Astromech Manhood

To save some time with all the skirts we have to make, Brad made one skirt rib out of wood from scratch and sanded all the wood grain off of it.

Then out of a temporary mold Brad made six more and sanded them some more till they were all uniform. Once they were all fine tuned I brought over my mold compound and we made a mold of six of them with the help of some Lego and tape.
Looks like a toy xylophone.

After pounding out the bubbles we set the mold aside to dry for a few hours.

Once the mold is dry I slowly remove the mold from the Lego blocks then take out the temp skirt ribs.
I then trim the edges of the mold around each rib.Brad and I pour up a first batch. It takes a hair more than 3 ounces to fill all six.
You can see the chemical reaction taking place.

The first set came out with no bubbles or problems.

We checked the fit on Brad's skirt and it looks good. I will make a set on Tuesday for Patches so he has some manhood.

Time to scale back?

Sense I have been making new frames I have not done any work on my other droids.
Once we get these frames done we would have to do a run of legs, skirts, center feet, and so on.
So I am thinking of handing my frame over to a new builder who has the time to build an R2 with the group.

After Osfest I am going to switch the frames and legs of R3-PD and R4-ED.
PD will be remote control instead of ED for Jen to use and ED would be in two leg mode rocking back and forth.

The other reason I am doing this is because if I have the time and money next year I may build a TARDIS.

Frames Frames Everywhere

Yesterday Dawmer and I continued to work on our frames over at Brad's
We got all the 1/2 inch pieces routed out. We got half of the 3/4 inch pieces routed out as well until the router bit went out on us. So with the pieces we did have done we dry fitted Dawmer's frame together.
It is pretty bad when I can now put a frame together without looking at a picture with as many as I have done.
Here is Dawmer holding his R2 internal frame work, next week we will finish up the top and bottom plates.

More Leg Gluing

I helped Dawmer glue more of his R2 Legs together.
He put glue on the small outer ankle support.
I helped him line everything up.
Then we screwed and clamped it all together.
The only thing left to glue up on Dawmer's legs are the thin back ankle pieces.
He has also came up with a name for his droid. R2-TD. Short for Touch Down.

Frame run #2 Day #2

We started off at my house cutting all the straight pieces to width and lenght.
Then we headed over to Brad's and started working over there. It was nice to get out of my own garage for a change!
Dawmer and me cut out the templates for the frame.
While we did that Brad and Dash worked on their skirts.
I drew the inner circles on the wood and Dawmer drilled the pilot holes for the jig saw.
We traced out the templates onto the wood...

I did as much jig saw work as my lung could handle and handed it off to Brad while I acted as a human clamp.
After a few adjustment to my jigs so they worked with Dash's router Dash routed out all the pieces.
During the whole build Brad's KITT was supervising :)
We got a lot done and should be able to get all four frames dry fitted by the end of the next build.
After we were done building we had a BBQ and a swim in Brad's back yard.
It was great to have a swim!
Tuesday we are going to work at Brad's again then go see the midnight showing of Transformers.

dome panel hole

Now that my periscope is close to done I needed to go back to the dome and widen the dome hole it will come out of. As you can see the existing hole was just rough cut out as the panel was hot glued on for a whole year.
I started off by taping the underside with blue tape and newspaper to help keep the electronics clean of aluminum shavings.
I then taped off the top side right up to the lines I want to keep. The exsposed aluminum area in the middle is what I am taking off.
Filing away!
I am right up to my lines but still need to do the final sanding, I will do that after I check to see if the periscope even clears the hole. The filing went well but just my luck my file slipped once and hit the only area that was not covered by something, I will have to go back and touch up the brown circle on top.

I must be crazy! Frame run #2!

A few members decided to build a run of four more wood frames as our new member needs to make one anyway.
Even with all my current droid projects and missing the last week and a half of work because of poison oak I am going to build one of them for myself. (You only live once)

I showed the group how to lay out the 18" circles and let Dawmer have a go at it.
Steve came over to make some parts for Dawmer's motor holders.
Everyone took a turn to rough cut the circles with the jig saws.
Then Jen, Dawmer and me cut the tabs to the line on the band saw.
While we were doing the band saw work Brad and Dash made the final pass on the router table with all 16 circles.
We were having such a good time that we did not realize how late it was getting so we wrapped it up at 10:15pm
The next build night is Saturday at Brad's for a change. If my poison oak does not get any worse by then I will attend.

This frame if I ever get around to putting a dome and skins on it will be my first R2-D2, all my other units have been customs.
This frame will be two leg mode only as the money for another RC one is out of the question.

Skirt work again

Last night I cut some 1/2 inch MDO strips then we cut them to two and a half inches with a bevel on both sides of the outer side pieces on the table saw.
I then cut the ends at a 19 degree angles to the right width.
Everything is pretty close, so we will glue them up on the next build night.
LC also got caught up on his skirt and dome motor holder.

New Skirts

A few of us got started on some more wood skirts.
I drilled the mounting holes for ED's and PD's risers while Brad did the same for Lumpy.
Then I ripped 3 sets of two inch inner risers and mounting blocks.
Once that was done I ripped them to lenght.
Dash took the time to cut out the styrene curves.
Then Brad and I cleaned up all the pieces and assembled them. Putting it together upside down on a flat glass surface helps make sure everything is glued properly.
Next Tuesday we will make and adhere the outer pieces.