Nearly complete

Hey there,

This past week I was able to do more work on my droid plus I have finished my evaluation of Blogger. I have decided Blogger is by far a much better blog service than Yahoo! 360 and thus all new progress on my droids will be posted here at Blogger exclusively. I will make one last post at Yahoo! 360 with a link to this blog. Before I do anymore work on building R6-C9, I'll copy all relevant post from my Yahoo! 360 blog to here with the same dates they were originally published.

Now to show you all the work I have recently done:

This is the rotation ring (disc #1) ready for gluing. Unlike the top half of the head where I had to position the ribs so they wouldn't interfere with lights and such sticking into the skins, I was able to evenly place the neck ribs. I chose to use eight ribs for the neck, placing them at 45° degrees from each other.

Here is the bottom of disc #2a glued to disc #2b with the slots for the neck ribs cutout. Before I attach the rib pieces, I will cut a hole in the center for hand access.


One last look at the head before I cut a hole in the middle and add the neck.


Here are the eight neck ribs all trimmed, sanded and ready to install.


Here I am using a router to cutout the center of disc's #2a & #2b. Because I'm cutting through an inch worth of wood, I'm cutting through in several passes. This is easier on the router and the router bit.


Finally I cut all the way through. Came out clean and even. Just a little sanding to smooth the edges.


Apply glue, insert wood, add clamps, and let sit for 24 hours.

The results after the glue dried. Came out amazing. The head is nearly complete. All that's left is to add the crown on top. But first I will take a break from shop work. This is the front where the radar eye will go.

A close up view of the new neck ribs.


The back of the head.

A weeks worth of updates

Good Morning Everybody!!! I have had a busy week with exciting updates! SO let's get started>>>>>>>>>

The picture above is R6's head after I took off the clamps (see previous post). Came out really nice I think. That empty space below the head and the rotation disc (disc #1) is what I'm working on now. I just need to put some 2" ribs down there. It's what I've come to call the neck. Now the exciting news is I've already started work on the neck and thus far the results are fantastic! I have all the grooves in disc #1 and disc #2a cut and sanded, plus I've already made the master rib template for the neck and have rough cut the rib pieces. All that's left to do is using the router to trim the ribs to match the master template, sand them smooth, and then glue them in. Pictures? Um...well...I didn't have my camera with me for this new stuff. But fear not! Before I do anything else, I'll take pics of everything I've already done. And now for some more big news. When I got back from the Mid-West Builders BBQ, I got an email from our host saying I had won his aluminum ankle cylinders. I was like "huh????" Turns out the host of the BBQ had a full set of astromech aluminum ankle cylinders he was going to give away, and for who knows why, he chose me. So this past week I received them in the mail. I'll put up pics of them as soon as I am brave enough to remove them from their packaging. So much for R6 only being wood and plastic. Now he'll have some real "bling" to show off.

John

Comparing Blogs and Intro

Hi. For those who haven't been following my other blog, my name is John. I am a two year member of the R2-D2 Builders Club and I am currently building my very first astromech droid. For clarification, an astromech droid is a type of droid in the Star Wars universe, like the difference between a sedan and an SUV. Both are cars, but both are different. In Star Wars, the character R2-D2 (artoo-detoo) is an astromech droid manufactured by the fictional Industrial Automation company. There are several different models of astromechs including the P2-unit, the R1 through R9-units and the Q9-units.

The astromech model I chose as my first fan-made, full scale replica is the R6-unit, which I have named R6-C9.
The picture to the right is a homemade representation of what my droid will look like when completed.
Currently I'd say he's about 10-15% complete.

Currently I am evaluating Blogger with the blog service I have been using Yahoo! 360. If I decide I like Blogger better, I'll copy all my post from Yahoo! 360 here so all of you can catch up on how I got to where I currently am with this insane hobby.

So for now, I will be putting the same updates on both blogs until I have chosen one over the other.
Cya laterz,
John

Assembled top-half

[Originally published on Yahoo! 360°]

Today I was able to do some more work on R6-C9's head. I test fitted the top disc again but found still two ribs just out of position. Instead of taking the ribs off again, I cut new grooves into the top disc (disc #3 for those taking notes) where the ribs were lining up. But somehow I cut just to the other side of the ribs AGAIN?!?!?! I don't know why this is happening, but this time I just made them fit. So now the top disc is glued on and drying. See the new pictures below:

Note that the head is upside down in the pictures. As soon as the glue dries, I'll take pictures of the head right-side up. Next will be making the neck ribs.

One other thing. I've been thinking about this for some time, but I've decided to try using a different Blog service....one with more flexibility concerning pictures and video. Now mind you this is just a test. If I can insert my pictures and videos into my blog as I want to, then I'll be making the switch. If I run into the same limitations as with Yahoo 360, then I'll just stay here. If I do switch, I will leave a link to it here so you all can find me still. I'm still trying out different things with using pictures and video on my website. Haven't been able to get anything to work right yet, but hopefully I will find the solution soon.

Laterz,
John

Corrections Made

[Originally published on Yahoo! 360°]

Hello again,

I spent about two hours at the shop this morning correcting the mistakes I made. Good news is all four misplaced ribs have been repositioned and the glue is drying. The bad news is I cut off one rib too many and had to replace that one as well. Oh well.

Hopefully I can get to the shop again this Sunday and try fitting on the top of the head. So far the alignment of the ribs from the bottom to the top are close but not quite dead on. But I think I can just pull them into place without too much trouble. We shall see. If I can get all the ribs to fit into the top disc correctly, then the gluing shall begin.

John

Back from the BBQ

[Originally published on Yahoo! 360°]

What a FUN time I had at the Mid-West R2 Builders BBQ last weekend! I saw several astromech droids there plus a C-3PO, a "Lost In Space" B9 Robot, the K9 robot dog from "Doctor Who", and one of three robots from "Silent Runner." I met some seasoned droid builders and some beginners (like me). It's hard to put into words exactly all that I saw, which is why I took lots of pictures and a few videos.

I'm using Photobucket now to store my droid pictures and videos. Use the following link to view each photo and video I took.
Mid-West R2 Builders BBQ
I hope you enjoy them.

As for my progress on R6 himself, I was able to do a little more work on him last Friday before I left for the R2 BBQ. I cut the grooves into Disc #3 for the ribs and then I glued the ribs into Disc #2B. But then I discovered that four of the ribs did not line up with the grooves on Disc #3. Upon rechecking both disc, I discovered that my Dad had miscalculated the position of one of the ribs, thus throwing off the position of the next three after it. So to fix this, I'll have to cut off the four misplaced ribs, sand down what's left, cut new grooves into Disc #2B, and then make four new ribs. Luckily, I have the master rib to copy off of. I would have done this by now except the tempature has been near the hundreds this whole week, making it too hot in the shop to do any work. Hopefully it will cool down soon.
What I had of R6-C9 to take to the BBQ got high praise from some of the other builders. They said I had done fine work. It's good to have support from others who have been down this road before.

Until next time,
John