builders and a little trial and error, I should be able to manage it.

John

Christmas Present for a Droid

2010-12-09T12:31:00.004-05:00

Lately I've been rethinking using the NPC2212 motors for my droid, mainly because they're almost $200.00 a piece. A cheaper option would be using electric motors off of those toy scooters, such as the Razor E-100. Fortunately this doesn't require changing anything I've already done. I can still use the same electronic speed controller, etc..

So I did some looking around and round some replacement scooter motors compatible with the Razor E-100 for less than $20.00. Even better is the website is offering free shipping for a limited time. Here's the link, http://www.partsforscooters.com/119-17?sc=2&category=77293.

Note that this motor uses a belt to drive the wheels. This may be a problem because Razor has discontinued belt drives and now uses chain drives for their current line of scooters. As a result, belt drive wheels are hard to come by. Very hard. So why did I get the belt motor instead of the chain? Mainly because a chain drive makes a lot more noise than a belt drive. For the wheels I plan to either find the wheels or build a home made wheel the belt can work on....famous last words... :)

Update: I found some generic wheels that are "compatible" with the Razor E-100, though not an exact copy of the original. But as long as it fits the belt it'll work. They're $40.00 a piece however so I'll have to take my time in acquiring them.

John

Status Update and Schematics

2010-10-21T19:50:00.003-04:00

Recently I was asked how I have my radio control wired up etc. so I thought I'd post a full schematic of both my electrical and radio control wiring setup for anyone else who's interested.

As I said last time, I am taking a break from building. But due to a tight budget, that break will be extended until further notice. Hopefully things will improve so I can continue work on my droid. About the only thing I can still do without spending money is finish painting the skins, however it's starting to get very cold and soon will be too cold to paint. Talk about timing.

So until later,

John

The four days of Celebration V

2010-08-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Photos from the entire Celebration V here.

So I know I didn't talk much about what went on Wednesday, but I was dead tired. In fact, I was dead tired every night of the con. So now I will catch you up on Wednesday afternoon and the four days of Celebration V.

When I got to the droid room Wednesday I found a mad house of droids, sets, and builders. When I asked where I should setup my droid I got "anywhere." OK. But I just knew once I did setup my droid, which has no wheels and the feet come off when you move it, I'd have to move him some where else later....and I was right. In the end we ended up moving him 3 times before finding a good place. I also got my droid room banners and they are currently setup in the droid room.

Thursday I decided to try walking to the convention center instead of waiting for the hotel's shuttle bus. Care to put money on what I'll be doing differently from now on? Not only was it hot outside, but I ended up walking to the wrong building. The OCCC is divided into two buildings: the north/south building and the west building. Celebration V is in the West building. I walked to the other one. Luckily there were shuttle buses there to take people parking there to the other building. Once I got to the droid room, I found out I had missed seeing Anthony Daniels, other wise known as C-3PO. Darn it.
After serving my shift in the room, I went to the Expedition Hall to explore the vendors and attractions. Of note was a life-size TIE Interceptor, several life-size dioramas for photo ops, the regular Jedi Training show for small children to participate it, a game of laser tag against Storm Troopers, the R2 Builder's Droid Races (Friday - Sunday), and the Celebration Store. After wandering around I went to the Celebration Store and bought a Commemorative Guide and a glass mug (pictured below).

Got Milk?

Later I visited the 501st Legion room, the Rebel Legion room, the Clone Wars Theater (which oddly enough presented every Cartoon Network show BUT The Clone Wars), and the Fan Film Theater (which did live up to its name).
Later, I returned the droid room for my second shift of the day to closing. Before anyone left, an announcement was made to be back first thing in the morning because "he" was coming. Hmm. I wonder who "he" could be? I then went to the fan film awards to see who won what. However, I was surprised to discover that the award show ended after the shuttle buses stop for the night. So of course, I had to walk all the way back to the Hotel. Only a 15-20 minute walk, but it was dark, hot, and I was only guessing where I had to go. Luckily I found my way with no problem.

Friday I used the shuttle bus and arrived at the room around 8am (too early for me). A half-hour later "he" arrived....Jedi Master George Lucas himself. This makes the second time he has visited our display (1st at C3). He went around the room, took special note of a few droids he really liked, and left. If that wasn't enough, a short time later Ben Burtt arrived to tour our room. For the un-initiated, Ben Burtt was the original sound designer for Star Wars and is responsible for creating R2-D2's voice. He spent some time talking with us about designing R2's voice and other related things.
After I got out of the room, I went to get in line to see the Mark Hamill interview, but found a line wrapping the entire fourth floor twice. So instead, I went to the Exhibition Hall and bought a book, The Fate of the Jedi: Allies. I've been waiting for this book. The booth I bought it at told me the authors of the Fate of the Jedi series would be signing autographs later that day, so I wandered around for a short while then returned to get my book signed. With that done, I then got in line for a Clone Wars panel, hoping to see some sneak peeks of season 3. No footage was shown at this panel, but I did here some great stories from the supervising director, Dave Filoni. He talked about what he thought the series was going to be like, a group of travelers going from one adventure to the next during the clone wars with few appearances by main movie characters. But he learns very quickly that GL has a different "point of view." Gl said in their first meeting that Anakin was going to have a padawan, to which Dave replied, "but George, Anakin doesn't have a padawan" (considering episode 3). GL looks at him and then says, "so Anakin is going to have a padawan...." Dave Filoni also has a hard time resisting children's questions, even if he can't answer the question, which we saw first hand. He swears parents send their kinds to him with these spoiler questions on purpose.
After the panel, I had to return to the droid room, after which I returned to the Hotel and crashed.

Saturday, same routine in the morning. After lunch, I searched for a vendor who has original release reprint movie posters for ESB (Empire Strikes Back), but only found miniature ones. In fact, I found only two or three vendors with movie posters and their selection was limited. Could be I waited too long and they were simply sold out of the poster I was looking for. Oh well. So instead I bought two R2-D2 action figures (one from the 1990's and one in the most recent packaging) and a star wars blueprints book: rebel edition.
Then I went and got in line for the Clone Wars season 3 panel. That was awesome! I got to see a few clips from the upcoming season and a mega trailer for it. Dave Filoni took more questions and of course another little kid asked a spoiler question. It was very funny watching Dave squirm wanting to answer but not being able to.
Later, it was back to the droid room and then back to Hotel to crash.

Sunday I spent the whole day in the droid room. At 5pm we closed the room for the last time. Our event leader gave a speech thanking all of us for our help and support. Special thanks went out to those who made special contributions such as set pieces or organizing certain displays, etc.. Then the tear down began. I boxed up R6-C9 again, loaded him into the rental car, and after helping tear down and saying good byes, I went back to the Hotel to crash for the rest of the day.

Early Monday morning I packed up everything, checked out of the Hotel, and hit the road back home. Tuesday morning same thing. Got home about 2pm that afternoon. Great to be back.

Man, I had a great time. I met a lot of cool people, saw some cool stuff, and was just geeking out the whole time. Can't wait for Celebration VI.

So what next? A vacation from droid building. I've put quite a bit of money and time into him the past few months, so I'm taking a break. But don't worry, it won't be for long. Just a couple of months maybe.

Later,
John

To C5 or Bust - day 2 cont.

2010-08-11T23:29:00.004-04:00

I think the photo says it all. This is one of our "photo op" sets. And that's me with a R2-D2 and C-3PO replica.
I got to the convention center around 1pm. By this time the droid room was full and people and droids. I took a lot more pictures than just the one which you can see by clicking here. I also took some video, but will wait until after I've returned home to mess with editing and uploading it.
Tomorrow is the official start of the convention and I'll be manning the droid room for the first 1.5 hours and last 1.5 hours.

John.

P.S. The Hotel in Orlando has the same pillows as the last Hotel did. Bummer.

To C5 or Bust - day 2

2010-08-11T04:33:00.003-04:00

I am not a morning person. Got up at 4am and am now about ready to hit the road again. I didn't get very good sleep on account that the pillows at this hotel are those square shaped ones with about as much fluff as a piece of paper. Haven't they ever seen normal pillows?

Anyway, today's the day I get to meet in person all the droid building experts I've been reading about and getting all kinds of advice from.

Next postings from Orlando.

John

To C5 or Bust - day 1 cont.

2010-08-10T19:27:00.002-04:00

Made it to Georgia in one piece. During the eight hour drive I went through two, count 'em, two rain storms. Couldn't see the car in front of me the rain was so heavy. Luckily they only lasted about ten minutes.

To beat Atlanta morning rush hour, I'll hit again the road again at about 4 or 5 in the morning. Next time I post here, I'll be in Orlando geeking out at all the R2-D2's.

Until then,

John

To C5 or Bust - day 1

2010-08-10T09:20:00.002-04:00

Well it's after 9am here. Car's packed and ready to go. I'll make an update when I get to the hotel. See you at Celebration V.

One last detail

2010-07-30T21:32:00.005-04:00

So before R6-C9 goes anywhere, I thought it a good idea to glue the top and bottom disc and the shoulder support boards. Now he's solid.

This past week I've been working on a harness for the battery. Due to the location of the center ankle and the tilt bar attached to it I had to locate the battery in the very front of the body.
Using my handsaw, I cut out a small piece of 1/2" plywood about the same size as the battery. I made the board a little longer than needed which I adjusted later on. I then drilled four 3/8" holes and then used a 1/2" spade bit to drill a recess halfway through so the bolt heads would be flush with the surface. I am using two small pieces of "L" channel steel railing with pre-drilled holes as brackets to connect the board to the existing railing the center ankle is bolted to (exact same railing in fact).

I was going to use 3/8" bolts to connect to the ankle rails but, if you look closely in the next picture, you can see the holes don't line up on both sides. To fix this, I used 1/4" bolts with washers.

As an after thought, I decided to add a back on the battery harness to support the battery when the body is tilted back. I also screwed on some Velcro to help hold the battery in place.

In addition to the battery harness, I've still been working on the skins. I just recently got these four panels glued together.

Also, I got the power switches installed. From top left to right: Main power switch, battery meter circuit LEDs, battery meter momentary push button (you press the button to activate the LEDs to see the voltage level), bottom: Sabertooth 2X25 speed controller, SyRen 10A speed controller, speakers & C6C PS2 receiver, arduino & VMusic2.

So with all this done, though still not finished, I think R6-C9 is ready for his public debut. From this point on all work will stop and packing begin. Already I have the feet plus hardware in boxes. My next posting should be the the day I leave for Orlando (August 10th). I'm taking my laptop with me so I can give daily updates at the convention.

Until then,

John

Never Say Never - R6-C9 Standing

2010-07-25T11:26:00.003-04:00

You know how I said last time I won't be getting R6-C9 to stand in time for the convention? Well, disregard that.

I got thinking this past week, "why not just do things the old fashioned way?" So I bought a hand saw. It's not exactly a table saw, but it works.

This is a 14-1/2" long by 1-1/4" wide by 1/8" thick steel L channel. I shall name it the "tilt support bar," or "tilt bar" for short. It's purpose is to hold the shoulder pipes that go through the body in place so the legs can be tilted back at the correct angle and stay there. I drilled four holes into it (two 3/8" and two 5/16").

I modified the center ankle to fit into the body without bumping into the PCB Tray. Then drilled two more holes (3/8") to bolt on the Tilt Bar.

In the two 5/16 holes I installed a 1-1/4" U-bolt which is what wraps around the shoulder pipe and holds it snug.

According to the Club's blueprints, an Astromech droid's legs are rotated 36 degrees back behind the body.
And now, the final result.

TADA!!!! Lookin' good!

Note that R6 is just sitting on top of the feet. I don't have them bolted on yet. To do that I need to enlarge the holes in the ankles and I absolutely need a drill press to do this to ensure the holes are kept straight.

So what's next? Good question. I have achieved my primary goal and got him standing. I might do some more painting but I think I'm done preparing R6 for Celebration 5. Only two more weeks to go.

John

Power is GO

2010-07-18T23:47:00.005-04:00

This electronic schematic is what I'll be using to power the C6C PS2 controller receiver and the Speakers. First is the L7806 voltage regulator IC chip. This reduces the 12V battery to 6V for the C6C. Next is the LM317 voltage regulator IC chip. This, combined with a 220 Ohm and a 1.1K Ohm resistor, reduces the 12V battery to 7.5V for the speakers. The capacitors on both regulators job is to ensure the voltage level remains constant in case there are any momentary surges or voltage drops caused by another device. I have built this circuit on a prototyping breadboard and it works just like it should. So I have designed a PCB of this circuit and ordered it. Should arrive this Thursday.

While I was at it, I connected the voltage regulator to the rest of R6's wiring and also connected the battery for the first time to R6. I am happy to say all power testing was successful. Now I just need to finalize the placement of the switches and the battery.

Only 3 weeks left until Star Wars Celebration V. It's starting to become more and more clear now that I will not be able to have R6 standing in time for the convention due to not having access to the proper tools by then. Oh well. I tried. R6 will just have to be on display as is. But fear not. There's still the "Return Of The Jedi" 30th anniversary, Celebration VI. Let's make that the new goal for completing R6 (or mostly completing him).

John

Painting of Feet - Complete

2010-07-12T23:49:00.005-04:00

Finally! The feet are completely painted. They turned out very nicely I think. I attached the detail pieces to the outer feet, but the inner foot's detail pieces can't go on by itself. For that I need two additional pieces plus other pieces to complete the feet. But for now I'm done with them.

Here's the skin pieces I also finished. These are done. I'll keep them in storage until I'm ready to assemble the skin onto the body. In the mean time, I still have other skin pieces to finish painting. The fun just doesn't stop :)

John

....and even more painting....

2010-07-08T23:09:00.002-04:00

"Will this never end?" C-3PO, Ep4 ANH

Truer words were never said. The painting just keeps going.

Today I sanded smooth some of the skin panels for their final coat of paint. So they are DONE! YAY! I then painted the bottom half of the feet. Next time I'll paint the top half once more and then that should be it for the feet....I hope. Only 3 skin panels left to finish painting; one more coat, sand, then final coat. After all that I can start the remaining skin pieces and maybe the skins themselves.

The clock is ticking. Four weeks left until convention time. Sadly I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but in the least I'm going to have him standing....hopefully.

....and more painting....

2010-07-04T23:31:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth of July, celebrating Independence from high taxes....wait a minute.

Today I did some more painting. I lightly sanded the feet to make them smooth and then gave them a fresh coat. However, the spray can I was using was nearly empty so I don't think much paint got on them. Should have sprayed them once more with the fresh can. Guess I'll have to give one more coat next time. Besides the feet, I also painted the skin panels which makes 3 coats now I think. They look very smooth so I may stop here and move on to other pieces.

I've also been continuing work on the electrical system. Thus far I have the wiring to and from the power switches ready for the switches, but before I connect them I need to devise a mounting plate or something to put the switches into. Also I still need to devise a way to mount the battery.

John

I Have the Power

2010-06-26T07:57:00.002-04:00

As of yesterday, R6-C9 now has his primary power source. And boy is it heavy. This thing could crush soda cans if I dropped it on some.
I started charging it last night which took about 4 - 4.5 hours on the 4amp charge setting (recommended by the charger's manual). Only down side to my charger is it has a cooling fan and it is LOUD! Am considering getting a different one...maybe.
One thing I should have done was order two batteries. You want at least two so you have a spare to use when you have to recharge the first one. I will order a 2nd one soon.

Now I just need to setup a mounting method inside the body for the battery. Of course I need the work shop to do this.

John

More painting, added fuse block

2010-06-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

Did a lot this past week. Last Thursday I did some more painting in perfect conditions, yet I am still getting that sponge effect on a few pieces. I think I know what's going on now. I noticed the affected pieces looked perfect before I brought them inside to my air conditioned apartment. But once I brought them in, within minutes the sponge effect appeared. I think the sudden change in temperature is what's causing it. So the solution might be to leave them outside for a while longer. Hopefully that's all it is.

I've also made some progress with the electrical side of the build. I ordered and received a fuse block that can hold up to 6 ATC type blade fuses (automobile fuses). It also has a ground bar on it (on the right side). Click here for the website I bought it from.

In addition I have also finally ordered a battery to power everything. I got a 12V 18Ah SLA battery. For the charger, I brought a 2 amp car battery charger that's Gel-Cell compatible.
From the same place I ordered the battery from, Jamco.com, I also ordered parts to make a battery level meter so I know how much of a charge the battery has in it.

The next step for the electrical system is to install power switches. There will be one main power switch, an emergency power switch (hidden somewhere where I can get to it quickly if R6 goes bonkers), and a power switch for every device connected to the fuse block. Now I just have to decide where to put the switches.

John

Too Humid

2010-06-13T18:42:00.003-04:00

Today the humidity was over 65% so I'm taking the day off from painting until the humidity is under 50% so the paint dries properly. Will try again Thursday (day off).

Nothing else to report.

John

Still painting

2010-06-11T08:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I finished applying the 2nd coat to the foot shells, gave the final coat to the detail parts, and gave the 1st coat to the skin panels.

Recently however, I have noticed a problem when the paint drys. A sponging effect appears in spots on the feet and detail parts. I inquired about it at the Club's forum and they said it sounds like it's too humid outside when I paint. They suggested waiting until the humidity is less than 50%. So now I have to sand the parts smooth and paint them again in the correct conditions. Painting stinks.

In other news, I recently bought different kinds of blue paint for those blue areas on R6. I've primed a spare piece of metal and will paint small parts of it with each blue variation to compare them. I'm looking for a dark blue but not too dark. Hopefully one of these will be the blue I'm looking for.

One more thing. This week I also ordered the nuts and bolts needed to attach the foot shells to the wooden legs. But it turns out I didn't make the mounting holes in the legs big enough for the correct sized bolts. I can fix this but I need a drill press to do it properly and the Shop Smith Mark V is currently awaiting transport to it's new home, which looks like my brothers house for the time being. Hopefully I can use it before C5.

John

....painting....again....

2010-06-06T18:44:00.002-04:00

This part of droid building is becoming a broken record (if you don't know what a record is, ask your parents or grandparents).

Today I started the 2nd coat of paint for the feet. For the detail parts, I lightly sanded them with 400 grit sandpaper to prep them for their final coat of paint (their 4th). The sanding tip I got form my father. The sanding only took a few minutes and then I painted them.

For the skin parts, I gave them their 2nd coat of primer. Next time will be their 1st coat of paint.

Since last Thursday, I started J-B Welding the skin panels together that need it. Once completed, I will have to sand down the splotches of J-B Weld. I used those fancy office paper clips to hold the pieces together and used a Q-Tip to wipe away any excess J-B Weld that was oozing out of the seems.

Once I'm done with the smaller pieces and the feet, I'll start priming and painting the outer skin layers.

John

Painting Feet and Skins

2010-06-03T20:25:00.002-04:00

Today I gave a 2nd coat of paint to the top half of the feet and a 3rd coat to the detail parts. I also decided to start priming the skins. Left photo is before and right photo is after primer. The reason the parts are arranged differently in each photo is because it started to rain after I had gotten everything setup. Luckily I got everything back under cover in time. I chose these pieces because they don't need to be glued to other pieces before I can paint them. Also you'll notice I put painter's tape on the back of each piece. This is so no primer or paint gets onto the back of them. I'll put on a 2nd coat of primer and then paint them like the feet. Two of the pieces in the photos are going to be blue after I'm done priming them (the center vent bezel and the charging control access door (see Episode V)). I'll paint the main skin pieces once I have room and the other panels once I get them glued. Hope fully Sunday will be a good day to continue.

John.

Painting Feet continued...

2010-05-31T01:04:00.001-04:00

Painted the bottom half of the feet today and gave a 2nd coat of paint on the detail parts. Not much else to say.

Later,

John

Painting Feet

2010-05-27T17:29:00.002-04:00

Weather was great today so I was able to start painting the feet. As before, each coat will have to be done in two stages, top and bottom. I started with the top half and the additional parts; Sunday I'll paint the bottom of the foot shells.

I don't believe I mentioned what paint I'm using. For the primer I'm using Rust-Oleum Clean Metal Primer and for the paint I'm using Rust-Oleum Satin White.

If I ever make another droid, I'm going to use a slightly darker shade of primer so can tell when I have painted completely over the primer. Also, the Satin White likes to spit a lot so you have to shake the can very often to avoid this. Another trick to help with the spitting is to sit the can in warm water. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm told it works.

Weather permitting, I'll post more progress on Sunday.

John

Paint and convention news

2010-05-23T19:36:00.003-04:00

Finally got more priming done of the feet. They are now completely covered in primer.

If the weather is good this Thursday, I'll start using the actual paint.

For the Celebration V, it turns out George Lucas will be attending again. This makes only his third appearance at a Star Wars convention, the last one being Celebration III. Hopefully he can grace the droid builders room with his presence once again.

I know I said the last color scheme was locked in for R6, but I have decided to change it....again.

It's a darker blue and in different places than R2-D2. Every time I think "R6-C9" I think "blue." I only resisted before because I didn't want to chance him being mistaken for R2-D2. But with this design, I think it'll be ok.

One more thing. I might rebuild the head. After rechecking some things, I found I made the top a half-inch too big. Not that there's an official R6 design to base that off of, but the plans the club is using suggest that measurement. It's still something I'm only thinking about. If I decide to remake it, I'll wait until after the convention.

That's it for now.

John

Priming Feet

2010-05-06T17:28:00.002-04:00

Today I started working towards getting the feet painted. The feet were made by a machine shop so there was still some grease and other crud on them. I used a general purpose degreaser to clean them. Once that was done, I used a metal primer paint and coated the inside of the feet and one side of the additional pieces. For the small pieces with screws, I wrapped small pieces of painter's tape to protect the screw threads. It'll take only two hours before I can move them, and then a total of 48 hours before I can apply primer to the remaining area of the pieces. Once everything has been completely covered, I can apply the real paint.

John

Feet Arrive

2010-04-30T16:23:00.002-04:00

Back December of 2009, I ordered 1 set of JAG Steel Feet for R6. Well they have finally arrived!

Left is all three feet plus hardware, and right is the inside of the feet.

I need to quickly decide what I'm going to do. I either need to paint them real soon or spray oil on them and store them. The reason is bare steel will oxidize and rust if I don't paint them soon. If I can't do that quickly, then coating them with something like WD-40 and wrapping in plastic will protect them from oxidization until I'm ready to paint. In the least I can put primer on them.

'Till next time,

John

Official Celebration 5 R2 Builders Logo

2010-04-26T17:32:00.002-04:00

C5 is now that much closer. These are the approved logos the R2 Builders Club will be using for their T-Shirts and Banners at the convention. Notice the Hoth scheme has the life form scanner and the Degobah scheme has the periscope.

Only 4 months to go.....

John

Eek! It Talked!

2010-04-12T08:55:00.005-04:00

Last week I accomplished four things. First, I installed the hardware needed to mount the center ankle and drilled the mounting holes through the center ankle. The ankle will be held between two L shaped steel rails by two 5/16ths bolts. But I goofed a little when setting the rails. they are 1/4" to wide on each side. I will have to make a couple of 1/4" spacers to fit between the rails and the center ankle.

Second, I routed the spot where the speakers will mount. I left a 1/8" lip all the way around the hole to rest the speaker on. I then soldered new wire onto the speakers.

Third, I cut out the replacement shoulder flange cover.

Now for the big one. I finally decided to mount my electronic hardware to the PCB tray I made and start wiring then together.

At this point everything except the power and speed controllers are wired together. Actually, the only other thing on the board is the sound and R/C circuits. Since the sound hardware was ready, I started studying how to program the Arduino. Amazingly I was able to figure it out in only 3 days using examples and tips from other droid builders and the Arduino community. So now in the end, when I push a single button on my PS2 controller, R6 will play a random sound. Of course I made a video.

Currently there are only 10 different R2 sounds stored, but I have many more I can add. Just need to select the ones I want to use and convert them to MP3's.

More progress to come. Feet should be arriving any time.

John

Celebration 5 Heats Up

2010-04-04T20:39:00.003-04:00

Starwars.com recently posted a promo video for the Celebration 5 convention.

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000986.html

I believe the footage is from Celebration 4 and maybe Celebration Japan.. Sadly, the droids from the R2 Builders Club only got two or three quick glances.

Anyways, enjoy.

Lend me your ears

2010-04-03T14:31:00.002-04:00

Nearly finished with the hardware for the audio.

Here is a riser card for the Arduino microprocessor. This makes is easy to connect wires to it.

Here we have a cheap desktop speaker set. After testing it on my computer to ensure good quality sound, I disassembled it. This will plug into the VMusic2 module. The advantage of using these kind of speakers is already having the amplifier and speakers matched and working. Just plug & play. I'll be connecting new speaker wire from the speakers to the amp.
The speakers will be mounted onto each shoulder support. I'm going to drill a hole through them for the speakers to fit into as outlined. Will use a router for this.

It's important to note that I also chose these speakers because they came with an plug in AC to DC (no, not the band) power adapter, which means I can plug the amp into a DC power source (i.e. battery) with no problems. However, the amp requires no more or less than 7.5V and the battery I'll be using is a 12V. To solve this, I'm going to make a voltage regulator. This will convert the 12V into 7.5V by bleeding the extra 4.5V out as heat. Parts are on order.

John

More Shoulder Rework

2010-04-02T17:54:00.002-04:00

After spending a couple of days admiring my droid, I noticed the right shoulder was a bit lower than the left. I looked closer and figured out why. First, the right side is the 1" pipe. Even though the hole for it (1-1/2") is centered with the other side, the hole is a little bigger than the pipe. So the pipe is resting on the bottom of the hole and thus is sitting a bit lower than the left side. Then I thought what would happen when I get the feet on...the right shoulder would then be a bit higher than the left. So now I have to fix this. It never ends.

The solution is to have the 1-1/4" pipe extend through both shoulder supports. Don't know why I didn't think to do that before. But this requires replacing both pipes (the larger one so it's long enough and the smaller one so the drilled holes are aligned). After Replacing both pipes, I cut the 1-1/4" to 16" long (was 14" before) and the new 1" pipe I kept at 14" long. Then I re-drilled the 3/8" alignment holes but this time I used a hard metal drill bit, making the job much faster and with less smoke, hehe. Now the shoulders sit level with one another.

While I was at it, I decided to try making the silver rings that go on the shoulder flanges. This is the silver part between the legs and body. I bought a 2' x 4' panel of aluminum sheet metal and using tin snips I cut out two 1-1/4" x 19-3/4" strips. I wrapped these around the flanges and trimmed to fit end to end. Then I used small scrap pieces and J.B. Weld to bridge each end.

End result came out pretty good, except for one side. There is a small gap on one of them so I'll have to remake that one. Other wise it looks great.

Starting to look like a real droid isn't it? Only took me 2 years of research and 3 years of off/on work. The steel feet I ordered should be arriving soon. Can't wait to try those on. I think next I'll tackle mounting the center ankle to the body. Stay tuned for that adventure.

John

Legs and Body are One

2010-03-28T11:06:00.002-04:00

Finally. Finally, R6-C9 has his legs on. This is the droid I've been waiting for.

According to the general club blueprints, the shoulders are a half-inch from the body. Since the body is 18", the total pipe length should be 19" (18 + half-inch on each side). To secure the pipes at this length I drilled two 3/8" holes straight through the pipes and placed a 3/8" X 2" hex bolt into each hole.

Be careful when doing this. The drill bit and the pipes get very warm to the touch. You may see a little white smoke. If the drill bit gets too hot it will deform and become useless. So take it slow. Use a drill press so the hole is straight.

Gonna take a little break from the shop (not as long as last time hopefully).

I just received some parts for the audio playback for R6. In an earlier post I said I was going to use the CFIII for the audio. Well that'll be over $200. So instead I'm going to use a little device called the VMusic2. This is a device that plays MP3 or WMA audio files, and is read off of a USB flash drive. However, it needs a microcontroller added to work. For this, I've chosen the Adruino. Specifically the Arduino Duemilanove. Click here to read about it at the R2 Builder's forum. Basicly, the Arduino is a brain for controlling just about anything. Of course you have to program it to get it to do anything. This will be quite the learning curve for me. I don't know hardly anything about programming. Should be fun to see how this works out. Others have done this so I should be able to as well. How I'll have it setup is when I push a button on my remote, it'll trigger the Arduino to tell the VMusic2 to play a random sound. That's it. I may setup a 2nd button to select different sound directories on the flash drive, for example one directory will be sad sounds, another happy, another for music, etc..
On the right is the Arduino, left is the VMusic2. Each is the size of a cell phone.

Laterz,

John

Shoulder Transplant

2010-03-26T20:32:00.005-04:00

Well I remade the shoulder supports today. But I forgot to bring the skins with me so I couldn't mark them for drilling again. Will do that tomorrow I guess. In the least I was able to finish the PCB tray today.

Program note: Today I'm going to try another way of inserting pictures into the blog. Originally I was using Blogger's image insert but it was time consuming and was hard to edit. Yesterday I just pasted the HTML thumbnail code from Photobucket. Today I'm going to try using the regular HTML image code so the pictures are a little bigger.

Here is one of the new shoulder supports with a 1/4" deep by 1/2" wide pocket for the "shoe."

After fitting the shoulder supports into the body, I installed the "support shoe" and then slid in the PCB tray.

Here's a video of how it works.

So tomorrow I'll bring the skins and get the holes drilled for the legs. I think I'll have the correct drill bit size this time, 1-1/2" hole for the 1" pipe and 1-3/4" hole for the 1-1/4" pipe.

John

One step forward, two steps back

2010-03-25T20:22:00.003-04:00

I've been preoccupied this past month with other concerns so I didn't have any time to continue work, except to brainstorm what I want to do next and how. But today I had nothing but time so here we go.

A programming note: I am trying a different method for inserting my pictures into each post, thus why the images are smaller. I'm going the route of thumbnails instead of a large picture so just click on the picture to see the full size version.

First thing I did was figure out how to mark the holes for the shoulder flange pipes to go through on the body. I came up with a genius idea. First I clamped the skins onto the body exactly how I will mount them (there's another puzzle to solve later). Next I placed the body on it's side and then inserted the shoulder flanges onto the side of the shoulder supports. Now here's where I should get a medal or something. The six holes in the flange (for mounting to the legs), I used those to mark six points on the support, then using a small ruler I drew a line from one mark to the other creating a six point star. The middle of that star is where I center the drill bit. I'm so clever I amaze myself, LOL.

Now comes the sad part. I drilled the holes (1-1/4" and 1"), but then I discovered something I had overlooked....the inside diameter of the pipes are 1" and 1-1/4" but they are like 1/8" thick, thus they didn't fit at all. This means I must remake the shoulder supports again. For every part you make, half you shall remake.

Due to banging my head against the wall a few dozen times, I didn't remake them today. Instead, I tackled making the PCB tray.

The PCB tray, as I call it, will be a simple board of MDF I will use to mount most of the electronic components to. This will help with troubleshooting and keeping everything tidy and organized inside the body. But when setting this tray up you will want to make it easily accessible to install/replace/repair/troubleshoot any of the parts. I may have mentioned earlier that I was going to have a door on the back of my droid. While others have done this, I just can't bring myself to cut the skins in a way they weren't already made to be cut. So the way I will do this is by making the tray slide up out of the body. This method is actually quite simple.
The tray will be in the back of the body just in front of the head drive motor. After deciding how wide to make the tray (11-7/8" X 12-3/4" X 1/4" for those taking notes) I marked on the top disc where to cut a 1/4" slot on each side to fit and hold the tray.

Next I used one of my extra vertical body ribs to make a "support shoe" so to speak for the tray to sit on when inside the body. It is 1-1/4" X 12-1/8" X 1/2". The grove running down its length is 1/4" wide and 1/4" deep. This piece will be mounted near the bottom of the shoulder supports (once I have remade those).

Using a 1/4" router bit, I cut the groove into the "shoe" and cut the slots into the top body disc.

Once I have the new shoulder support pieces I can test the tray's fit.

So tomorrow I will return to the shop and remake the shoulder supports. I need to figure out how big to make the holes now to fit the pipes through. Something to ponder while at the hardware store in the tools sections.

John.

More Glue Please

2010-02-24T21:47:00.002-05:00

Today I slowly glued on more pieces of the body frame. As of now all but the top, bottom, and shoulder supports are glued. I'll glue in the shoulder supports once I have a plan for drilling the shoulder pipe holes. I want to be extra careful with this because the holes need to be centered just right so the body is balanced and so the skins fit around the shoulders correctly.

John.

Glue is a tasty treat

2010-02-23T19:27:00.006-05:00

Finally decided to start gluing the body together. But unlike the first time, I'm going to glue the pieces on a few at a time, saving the top and bottom for last (pending any further modifications). Additionally, I finished mounting the Rockler bearing to the top of the body.

To start, I only glued uprights D, G's, and E to the #2 rib. I left C unglued so I could remove it to fit the front ribs in place. That will come after this sits over night. The top and bottom are not glued, but I placed them to insure the other pieces are aligned correctly.

Something else I've been working on. I recently discovered a servo controller designed to receive input from a Play Station 2 controller. This intrigued me. It might be more interesting to use a small wireless game controller instead of a bulky R/C transmitter to control R6-C9. It's called the Cheap 6 Channel (C6C) servo controller. It's made by a small company called Cheap Control Systems. For $35, you can get the DIY kit, or for $50 have them assemble it for you. I of course went with the cheaper option. The web site has very clear instructions on how to use, assemble, and test it.

The C6C

A generic PS2 WiFi controller. Note that while most PS2 controllers will work, it seems all Logitech controllers will not for some reason.

The C6C mostly assembled, minus the battery, the IC ship, and the PS2 adapter.

Once I had finished testing the circuit, I made a video showing what it can do.

Still undecided if I want to use it on R6-C9. It is cheaper, but an R/C system is a proven technology for this application. Will have to do further testing before I can come to a decision.

John

Bonus Round

2010-02-20T10:19:00.003-05:00

I know I said I couldn't use the shop anymore, but it turns out it will take a little longer to get everything squared away. So in the mean time, I have permission to keep using it until the family is ready to clear everything out. In addition, I have "acquired" some free time from work this month so I can spend all my time working in the shop. So now I can correct all the mistakes on the version 2 frame. The following is all the work I've done this entire week.

The new vertical ribs newly cut, plus 3 extra on the left there "just in case."

The vertical ribs with the link notches cut out.

New vertical ribs installed.

Placed the inner/front skin to test alignment.

Inside the body with inner/front skin on. All notches look perfect.

Next I remade all the horizontal ribs. I had to remake them twice because the first time I made them 1-1/2" thick instead of 1-1/4" thick. I didn't take any pictures because they look identical to the previous ones and you've seen those already. Below shows the all the pieces put together.

Front

Right

Back

Left

Front with inner/front skin.

Back with inner/rear skin.

Skin overlap check. Just a smidge off, but close enough. The head will hide this.

While I was on a roll, I re-tackled the leg mounting hubs. Originally, I was going to use two 3/4" pipes and then connect them together in the middle. Well I found that to be a lot of trouble and not very sturdy. Now trying to find a 3/4" pipe that will fit inside a 1" pipe is next to impossible. However, another builder found that a 1" pipe will fit inside a 1-1/4" pipe just fine. So I remade the leg hubs and attached a 1" pipe flange on one and a 1-1/4" pipe flange on the other. I used the old hubs to drill the holes for the bolts to connect to the legs.

New Leg hubs.

One 1" water pipe inside a 1-1/4" water pipe. I cut both to a length of 14".

Leg hubs with the water pipes J-B Weld'ed together.

Taking a break this weekend and then, if I still can, will try to do some more work in the shop. I want to get the holes drilled for the leg pipes to fit into on the body. Also, I'm wanting to place the Rockler bearing on the body instead of the head so mounting the head rotation motor will be easier. At this rate, R6 will be standing up in no time.

John

Cause and Affect

2010-02-11T22:44:00.003-05:00

I've been staring at the body frame trying to figure out where I goofed with some of the measurements. As I mentioned previously, the front horizontal ribs are a little higher than I intended and they don't line up to the vertical ribs correctly, thus I have to re-cut all the front horizontal ribs and at least the A, B, and C vertical ribs, maybe all of them. To top it all off the skins are still a little taller than the body, about an eighth of an inch.
I recently discovered the problems. First, the height: I checked the thickness of the wood and found it was about 1/16th of an inch thinner than 3/4". With the top and bottom base plates like this, I have an 1/8th" height difference, exactly how it measures compared to the skins. This can be easily fixed by gluing an 1/8" piece of wood or MDF to the top or bottom.
Next, the horizontal ribs: when I measured where to cut on the vertical ribs for the horizontal ribs to connect, I forgot to take into account that an extra 1/4 inch was going to be under the vertical ribs. Oops. This means everything is a 1/4 inch too high, except for horizontal rib #3 which is an entire half inch off. Not sure why it's the only one. Oh well.
Finally, why the horizontal ribs won't line up to the vertical: When I made the horizontal ribs, I used the template from the version 1 body, but later found it to be slightly flawed. I made the top base , bottom base, and #2 horizontal rib (the one that is a whole circle) correctly by using the patterns I cutout. But I forgot to redo the other horizontal ribs to match.
Looking back, I had less trouble making the first body frame because I didn't try to reverse engineer the plans before. Just goes to show that it is possible to over think something.

In other news, I decided to downgrade my R/C transmitter to a 5 channel instead of the 6 channel to same money. I'm only going to be using at least 3 channels anyway (2 for the foot drives, 1 for the head). No need to over do it.
Also, the speed controllers I ordered arrived late last week.

Until next time,

John

One chapter ends, another begins

2010-02-09T09:48:00.002-05:00

Last Friday, at approximately 4:15pm est, my Grandmother passed away. She leaves behind 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. She was kind, strong willed, and just awesome. She will be greatly missed.

Of course this means any kind of shop work is now over until a new location to setup the shop can be obtained. Yesterday was my last chance to use the old shop. After the funeral the house will be cleaned out and sold at auction. All the heavy power tools will probably be placed in storage for the time being. Yet even more reason for me to buy my own house. Well, let me show you what I did yesterday and what I still need to do.

Yesterday I nearly completed the bottom base disc for the body. All it needs now is to have the left and right side cut flat. I would have done it but I was having trouble getting the skins to lineup good enough to mark where to cut, so I'll deal with it later. to the right is the two shoulder support boards. They are done and ready to install.

After I moved everything to my apartment last night (who knew I had so much stuff at the shop), I did a mock assemble of the body to see if all the parts fit good. Good thing I checked before gluing. I have found that all the front horizontal ribs do not line up correctly and need to be remade as well as vertical ribs A B and C. Despite my careful measuring, the positioning of these parts are wrong. Everything else seems good for now.

Well, that's it. Until I get a new shop to work in, I won't be able to work on the body and legs anymore. I still have things I can do though, like the electronics and the skins. Skins are nearly ready for gluing together. Just a few more panels to cut out.

John

Back to the Shop, more stuff ordered.

2010-02-04T00:06:00.003-05:00

Back to the shop? That's right. Even though it's still cold outside, I am resuming work in my Grandfathers workshop. Why? The simple answer is because soon the work shop won't be available to use ever again. The reason is this: last year at about this time my Grandfather passed away leaving just my Grandmother (I should have posted this detail when it happened, but for some reason I didn't think to). Well now my grandmother has become very ill and it looks like she will soon be with God and Grandpa. Once this happens, the house where the work shop is will be up for sale. This is a problem because neither I or my Dad have a place to relocate all the power tools to (both me and my parents live in apartments). Thus I am trying to get as much work done as I can before we have to clean out the house, including the work shop. I am currently saving up for my own house where I can setup my own work shop and give a new home for all those power tools, but it may be a while before I can do that.
Hopefully I can quickly save enough money to buy a house with a garage and continue work on R6-C9. Maybe in the next month or two.

So here's what I was able to do today:

This is the top disc for the body, all trimmed and ready for assembly. First pic is the top, second is the under side.

Next I'll work on the bottom disc.

Today I also ordered the speed controllers for the foot drives and the head motor.
Haven't had time to work on the skins any, but I hope to finish cutting the panels out of the remaining sheets soon. Once that's done I can start gluing the layers together, and then when the weather is right, paint.

John.

New PIC 169 flasher

2010-01-10T19:07:00.003-05:00

The new LED flasher for the rear logic display arrived a couple of days ago.

Also, the fourth book in the Fate of the Jedi book series, "Backlash," will be released this month, so keep a look out for it....if you're into the novels that is.

John

[Update: 01/18/2010] I just discovered that the above mentioned book "Fate of the Jedi: Backlash's" release date has been bumped from January to March 2010. I sense the Dark Side is behind this.

Skin work and new parts

2010-01-04T18:10:00.003-05:00

Today I removed the panels and filed down the burs on the rear inner set or part "B".

I also ordered a new PIC Flasher kit from Carl's Electronics to replace the one that doesn't work anymore.

John

Started work on Aluminum Skins

2010-01-02T18:15:00.004-05:00

Good golly it got cold here.

I have a few days off for New Years so I'm taking this opportunity to start work on the skins. Remember there are 4 main pieces, 2 inner and 2 outer layered one on top of the other. Using blue painter's tape I placed a piece on each panel I removed as a label and another on the skin skeleton so I know where each panel came from. For example, I designated the front inner as part "A" and the rear inner as part "B". Then each piece would be labeled as "A-1", "A-2", etc.
Today I worked on the outer rear, or part "D". It is not exactly fun. First I used a loose hacksaw blade to cut through the tabs holding the panels to the skeleton. Once that was done I used a metal file to file down the remaining bits of the tabs so they're flush. The picture below shows all the pieces from part "D" cut out. A large piece of part "D" is removable to allow for a rear panel door to gain access to the inside of the body by means other than the top with the head removed.

As for the PIC Flasher that doesn't want to power on, I can't figure out why it won't work so I'll have to order a new one. Oh well.

More updates to come little by little. Once the spring thaw comes, I'll have lots more to post as I return to the shop.

John

Merry Christmas updates

2009-12-27T00:26:00.002-05:00

Well this past week I've built and tested the Rear Logic Display circuit with mixed results. The LEDs work, but the PIC Flasher circuit didn't. I'm not sure why. It may have gotten damaged from too much handling. I'll have to run some test (staring at and pleading with it mostly) before I can conclude it is wasted. Luckily I have two of these flasher kits so I was still able to test the LEDs.

Also, I got in the mail the motor that makes the head turn.

You just put a wheel on the axle and place the tread up against the inside rim of the Rockler bearing. Then you plug the motor into a small speed controller which then connects to the R/C receiver. I still have to get the wheel and rig up a way to mount the motor.

Ironically, this motor came from a surplus store in Orlando Florida, the city where the convention will be.

John

Collecting time

2009-12-13T18:46:00.002-05:00

So I've mostly figured out what parts I need and how I'm going to assemble them. Thus far I'm going to be using:

The CFSound III sound control board to playback the R2 sound clips,
The 12ch RF remote system to activate the CFSound III,
The Sabertooth 2X25 Duel Motor Speed Controller for the feet,
The SyRen 10 Speed Controller for the head motor,
2 NPC 2212 DC motors for the feet,
1 Pittman GM9236 DC motor for the head (ordered),
1 12V Gel-Cel Battery,
1 homemade automatic control circuit for the head/sound (in progress)
1 Spektrum DX6i 6 channel 2.4Ghz radio control system with the BR6000 bot receiver
1 set of JAG steel outer/inner foot shells (ordered).

Some have already been ordered, while the rest must wait until I hvae saved more money. I have most of the parts for the automated circuit and will start that when the last piece comes in.

For the front/rear Processor State Indicators, because they run on no more than 9V, I need to add a voltage regulator to their power supply to reduce the voltage from 12V to 9V. For this I also need just one more part which is on order.

The JAG steel feet will be mailed to me sometime in March of 2010.

That's about all for now.

John

Tickets on Sale Now

2009-12-10T17:55:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day tickets for Celebration V were on sale, so I bought a four day pass and booked a hotel near the convention center. Man, I can't wait for this.

I've started working again on the Logic Displays, cutting the fiber optics and making the circuit for the rear set. I've also started making a list of parts I'll need for the automated stuff. I found a circuit designed by Master Droid Builder Senna to randomly trigger the head motor and the sound device. I've already got some of the parts for it, waiting on the rest to arrive by mail. Still need to get the motor for the head, the sound device, and a rechargeable battery for everything. All requires money, so I'll be getting this stuff a little at a time, but should have it all long before August.

Can't wait for this winter weather to blow away to spring so I can get back into the shop.

John

Here's the plan

2009-12-06T13:03:00.003-05:00

I've finally finalized the color scheme I'm going to use for R6-C9, pictured below. This is it. Final. No going back. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
It'll be a "gun-metal" kind of color. I know what I want it to look like, but how to achieve it I will have to learn. So if I get to paint any parts before C-V, this is the color.

Other decisions: I have decided (for the most part) what features I will focus on getting done and what I will save for after the convention. I am going to focus mostly on the head; getting the skin on it, installing the lights, etc, as well as hopefully getting some automation going for the head turning and talking. If you read my very first few blog postings (2005), I was wanting to make R6 just an automated display and then build another droid with all the tricks (most likely R2-D2). The plans for R6 have evolved several times since. To date, I think I want to be able to drive R6 around by remote, but also be able to leave him standing still while talking and turning his head when someone gets close enough to trigger an IR sensor. So the automated stuff I want to have working by Convention time. As for the body, I'll have it assembled with the legs and maybe skins attached. I've just ordered a set of steel foot shells for the feet. I'm not going to setup the motor drives, just have some temporary wheels installed so he can stand up.

So, in review, by convention time R6 will:
Have a mostly (if not fully) skinned head with lights
Have a completed body frame with legs and temp feet and maybe body skins
Have working automated sound and head rotaion

A small list, but still a big job to do. Hopefully, no, I will have all of this done in time.

I must be crazy.

John

STAR WARS CELEBRATION V!!!!

2009-12-03T21:42:00.004-05:00

Today Starwars.com officially announced the dates and location for the next Star Wars convention, Star Wars Celebration V (5). Click here to see the news on starwars.com.

It will be in early August in Orlando Florida. I've never been there so this will be fun, and it'll be a whole lot easier for me to travel there. I missed Celebration IV, but not this one. I will have R6-C9 on display there, ready or not. Hopefully I'll at least have him on his own feet.

I'm still going to take a break for the winter because of the cold and stuff, but as soon as it gets in the 50's again, I'll be making saw dust. Dude, I've got planning to do. The Club is already buzzing about this. I've gotta move it, move it.

Excited,
John

One last time

2009-11-28T19:44:00.006-05:00

As luck would have it, the temperature today was in the high 50's so I went back to the shop to try and finish the parts for the version 2 body. I was able to get all the vertical ribs cut to size and they are mostly ready for glueing (except for one or two little details left to cut). This time however, I'm not glueing anything until I have test fitted all the frame parts with all the detail parts plus the skins in case I need to redo a part or some other kind of modification so everything fits where it should.

That's all. Hope you had, or in my case, are still having a thankful Thanksgiving, hope you survived Black Friday (or avoided it in my case), and don't forget that Christmas is now less than a month away. Aren't the holidays fun?!

John

Closed for the season

2009-11-22T18:52:00.002-05:00

Didn't really do anything today except for checking some measurements for cutting out the vertical ribs. It's getting really cold in the shop now so as of now I'm halting all major shop work until it gets warmer....being Indiana that might be next week, ha ha.

But don't worry. There's still plenty I can work on at home. There's still all the electronics to buy and/or make, working on the aluminum skins, and buying hard to make parts. Speaking of which, I recently put in an order for several plastic parts that would be near impossible to make by hand with the tools and knowledge I have. I'll post pictures of these things when I receive them.

That's about it. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

John

R6 Body, version 2

2009-11-18T19:07:00.003-05:00

Got a much earlier start today so i got a lot more done. I had a template from the version 1 body still and since its diameter and vertical rib positions are correct, I used it again to remake all the ribs.

After cutting out two 3/4" disk, three 1/2" disk, and one 1/4" half-disk I placed the template on top of each one and, using a router with a 1/2" x 1" router bit with guide wheel, I cut the rib slots out. The next two pictures are a before and after example.

Three 1/2" disk at 18" diamter.

I don't believe I've shown this before. This is the router bit with the guide wheel. The wheel is the silver ring below the blade. You can get these in several sizes and with the wheel above or below the blade.

Cutting out center of ring #2. Gotta have room inside for all the wires and junk.

These are all the pieces I made today.

All that's left to make is the vertical ribs, the top and the bottom disk. Then it's test fit, test fit, test fit! I do not want to have to remake all these parts again.

It's starting to get really cold here in Indiana (49 degrees F today). The shop is at my Grandparents house in their garage and it gets cold in there during the winter. As such, I will be taking a winter break from shop work until late February or March when it will be warm enough to have the garage door open. I'm going to try to finish building the new body before it gets too cold, but no promises. During this time I will work on other things like the electronics and prepping the aluminum skins for painting.

John

Prep work

2009-11-16T22:43:00.004-05:00

Ok, first things first. Let's get the insert installed into the center ankle.

Ok, moving on. I didn't get much done today except to confirm what I need to change for the v.2 body frame and acquiring additional material. I got 4 boards of 1/8" MDF at the Home Depot to use for the Shoulder Horseshoes. The Horseshoes are the extra material on the Shoulders, more on that another time. I also got some new router bits at Lowes and a new router at the Wood Craft wood working store. Turns out one of the employees at Wood Craft makes Star Wars costumes. Him and another employee there geeked out when I told them what I was making with the new router.

Once I got back to the shop I took the clamps off the 2nd leg and TaDa! Just a few more details to add and I can start painting.

Before I get rid of it, I tried the aluminum skins on the v.1 body. Good news is it nearly fits. Bad news is I still have to remake it. I also discovered that the body is a tad too short. You can see the skins rising a little higher than the top of the body.

Left side. Flat area cut right but as I said before a rib on each side is not perfectly vertical.

Right side. Is supposed to look like the left side. Oh well.

I also tried the skins with the body template I used to match all the rid slots. It fits perfectly which means I got the diameter correct at 18". Also it appears the vertical ribs are positioned exactly where they need to be.

I'm off this Wednesday so I'll be back in the shop cutting out new pieces for the v.2 body. I might even try to make a template for the Shoulder Horseshoes.

John

Got Skins

2009-11-15T16:58:00.004-05:00

Thursday I received the laser cut aluminum body skins for R6-C9. They are of course exactly the same as R2-D2. Only difference between an R2 and an R6 is the head. The skins come as an inner pair and an outer pair. This is so the panels looked recessed where needed. They will require a lot of prep work. First I have to remake the body frame to fit the skins. Next I'll have to cut out all the panels on the outer and some off of the inner set which will depend on whether or not certain panels will open like in the movies. Once the panels are cut out and the burs are filed down I can start painting the outer set. The inner set will be screwed down to the frame and then the outer set when ready will be glued to the inner set. It will require a lot of work and a lot of time.

These are pictures of the skins. Nice huh? The outer skins are on the left side of the picture. The first picture is the front inner/outer and the second is the rear inner/outer.

Tomorrow I will take the skins to the shop and start measuring to make the version 2 body. I'll also try it on the version 1 to see how close I got.
Until then,

John

2nd leg and deformed body

2009-11-08T14:31:00.003-05:00

Through a series of insane events, I will have an additional day off for the first 3 weeks this month, so I will be using this extra time to do more work on R6-C9. To follow is said extra work from last week.

Glue is dry. Looking good, don't ya think? Still have lots of details to add, but the core of the leg is now complete.

Thought this would be a good point to drill the ankle pivot holes where the feet will attach. Used a 1/2" drill bit and the Mark V in Drill Press mode.

I inserted a metal tube into each ankle for added strength when the feet are attached. These have a 1/2" outer diameter, 3/8" inner diameter, and are 1" long.

Drilling ankle pivot hole into center ankle.

Forgot to buy a metal insert for the center ankle; will get one next time.

I have also glued the other leg together. Now I have a complete set of legs.

Now about the body. With the legs at the point where I can mount them to the body, I started working with it to do just that. However I noticed a few errors. First, each side of the body is not flat up and down, it is sticking out at an angle. Second, there are 2 flat spots on each side where the legs fit that aren't matching each other. Both issues require replacing a few parts including the entire bottom ring of the body. Doing this would likely result in further damage to the body. As such, I have regretfully decided to scrap the current body and build a new one. The lesson here is to always measure twice, test fit many times, and glue together at the last moment.

As luck would have it, a Club member has made a run of laser cut aluminum body skins for a reasonable price. Mike Senna and Victor both used these same skins to measure and fit the parts for the body frame, so I'm going to do the same. As soon as the skins arrive, I'll start remaking the body. In the meantime, I'll keep working on the legs, getting all the detail parts made and attached.

Until next time,

John

Circuit test

2009-11-03T09:48:00.002-05:00

So here's the video I was talking about. Earlier this year I remade the Processor State Indicator circuit but I never got around to testing it to ensure it worked. Well last night I tested it. See the results below.

Now I just need to make a 2nd one for the rear lights.

John

More shoulder work

2009-11-02T19:28:00.004-05:00

Recently I was reading all my previous postings and realized how much my plans have changed for R6-C9 since I started. Originally I planned to just have him as a stationary display that would talk and turn it's head when someone came close. Later I decided to add feet motors so i could drive him around. Much later I decided to give him the works, but just recently subtracted some features (2-3-2). He's also gone through 3 color changes, from white/orange to yellow/black to white/green. Even now I'm still considering other color options. Just goes to show that there are few sure things in this world....especially with hobbies.

Went to the hardware store and got extra 5/16" x 2" hex bolts and T-nuts. I did get that one stuck T-nut off after using two big wrenches and a lot of elbow grease.

The shoulder flanges with 4 newly drilled holes each in the center.

2 electrical outlet box cover plates with new holes drilled.

Used the eight 1/4" x 2" hex bolts plus nuts. Note the electrical plate on the back side (used for extra support.

You'll want to saw/cut off the extra length of the bolts so they don't interfere with anything else inside the leg, mainly the shoulder hub. I used a simble hacksaw.

Shoulder Flanges mouted to the legs. I'll need to saw off at least a half-inch of the outer bolts so I can glue on the outer leg panel.

Without the flanges.

So here's why all the extra hardware. I'm using a 3/4" gas pipe to connect both legs through the body. Now the other guys use a 3/4" on one leg and a 1" pipe on the other with one pipe inside the other, but they are a really snug fit and I don't want to spend hours at the hardware store test fitting pipes. I have a couple of ideas on how to use a 3/4" pipe on both legs, but I'll be waiting until later to test it out.

After about half a year I am ready to glue the legs into one whole piece. I only have enough clamps to glue one leg at a time.

Tomorrow I'll have a video to show you. And that's all I have to say about that.

John

Shoulder Bones

2009-10-26T21:13:00.003-04:00

I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to, but even a little is more done than before.

Before I get started on what I did today, I have decided that R6-C9 will not sport the 2-3-2 leg transition system. I made this decision because I'm worried about the stress to the wood frame, the cost of all the mechanical parts, and because I'd rather focus on just getting the droid built. I'll probably make a 2nd droid and maybe with that one I will put in the 2-3-2. Right now, let's keep it simple for the rookie ;P

Today I focused on the Shoulder Flanges. I mentioned in the last post that I made the flanges too big, so today I corrected that by trimming the flanges down to the correct size. Remember, if you make a mistake, make it too big.

Look closely and you can see the drawn circle. This marks how big the flange should be, 6-1/4in diameter.

The back side of one of the legs. I drew the 6-1/4" circle to show where the flange would be and the smaller circle is a 4" circle that needs to be cutout. Not sure how I will do that.

The version 2 flange in position.

All these parts are for connecting the flange to the shoulder and for connecting the pipe that will join both legs together. This pipe will be running through the body.

I am using instructions from another droid builder name Victor who also has a blog detailing how he built his first R2-D2 from start to never-will-be-officially-done (you'll always be making improvements). He has some great insight (mainly from learning the hard way) on getting some of the hardest stuff done. I'm using his Leg Tutorial which is based off of Mike Senna's method. I highly recommend Victor's blog over mine for better detailed guidance. His blog's address is http://vfranco.blogspot.com/.

Where the six lines meet the drawn circle is the drilling point.

Drilling the mounting holes for the flange to the leg's shoulder.

Inserting the bolts. Using 6 5/16in x 2in hex bolt with 1/2in head and washer.

Those are "T-Nuts" the bolts are screwed into. The T-Nuts are pulled into the wood as you tighten the bolts. This way you can undo the bolts and re-insert the bolts without losing a secure fit. This idea comes from Mike Senna: Droid Master.

Sadly, one of the T-Nuts's teeth bent while I was inserting it and now is won't come off the bolt. Not sude what to do about this without damaging the flange and leg. Stay tuned to see how Droid-Boy gets out of this mess, same droid time, same droid channel.

John.

Last week's work and beyond

2009-10-26T01:27:00.003-04:00

So besides last weeks pictures I also found more pictures from the summer still on my camera.

The glue is now dry.

Two halfs of a leg. Still have a little trimming to do plus research before I glue it into one whole piece. The research is to see if there is anything more I need to do to the leg that would be easier as two pieces.

2nd leg pieces being glued.

2nd leg now at same stage as the other leg.

Showing off how it will look when glued.

Flip side of the 2nd leg.

Ok. That's it for the summer. Now onto last Monday.

One of the legs still needs the "arm pits" routed out (I did not name it, that's what the Club calls them). You can see the pencil outline of where I will be cutting.

"Arm pits" done. Came out real nice. Note how close I came to running out of wood on the inside. If I ever make wooden legs again, I'll make the center layer thicker in that area.

Rough cut circles for the Shoulder Flanges. I only need 2 but made 4 to be safe.

Smoothed Shoulder Flange. Unfortunately I made them too big. I will have to re-cut them to the correct size next time I'm in the shop.

The Shoulder Flange is the silver metal you see between R2-D2's body and shoulders.

John

Reboot

2009-10-20T22:03:00.004-04:00

Yeah so, hey. I guess you're wondering why I haven't posted any updates since June. The reason is two fold: 1) I ran into a "fork-in-the-road" concerning what I wanted to do about the 2-3-2 leg conversion and so I stopped working on R6 until I could make a decision, and 2) I kept putting off updating the blog. But I'm back now and I have several things I've done since June to catch you up on, so on with the show.

The first 2 photos shows the mistake I mentioned in the last post where I cut two outer pieces too short. The 1st photo shows it looked when I made the mistake and the 2nd photo shows the how it should look.

Glueing the center ankle's 1/2" pieces.

The center ankle's outer pieces cut correctly this time.

Can't remember exactly what I was trying to show here. I think I was just showing these pieces after the glue had finished drying.

Center ankle ready to glue on the outer pieces.

Thought it best to glue the outer pieces one at a time.

Closeup of some pockets where a "metal" detail piece will go. There are 2 pockets on each leg.

2 1/2" hole for mounting the shoulder hub. This is the outer side of the legs.

Don't they just line up perfectly?

Glueing the 1/4" detail pieces on both legs.

These photos were taken over the summer. I recently started work in the shop again and have pictures of what I did, but I'll show those in the next posting.

John.

More Leg Work

2009-06-24T17:08:00.007-04:00

R6 is really taking shape now. I have nearly all the major parts made and ready for assembly.

Following the "Senna Leg" design, I have the five main parts for both outer legs. Both legs have the same parts. In the picture the parts are layered on top of each other to show how they will be glued together. From left to right wood thickness: 1/2", 1/2", 3/4", 1/2", 1/4". You'll notice the 3/4" piece was hollowed out.

Both outer leg parts stacked to test fit and show off how they'll look when glued. I still have some minor work to do on them before I glue. More on that next time.

Close up of the outer ankles. Note the hollow space. This is for the electrical wiring for the foot motors and for the 2-3-2 transition leg rod.

The standard Astromech Droid has a center foot connected to the center ankle which extends and retracts from under the body. Following the "Senna Design" the center ankle is made of four layers of wood, two 1/2" and two 3/4" with the 1/2" in the middle of the sandwhich. The two 3/4" pieces will be cut short of the ankle tip in a half-circle. The picture below shows one of the 3/4" pieces before cutting with the half circle drawn on it. BIG NOTE: I goofed here. The circle outline was positioned incorrectly. Each end should start at the bend points. Technicaly I believe it's a half-inch higher than it should be. Sadly I didn't realize this until I had already cut both pieces and test-fitted them.

This board has an 1/8" dia pin in it for the 3/4" ankle pieces to rotate on. Mike Senna goes into more detail about this in his tutorial. Basicly, the ankle will rotate through the bandsaw perfectly in line with the half-circle. Too bad I messed up the measurements which also affects where the pin is located.

The ankle ready to be cut. If only I could stop myself here. Now I'll have to remake these two pieces and try again. Good thing I still have the template.

I'm on vacation this week so I'll be spending more time at the shop than just one day this week. More updates coming soon.

John