The Circle is Nearly Complete

Saw the new "Official" full Trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.   YEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm excited.

Just bought a ticket for the early showing and for the next day at my local 3D IMAX.

Nothing new about R6.  Various things had to be prioritized time and money wise.  Will resume when able.

John

Droid-Con 4

Droid-Con has just been announced for June 16th-19th, 2016.  The con will be held at a different Hotel this time because Droid-Con has gotten too big (head count wise) to fit at the previous place.  The new Hotel is actually brand new and across the street the other one.
Of course I'm going.  Already signed up.  I'm thankful they do this in Indiana every time.  Once I'm done getting the legs usable I'm going to focus on finishing the head.  I have a full year to do it so wish me luck.

As always go to www.astromech.net or www.droidcon.info for more information.

John

Glue part 3

Started first two pieces of right leg and added another piece onto the left leg.

Started work on a detail piece for the legs that I never got around to making for the first set.  But I'm going to need buy the band saw attachment for my Mark V before I can make any head way on this piece.

John

Glue part 2

Glue the next piece on.  Wait another 24 hours.  Repeat.

John

A spoon full of Glue?

Today I did final prep on the legs and glue together the first two of several pieces.

Left leg pieces glued together.  Only have enough clamps to glue one leg at a time so it'll be a slow process as I have to give each piece 24 hours before removing the clamps.  But that's ok because it'll be over 24 hours by the time I come home from work tomorrow.  And if I feel up to it I'll remove the clamps and glue the next piece on.

Just before I glued them together, I routed little indention's on the leg rod side of the piece where the leg rod attaches.  This is to allow the leg rod assembly to fit flat against it.

That's about it for today.
One thing I forgot to mention in the last post is the Star Wars: Rebels season 2 trailer was also released the same weekend as the 2nd teaser for Episode 7.  The second season looks AWESOME!  Check it out as soon as you can but I recommend getting caught up on the first season of Rebels first or some details might get spoiled for you.

John

Stuck at Home

There's a Star Wars party on the west coast and I'm not there!  Waaaaaaaaaa!

Sadly, I couldn't get transportation to Anaheim arranged so I'm stuck at home.  But it's not like I'm missing everything.  For the first time, StarWars.com is Live Streaming Celebration Anaheim which includes some of the panels.  Over the last three days I got to see the Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and The Force Awakens panels plus the cosplay contest and various interviews.  Plus all the photos and videos people are posting on YouTube and other sites.  So it's almost like being there, but not.
Rumor has it the next Celebration might be in Orlando again in two to three years but I'd like to see Indianapolis get it again.  Fat chance though because Disney now runs everything and they'll likely keep this close to their theme parks for that extra $$ factor.

NEW TEASER TRAILER!!!!!  So Excited!!!!!

Haven't done anything new with R6 yet.  Been distracted by other things needing done.  You know how it is.

Speaking of R6, I found out yesterday that the R6-unit, which originated in the Extended Universe, is now official cannon.  You'll see R6 heads in the new movie in use by the X-Wing pilots.  They look pretty much exactly like mine.  So very pleased with that.

Since I never posted anything about my trip to Celebration 6, I'm going to take this chance to link the photos I took at that time.  I'll also link my photos of Celebration 2 and 5 while I'm at it.  You can find these photos and more anytime by using the link to my Photobucket page.

Star Wars Celebration II, Indianapolis 2002

Star Wars Celebration V, Orlando 2010

 Star Wars Celebration VI, Orlando 2012

Will try to do some more work on R6 soon.

John

Pits and Shoulders

Yesterday I worked on the arm pits and drilled the mounting holes for the shoulders.

I wanted to use a 1/4" diameter router bit with a top mounted pattern bearing but couldn't find one to save my life.  All I could find was bits with the bearing on the bottom or both top and bottom but not top only.  Weird.  So I had to settle for using a 1/2" diameter bit with the bearing on top.  It worked, but the inside corners are a little more rounded than I'd like.  Later on after I get everything glued together, I'll try using a wood chisel to fix that.  The bit I used was a little too long so I had to add more thickness to the arm pit template.

Next, the mounting holes for the shoulders.  Not wanting to have to remake the shoulder hubs and pipe attachments, I needed to drill the holes to match the ones on the old legs.  To do this, I had to cut open the old legs so I could use them as a template.  No going back now.

Next weekend I might be ready to start gluing the pieces together.  Will carefully examine everything I've done thus far.  Don't want to forget anything.

John

Continued Leg Work

All right, so it took me a little longer than I thought to find an opportunity to get back into the shop.  But finally I was able to get a little time in today, so here we go.................

Today I cut out the hole for the shoulder hub detail.  I made it 1/16th of an inch smaller than the piece itself to obtain a snug fit (honestly it measured really close to 3-3/8ths at the widest so I made it 1/16th smaller for good measure.  You can always sand off more, not less).  Of course I had to test fit the detail pieces that will go there.  Fits like a glove.

And while I was at it, I also drilled the 3/4" ankle bolt holes.

Next weekend I will focus on finishing the arm pits.

John

More Leg Work

Did some more leg work this weekend.  Made a template out of 1/4" plywood for cutting out the arm pits.

 

I then used it to cut out the arm pits on the two 3/4" center pieces using a router with a pattern wheel.  In addition I also cut out the center of the both 3/4" pieces.  This provides room inside the leg for the bolts that attach the shoulder hubs to the legs, space for the wiring to the foot motors and helps make the legs lighter.  You don't want to remove too much however or the leg might not be durable enough.  Leave enough material for structural integrity and to glue the other pieces too.

 

Next I routed out a 4-1/8" circle out the two 1/2" pieces that face the body.  These holes provide clearance for the shoulder hub pipe bolts.

All of this is just like with the original legs only last time I hand drew and cut out each arm pit on each piece independently.  This time around I'll use the template to ensure all the arm pit cutouts match up.  As a side note, despite not having used this arm pit template last time, I still somehow managed to get them practically identical to each other.

No updates next weekend.  Will be too busy with something else.  Hopefully the week after I can get more done.  Until then,

John

Pass Me A Leg

Got a lot done today.  The template turned out real nice once I finished trimming and sanding it.

I then proceeded to cut out all the pieces for both legs.

They're mostly ready now.  All that's left it to cut out the arm pit pockets. hollow out the center piece for the wiring and drill holes for the ankle bolts and shoulder hubs.  Will tackle this next weekend.

John

Happened To Be In The Neighborhood

No, you're not imagining things.  This is an actual progress blog post.

Got bored today so decided to try doing a little something in my work shop.  As I've stated before, I'm wanting to make new legs for R6 due to some minor imperfections occurring over time.  I still have the original template I used for the first set of legs but it has become a little too worn out to be useful anymore.  So I'm starting by making a new template.  Now the template's purpose is to be the master cut that is used to make copies off of.  Think of it like the piece of paper you scan on a copier or as a cookie cutter.  I've tried making a new template a couple of times last year actually but they didn't turn out well so I never mentioned it.  But today I think I finally have drawn the perfect (or near enough) template.  Next trick however is cutting it without altering the outlines I drew.  That has always been the trickiest and most troublesome part.  I have already rough cut the template with a jig-saw and tomorrow plan to use a scroll-saw to fine trim the rest off.  If that goes without a hitch, I can then use my router and a pattern bit to cookie-cut more pieces for making the legs.

The process will be the same as the first set of legs.  Only difference will be better quality measurements and cuts.

I'll post again tomorrow if I get anything more accomplished.

John

Status update 2015

I know, I know.  I completely dropped the ball last year with any new news or old news.

So here's the deal.  First, I have not stopped wanting to finish building R6-C9.  I even started making new legs for him but made a huge mistake in making the new template that I didn't notice until I had already made several pieces....all of which I had to scrap and at that point I had to walk away and regroup.  Second, I have my own house now so while that means I finally have space for a proper workshop, I also have the house itself that needs some TLC which must take priority over any hobbies.  Plus the long hours at my job and you get little time and little money left over.

I hope to get started doing something with R6 this year, even if it's little steps at a time.  Try to focus on one detail at a time.  And if I can manage that, I'll post something about it when able.  No promises when that'll happen.

As for back logged updates like Droid-Con's 2 and 3, I'll try to get those posted before I do any other postings.

BTW, the Episode VII teaser is released and looks AWESOME!  Can't wait.  Only 12 months until the new movie is in theaters!  I plan to take vacation that week so I can get the earliest showing.

John