Fasionbly Late

Wow.  Three months, no posting.  That happened.

Sorry I haven't made any new updates until now.  My job got busy and other things so I kept putting off posting any kind of progress.  So now it's catching up time.

I'll start with the Midwest Builders Gathering in early June.

Good food and good friends.  Two things of note happened that day.  One, I installed the lens into the rear HP but when I tried to test fit it into the head, the hole I had cut for it was a little too small.  So now I have to make it bigger some how.

Two, while driving R6 around, the threads on the U-Bolt got stripped somehow (too much stress?) so the leg pipes wouldn't stay secured.  Replaced it when I got back home but might need to find a more secure alternative.

Fast forward to one week from today.  The good news is I was able to save enough money for Celebration VI!  The bad news is, I didn't get everything done on the head like I wanted to by now.  Oh well.  I still got a lot done.  In addition I decided to finally mount the aluminum skins to the body, and of course I decide to do this one week before I leave for Florida.  But the results are awesome!  I even decided to paint them.

I used #4 wood screws to secure the skins to the body.  You'll notice how the screw heads are flush with the skins.  I used a special tool for that, the name of which escapes me at the moment.  I'll tell you when i remember.

So currently I'm in Georgia at a Hotel.  Tomorrow I finish the trip to Florida and Wednesday is setup day in the Droid room.  Now I must say good night.  I drove for 9 hours today and I want to sleep.

Logic Display Templates

Yesterday I finally made the Logic Templates, the little boards with holes cutout of them for the fiber optic strands to stick through.  I used a piece of Acrylic.  It has paper on each side to protect the surface since the surface is very smooth and glossy.  This worked to my advantage as the paper gave me a surface to easily draw the templates onto.

After cutting out each piece, I used my Dremel Drill Press to make the holes.  Here's some math for you.  the front logics are made up of 2 5x9 grids for 45 points of light each, or 90 all together.  The rear logic is one 4x27 grid for 108 points of light.  All together I drilled out 198 3/32" holes.  Lots of fun!

Now for the fun part.  Threading each little hole with a strand of fiber optic cable.  I tried to start it last night but as I went along some of them kept falling out.  To solve this, I'm going to try to secure a few at a time.  I'll start with the front logics since I already have the fiber optics cut for them.  I ordered more fiber for the rear logics which should arrive in a few days....I hope.

Started painting the last two body panels.  Also did an aluminum color test on a piece of styrene.  Want to make sure I get the desired results for the HP's.

Another Midwest Builders Gathering is coming on June 2nd.  I hope to have the logics and PSI's temporarily mounted for it plus having the Radar Eye mounted.  Also, Celebration VI only 4 months away!

John

Final Skin Pieces and Midwest Gathering

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