Yesterday Chris and Jack came over to hang out for a bit. Chris helped cut some lumber on the table saw,  and here he is checking out his work.

Jack is Patches' number one crew mechanic! This boy is super smart and catches on quickly. Jack is going to help give Patches a few upgrades for this years events. :)

 We started out by removing Patches' sound system for a few tweaks and relocation inside the body. 

Then we carefully remove the dome.

 

After we were done, I think we put R2-CM back together the wrong way! We got a Cyborg Jack instead! :)

Kisses on the job

Today I started cutting some styrene for the project. I love to work with styrene if you can't tell. I use it on a lot of projects. There is something about laying all the lines out with my rulers and then cutting them out like cookies, or in this case, noodles. lol

One piece down, now to start on the second.

Izzie was interested in what was going on and came to take a closer look.

 

 A real close look.....

 

Um, too close!

Yes, Izzie, I love you too. xoxo

 

 Hey, stop moving the ruler, dog! :P

Main LOGO:  Whatever it is coming through the Stargate is getting bigger, Patches has gone to check it out. Hope he is not in any danger!

Today I did one of my unfavorable jobs of doing R2 legs. Filling in all the screw holes. I think I did close to a hundred.

I also decided to take a different route with the design, to bad some of it was already assembled. I had no power tool that could do a good finish job so i had to hand saw all the edges off flush. What a pain, but it looks great. Later on in the evening Eric came by again to help with some cuts on the table saw so I can get some other stuff done by hand tomorrow.

First build day of the year!

Today everyone was working on something different. Denny was working on putting buttons on his Stargate GDO.
Jen sanded the logos off her Ace bat so we can repaint it.

Once sanded she finished it up with some fine sandpaper to get rid of all the scratches.

Then everyone helped out cutting circles for a new frame.
Mr. S cutting some plywood to size.
Ryan lending a hand.

Jen sanding some parts this time.

Lunch break!

After 7 hours in the shop together we all started acting a little weird. So we called it a night and will pick up some time soon.

Lazy day

Today Jen cut out some rabbit joints on the table saw with the new jigs. They turned out great! Other than that did a bit of gardening today and enjoyed the warm weather.
I set up the tools and marked out the plywood for a ton of cuts tomorrow as we are having a big build day in the afternoon. Feel like coming out? Drop me a line on Facebook!

What is coming through the Stargate in my logo?

Oh no! Is that is my secret project trying to show itself before it is completed! Lucky is is moving fast otherwise it would not be in a blur, I better step on it before it is all the way through the gate!

Today was garden day, so not progress to report on the build, I did however finally get an out feed rig for my table saw. The stock table saw top extension was a piece of Bantha Poo Doo. I unbolted the top section of the stock extension piece and bent it down out of the way. Now with rollers of the new one, we can cut full sheets way easier on the saw and not kill ourselves. The saw is way more versatile with all the new jigs and add ons. Tomorrow hopefully we can start cutting the BIG pieces!

A little help from my peeps. :)

The past two days Jen and Denny have been helping me out a lot with the cutting I need to do on the saws.
Denny helped me put this jig together last night. I almost made it out to the wrong angle till he pointed out it was the wrong side of the angle scale. LOL Now it is correct and cutting true. Thanks Denny!!!
This morning I prepped the table saw for all the pieces Jen would cut for me this afternoon.
Here is Jen, my girlfriend....OOOOPS!!!! I should not say that now that we are engaged. XD
Here is my Fiance, cutting away at the table saw with no help from me. She is finally proficient enough to not need my help anymore. Cutting wood and looking smexy doing it. :)
Slowly the pile of cut lumber pieces gets bigger and bigger. After two hours of cutting board after board, Jen took a break, but not before helping clean up the mess. I am one lucky Moose to have her. :)
During the afternoon hours I took all the pieces she cut and started to put them all together. Darn, I forgot to take a photo of that part. lol
That evening Denny came back over to check on our progress and also helped me make a new rip fence for the table saw. This one is WAY more accurate than the stock one that came with it.
More to come!!!!!!!!!!!

Multitasking

Got the garage as clean as it is going to get for now till the garage sale. Still got piles of items for the sale scattered along the walls. Snow blower, washer, commercial lawnmowers, grinder, etc.
Also started bringing in the secret project parts which you can see on the floor behind the R2-CM logo. LOL

T3-M4 in 3D

I see that a few of you are looking at my T3-M4 posts. I do not have any updates for you currently, but T3 is still here hanging out with our other robots. I am looking into a better power supply for him and have made some updates to his head movements. Here is a video some of you might have seen two years ago, it is a 3D rendering of T3 that I made to figure out how to build him. T3 will make a few appearances this year, so keep your eyes peeled!

Table saw jig

Sometimes I wish I could afford a decent table saw, but alas I am stuck with what I have. The miter gauge that came with this saw was small and oh so not accurate, especially with bigger pieces of lumber. So I made this Jig out of scrap wood that can handle the bigger pieces of wood and get perfect 90 degree angles every time. Now to make a matching rip fence......

Jen at the chop saw

This evening, Jen squared up some edges on the special project as this saw is to loud for me to use right now. Soon we will be ready for assembly, but not before I make yet another jig.... lol

Can you tell what is wrong with this picture?

Started making some wagon wheels for a project, nothing fancy, but I thought I would share. :)
Wait a second, how did you drill?.......

Garage cleaned up for now!

Got just enough room to fit the secret project in the garage, but still have a few piles of stuff taking up the corners. This is the year to have a sale and get rid of old stuff we never use anymore. Things like old stereos, heaters, lawnmowers, snow blowers, tools, clothing, office furniture, computer parts, Hotwheels, books, and everything in between.
That way I will have more elbow room when working on projects, and places to put them. :)

60,000 hits!

Even with taking a winter break from Blogging, this site is now over 60,000 hits!
To celebrate we will release some new photos of the secret project some time this week....
Thanks again for viewing and please feel free to comment now that there is no more Captcha needed. :)
www.R2-CM.com

Spring cleaning yet again in the workshop

(ATTENTION: No Word Verification needed for comments anymore!!!)

It is that time yet again folks! Time to spring clean the workshop! This year it is pretty bad. The pics below are of an hour into cleaning! Tons of tools piled up everywhere, slowly finding their way back home.
Bigger stuff piled in corners with parts of the TRON room on top. Got to make room for the new project as I am running out of room inside the house for it! Maybe it is time to start using the attic?

Dancing a Jig

Anyone that knows me knows I love to make all sorts of jigs for projects to stretch my tools to their limits. This is another case of that. Now that I got T3-M4's crate taken apart, I need to start cutting the pieces to the right angles. Unfortunately none of my saws can cut that steep so I am building a jig like the one pictured below. This jig will let me do cuts all the way up to 90 degrees in the other direction, allowing my saw to miter 120 degrees all together instead of just 0 to 45.

Re-Recycling again

I always try to use as much recycled lumber as I can in a project. This secret project is no exception. Actually I am recycling this crate project out of recycled material and recycling it again for the second time! I am taking apart T3-M4's custom hauling crate as I will have the covered trailer retrofitted for him later this year. So, on a dark gloomy day like today, I put on my ear protection and proceeded to take the crate apart for it's next incarnation. Dam I used a lot of screws,maybe I can reuse some of them as well. LOL

Second Stargate Cosplay

Thanks to a wonderful friend I am now starting on a second Stargate Cosplay. This one will be way easier than my last off world field gear outfit. The outfit I am doing is the commander of the Prometheus. (The guy sitting in the chair with the blue jump suit) All I have to do is get the patches made as my friend already got me the jumpsuit! Thanks! :)

Nebraskon END OF LINE party

This is another one of the events I forgot to post last year. My friend Vash, who is dressed as Castor in the pic below, threw a TRON room party at Nebraskon last November once we were all shut down with our TRON room display during the day.
There was a line at the door from the get go!
Welcome to the End of Line club!
The room was packed with people!
Checking IDs at the door before anyone could join the party.
Dancing the night away!

What! More wood!!!

Took a trip to Menards today and got even more plywood! YA!
Also got some other odds and ends I needed.
Finally one person has guessed right on what I am making. May they enjoy the preview :)
As for this project, I got to wait for Jen to do some more cuts for me before I can put more together. That may not be till the weekend.

No right guess yet.

A lot of you are interested in what this build is going to be. One or two of you have come close to guessing correctly. Here is the biggest clue I can give you! The blueprints to my project!
Enjoy! :) LOL
To all of you who can guess correctly from this photo I will show you what the project looks like now.....