Bith's Droid

Body of Evidence

2011-07-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

Yesh it's getting harder to come up with blog entry titles!

Anyhoo, two days' worth of building to cover, so let's get to it! I began yesterday by removing the frisket from the coin slots part. This didn't come out as nicely as my other frisketting. I was pondering hand-painting the wee slots, when my eyes fell upon my jars of colored pencils. You may have seen them in the background of some earlier photos -- but I've got something like 350+ colored pencils! Oddly the pencil that stood out was an exact match for my school bus yellow paint, so I thought I'd give it a try...and whaddaya know? It worked perfectly! A little clear coat and nobody will be the wiser. Except y'all of course.

Here I'm gluing the internals into the center vent surrounds. This is a view from the back:

I decided to get the magnet glued onto my restraining bolt; I'm not sure if I'm going to use one, but you never know!

Some more weathering, then clear coat, and here we are!

I went ahead and got those coin slots in using silicone. I also tried silicone on the coin returns, which are made of styrene, not resin. This turned out to be a problem...

Trying silicone out on the side vents (styrene) too:

And the lower vents...and I think you can see the problem. It's just too thick, and styrene wants Weld-On, which essentially melts pieces solidly together.

I decided I'd redo them all...tomorrow!
Which is today.
So let's resume!

One of the lower vents was blocked by a frame upright piece. This is due to some incomprehensible mistake I made early on...I've yet to figure out how I messed up, but it has had consequences ever since.

Anyway it needed trimming so the piece could fit so I marked it and got out my Dremel.

A bit of wiggling and the section popped out nicely, and I hope the frame is no worse for the wear...

Vent installation went well:

For the rear coin returns, again due to the frame uprights being offset a bit, I had to do some trimming to get them installed.

I saved the worst of the frame offset problem pictures for last. Here the side vent has an entire 1/2 inch of extra space! I'm pretty sure I can fix it to look okay using some scrap styrene and an acetone slurry, but...I worry about how this happened, and what it might mean for the leg installation later. Hmmm, guess I'll climb that hill when I finally get there! But this is just plain UGLY:

Anyway, the styrene parts installed, it was back to getting the resin parts put in. In a few places the inner skin was protruding so I trimmed it back:

Much better!

I could have prepared these octagon ports in advance, but I didn't. Doing it now was actually good as I could trim to fit and test right away!

And when I couldn't get everything perfect, weathering filled little gaps. This method is not recommended for building all droids of course, just mine! ;-)

Here I'm preparing little support pieces of styrene for other resin parts.

Ready to hold up the lower front vent:

Here they are both installed...took a bit of finessing with styrene supports.

A rare shot of the inside. Due to the thickness of the frame rings, some of these parts were rather challenging to set.

These ports had frames and I needed to do some trimming/paint removal before finishing them up:

Dremel to the rescue! They fit perfectly. Unfortunately...see the one on the left? How it's not aligned properly? I didn't notice that until it was installed on the droid. Luckily it's on the lower backside, but still... :-(

Okay! All the main parts (except the utility arms and large data port, which go up top there) are installed on the body! Wooooo! I also started weathering the skins. Here's the front view:

Front/side view:

Side view:

Back view:

Test-fitting the LDP and arms:

Wow! I can't believe how great he's starting to look! Well to me he's beautiful... :-)

Talkin' 'Bout the Weather

2011-07-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to have all the body parts installed by the end of today, but alas: all things droid take TWICE as long as one plans!!

Anyway, here is a better (somewhat) shot of the weathering I did on parts yesterday. I really went to town with weathering today...but first I needed to finish a few parts.

I believe I forgot to mention that these odd flat things I've been working on are called "A&A skin extras." I ordered them because, I'll be honest, I was tired of cutting styrene. They were still a lot of work, so don't think I started being a slacker or anything.

Anyway, I thought I'd finish the gluing of these parts by noon today. Wrong. Half the time they were glued to my own fingers. Or the squares I was trying to use to make sure they were nicely perpendicular.

Aaaaand multiply the above by about 80 and you have most of my day. Once those side parts were dry I was supposed to wrangle them into these adorable slots:

Here I am wrangling them. And getting more glue all over my fingertips.

Today I decided to get a picture of Krazy Glue+fingertip Action:

Pretty, no? Anyway, I plugged along and the parts came together:

I'm glad I prepainted. That saves me masking all those bits off, at least.

Hooray! Almost halfway done!! *quiet sobs*

Starting on the next set...

I'll spare you and skip ahead; suffice to say it was more of the same. Trying to true things up, long minutes with 1/2-glued fingers shakily holding edges down...anyway, here is the second set (and yeah, I'm jumping ahead to the weathered pics):

And the first set weathered. I loved the weathering! It was fun to smudge and spatter. I'm looking forward to doing the whole droid when I'm to that point!

I was still hoping to install all these body parts today so I started trimming the "center vent surrounds."

I did this freehand -- no line drawn out ahead of time! I'm such a wild child.

Came out perfect. Here I test fit the innards:

As happened yesterday...a bunch of photos vanished off my camera. Ugh.

The rest of the day was spent clear-coating the weathered parts, and painting the last body parts silver and yellow. Only the yellow parts pic survived. Still, it's pretty sweet!

Tomorrow, I hope, hope, HOPE to get some of these stuck on my droid's body!! For now...rest...

Body Parts -- No, Not a New Horror Novel!

2011-07-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

For the last few days my updates have been off by a day due to when I post; today I'll put the last few days' progress up, and that should catch us up to this morning.

First I needed to primer some of the body parts:

If you see primer or paint with this sort of mechanism AVOID IT! Both of these failed on me today...one actually flew apart!

At least I was successful at getting the first layer down, the yellow:

While the paint was drying I began assembly of the styrene flat parts I'd sorted. I began with the "coin returns." I love the names the club gave some of these parts!

(not pictured: me getting Krazy Glue all over my fingertips!)

Assembly of the center vents was a bit difficult due to little tabs being present that had no matching slots. My solution was to slice 'em off!

There we go!

I decided to paint these before assembly. Oddly, from this point on, half my photos went missing.
I sorted the bits into parts to be painted aluminum, and parts to be painted yellow. You'll have to trust me on this. XD

Before painting I took the time to mask off the now-dry yellow parts that I needed to remain yellow. Rather than use tape, I decided to try some of my old liquid frisket.

I tried two different types. The one pictured below worked the best, as it was thicker.

Testing the frisket:

That stuff will ruin your paintbrushes. Be sure to have lots of cheap paintbrushes on hand for building Artoo!

Finally it got cool enough to do a little painting:

I had several nice shots of the final frisket removal (worked like a charm), but they have vanished. So here we jump ahead to my first weathering of a part.

Aaaand some more finished parts, ready to be stuck on R2!

That brings us up-to-date! More work tomorrow... :-)

Hidin' from the Heat, Buildin' a Droid

2011-07-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

I had hoped to finish up the leg cuts this week, but that involved setting up the router table and drill press out back, and it's just too hot outside for that, so I moved along to some other bits.

First, some test fitting of resin parts on the body. Tweaking will need to happen!

In preparation for painting I did a little filing of resin blobs and such:

I figured since I was planning to work on body parts I'd go ahead and assemble some of the flat bits, like the coin returns. Unfortunately some pieces went missing during the move. Fortunately I was able to reproduce them.

A little filing to make the tabs, and presto!

Finally, I decided to start the "aging" of my battery hoses using a salt and vinegar recipe I found online. This didn't work.

So back to the table I went. I sorted all the flat parts out into baggies. Will glue them tomorrow!

...And the Lost Months of April, May and June!

2011-07-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been away from my droid. Sorry, little guy!

Back in April my droid had his public debut -- at the Anaheim Comic-Con -- thanks to Victor's invitation. It was fun to have a partially-built droid on display -- it really encouraged questions. I got to help Victor while he worked on a power issue, and Gene let me drive his droid. Afterward we all went out and had some fine beers -- it was nice to hang out with all the builders and get to know them!

Here are some pics (again, some are from Victor's awesome blog):

You'd think all of that would've inspired me to get back to building, and you'd be thinking right, my friends. Unfortunately Darth Real Life has been tossing distractions at me all Spring. All I got done in that time was digging out my parts, establishing where I'd left off building, and reorganizing.

Until today, that is...until TODAY.

Yes, I FINALLY got back to building! Well, the lovely laborious process of cutting-cutting-cutting -- Hoooo!

I found that some of the more delicate cuts required a little finesse -- I used my needle-nose pliers to wiggle the cut, with some success. Everything will need some filing I'm afraid!

After all this time the patterns were beginning to come unglued (like me?) and I had to use a bit of tape in places.

My first "I'm done for the day!" picture. Heh.

But I wasn't done; I had droid FEVER! I decided to tackle some of the more difficult cuts, like these tiny right-angles. And this is how I did it:

Again, with varying degrees of success. The good, the bad, and the ugly:

More finished stacks of parts!

Now there's a day's work!

(I started typing up this post on the the 3rd...but here it is the 4th already: Happy Independence Day!)

The Lost Month of March

2011-03-29T00:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a surprising month: we decided to move! We found a small house in the hills, and left our apartment for parts yonder...

My droid and his parts arrived unscathed to find themselves no longer in my dining room, but in a small workspace of their very own!

Back to building soon!

Still Cutting Those Ankles

2011-02-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm still in the kind of dull cutting phase: score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, score, SNAP! That really is TEN passes with the exacto blade for each edge. It's not the most exciting part of building a droid, but, as I tell myself when I find I'm putting off any tedious part of building, "that droid's not gonna build himself!"

I decided to chamfer these ankle parts before doing the long cuts -- that way the chamfers would be even, and I'd save myself a little bit of effort:

I clamped my bastid (haha) file to my work table -- this saved a bit of effort too!

I think the chamfers came out really nice -- and only about 20 minutes of filing per edge, too!

I did scrub that file between chamfers.

For a couple of the cuts it looked like I needed to cut the thick styrene curves by hand. This left some little tabs of styrene at the break edges.

So I clamped the curves piece to my table...

And filed those little tabs off!

Then, more chamfering. Here is a before and after kind of shot:

A single day's work! Not done, yet, but still a pretty decent effort!

Next I'll finish off the small detail cuts on those pieces. I also re-installed my router in preparation for cutting the last of the curved pieces, and truing up some of those long straight pieces that go inside the shoulder hubs and legs.

I've gotten used to every part of this build taking 2, 3, and even 4 times longer than I estimate! I will confess, though, that I REALLY hope to finish this year -- yes, a droid in 2011 is my dream. There, I've gone and done it and gone public with my deadline! Bwahahahahaha!

Let the Cutting Begin! (Again...)

2011-02-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

Not much to report today -- my first full day back from a great vacation!

I finished adhering the last of the patterns to my styrene, and began cutting the 1mm curved ankle pieces by hand. It's been a while: the first one was not too pretty. Ah well, that's what files are for!

That's all I had time for today. Hopefully more progress later this week. :-)

Back to Cutting Styrene!

2011-02-16T00:13:00.000-08:00

Although it's been a while since I posted, I have been been working away behind the scenes. When I last posted, I noted that I'd decided to go back to styrene legs, and that I'd discovered I'd stopped cutting styrene at the point of the ankles. At least that's my memory of it! Anyway, I needed to do some more cutting, set up my router table again, and stuff like that.

I made many trips to the hardware store, because I found I needed to make a new router table. You see, I'd left my old one outside (sans router) to use as a painting table, and it got rained on in December and warped a bit. So I bought some plywood. It turned out to be too thick for the router mounting hardware! Went back to the hardware store: no M4 screws long enough available!! I finally decided to use the old table and clamp it to my work table in the dining room. Whew -- it's flat enough!

One of the first items needing cutting (or rather re-cutting) was the set of uprights for the shoulder hubs. My hand-cutting just wasn't accurate enough. Here is a picture of how each piece came out a different height due to the "flashing" from hand-breaking the scored styrene:

These are also different lengths (sigh) which creates the illusion that the bottoms were not level when the pic was taken. In short: they needed to be re-done, as having them the same height is critical.

I'd realized such things when I last cut styrene, but somehow these got missed. Anyway, time to set up to give them the router treatment!

First, I needed to create new "patterns" for them -- I decided to just use a square and ruler rather than print another set:

First cuts were by hand to leave just a bit for the router to remove cleanly:

Next I prepared the remaining patterns (by affixing them to the styrene using tacky spray) for the hand-cutting that needs to be done before routering:

The patterns are almost all stuck on (and I was relieved to find I had enough styrene left!), so next I'll cut, then router. Wow this feels like last summer all over again! :-D

Well good thing I've got this to do, as we've got rainy days ahead, so no painting -- which is what I'd have wanted to do. More soon!

Leg Decision

2011-02-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

No pics today, as I really didn't actually build. But I did finalize my decision to go back to styrene legs. The A&A legs are really well-made, but just aren't right for my build.

I packed those away to sell later, and dug out my styrene leg parts. Everything looks good and ready to go, but I found out that I'd stopped cutting before getting to the ankles...so it looks as if I need to set up my router table again! Well maybe I was just jealous of the East Coast and wanted to make some more snow! Hahahhah.

I made a list, and went out and got the hardware. Building will start tomorrow, and will take several days no doubt, as I get back into my styrene swing!

So much for a day off! ;-)

Something Old, Something New...

2011-02-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

Another pretty productive day in Bith's Droid Dining-Room!

Wanting to play some more with the new toy (my real drill press), I dug out my utility arms, and drilled out the area where I'll insert a bolt so they can move.

Then I inserted some plastic spacers I'd bought. I tested them with the bolts, and the bolts not only did not fit, they were too short! I tried a few thinner bolts, but the arm flapped around too much. I realized that I really should have bought the threaded spacers called for. Must go searching for those!

Next it was time to enlarge my dome ring holes a bit (I'm showing how I checked to be sure the ring was level):

That worked really well! I added some washers to be sure that the ring sat upon the Rockler perfectly. Because the horizontal part of the ring is not perfectly level, each bolt required a different number of washers. To ensure the ring was always placed back in the same space I marked each ring/area of the Rockler bearing with a color code:

Next I finally installed the (pesky) Radar Eye!! Looks pretty good, and I am calling it DONE!

I thought I'd move on to the legs next...and here's a bit of back-story: months ago I'd devised a plan for some special weathering, but I needed the legs to be solid for this, rather than hollow (as found in the styrene plans). So, even though I'd already cut out my styrene legs, I purchased a set of A&A PVC legs.

I spent some time labeling parts, and getting things organized. Then, I did some test-fitting to see how things went together. Hmmm. These are a LOT heavier than I was expecting. I'll admit I'm worried about whether or not my styrene frame can handle these.

I think I'm going to set these aside, and start building my styrene legs instead. I'll see later which ones will actually go on my droid. If I don't use these I'll just sell them at cost on astromech.net.

Busy day tomorrow, but I'm going to try to get to the hardware store for leg stuff. I should be back to building in a couple of days! (I'm actually pretty bummed I have to take a day off...haha!)

Rockler Pwnage! Did I Just Type That??

2011-02-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, started with finishing. In this case got the awesome drill press fully assembled, in spite of the inscrutable instructions!

Immediately put it to the test on a bit of scrap wood -- woo! Love the lasers!

Okay, one test done? That's enough for me! Set up the ring on the drill press using a level and all kinds of clamps and shims...and drilled! Wow this machine is sweet: quiet, easy, safe! I love it!

Proof that the right tool will solve many problems: success in installing the Rockler bearing! Here it is all affixed to the frame and everything:

Thrilled as I was, I found the fit, while accurate, was still a bit tight. I might enlarge the holes a bit tomorrow, as I expect to be removing the dome frequently in the future. Anyway, I decided to move right along..

Clean-up was needed, as well as organizing the new hardware, so out came the small baggies.

When I had the room, I did some more Dremeling for the radar eye lens, then siliconed it in yet again. I hope this is IT!

I also prepared a new sawed-off screw to glue into it -- this time I'll choose the correct end!! Tomorrow, I'll pop it in (I hope).

And that's it! It seemed as if I did much more...but that's how it always is. :-)

Several Days of Droid Work in One Post!

2011-02-06T23:01:00.000-08:00

Four days, to be exact. Yep, worked on my droid every day for the last four days, and only now am sitting down to post. After all the time spent writing, and choosing and uploading my photos I think it's safe to say I won't be doing THAT again!

I'll try to be brief (especially since, in spite of all that work, I really didn't move forward much).

Feb. 3:
Here is a shot of the use of my Dremel "drill press" putting in the holes for the frame mount screws in the the Rockler bearing (lazy susan mechanism that allows the dome to spin). I remembered to tape off the space that exposes the bearings!

The finished holes! These will be used to secure the bearing to the frame.

Knowing I wasn't going to get to more drilling today, I started stripping out the silicone that holds the lens into the eye. Again. I think this is the second or third time. Finished, but that was it for the day. I need to figure out what's wrong with this eye!

Feb.4:
I used the Dremel Press to put starter holes in the dome ring (after placing the bearing using pennies -- pictured later). Then used a standard drill to enlarge the holes freehand. This did not work...the drill bit always drifted and the holes ended up misplaced. I ended up taping over the holes and preparing to begin again.

Feb. 5:
Realizing I'd forgotten to depict the pennies method of centering the Rockler bearing in the dome ring, here is a shot. This is my improved method, with pennies taped together, as most of my droid-building-time during the previous two days felt like I was catching pennies as they tried to roll away!

Marking the ring for drilling using existing Rockler holes. Done each time.

No more photos, because the exact same thing happened as the day before: when it came time for drilling the bit somehow slipped again and the holes did not line up. I also somehow lost some hardware while testing the lining-up. Done for the day again!

Feb. 6:
I decided to start the day by finishing up a bit on the holoprojector servo assembly I hadn't completed yet. I drilled a hole in the screw-on base through which I'd pass a long machine screw.

Here it is all assembled. The slots in the popsicle sticks slide back and forth around that long screw, which will articulate the holoprojector if all goes well!

I felt good finishing that off, so back for a third run at the dome ring drilling project we go! Again with the pennies, marking, pre-drilling, this time counter-sinking, then hand-drilling (with a new super-heavy-duty bit).

I guess I don't need to tell you it failed again: the holes did not match up! What was I doing wrong?? Well, when in doubt, I turn to Victor's writings. I found there that he actually left the Rockler on the ring while drilling. He also always uses a real drill press. Okay then! I'd put off buying a drill press because, dang if those things aren't huge, and I think I mentioned I'm doing this in my apartment dining room! But if that's what my droid needs, well that's what my droid gets!

So first I did the pennies trick, and taped up that Rockler bearing really well so it wouldn't wriggle.

Then, it was off to the hardware store to get the hardware that had vanished during the past few days, and a drill press. Wow were we lucky! They were out of the cheap model, so they sold us the fancy one for the same price!! We saved about 80 bucks!

Of course assembly is required:

And...we'll finish tomorrow (the motor part alone weighs maybe 70 pounds, so this part requires hubby help). And hopefully finish the ring drilling! Whew!

On With The Eye, and Servo Fun!

2011-02-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

*sigh* O Radar Eye, you pesky thang! Today was affix-you-to-the-dome day...

Let's back up a bit: a few posts ago I sawed off the head of the bolts to be inserted into the back of the radar eye. On that day I remember telling myself "be sure to insert the sawed end into the radar eye, so you'll be able to get the nuts on the other end that doesn't have ruined threads!"

So guess what I forgot and therefore did wrong? Yep, I'd glued the wrong end in! Just on one of them, but... :-(

I'll see what I can do to fix it tomorrow, but here is the placement at least:

I needed to feel a sense of accomplishment, so I moved on to another part of the project. I tested my latest hardware purchase, and it looked like it would work, so I proceeded to assemble the holoprojector servo unit. 4-40 X 1" machine screws seemed to be the magic ones! Order of assembly proved crucial too -- I had to take it apart several times to figure that out...

First the "popsicle sticks" as I started to call them:

Then the ring with many holes:

Then, the other ring. I actually had to undo the previous screws to affix this, then reattach. Kinda hard to explain. But it has to do with both room to work, and the length of the screws.

After much fussing (I reversed the screws on the popsicle sticks for one thing) here it is! I need to get some paper clips to run from the servos. I think? We shall see!

I'll come back to the rest of this at some future time (like when I start working on the electronics). Tomorrow I'll deal with that eye, and maybe install the Rockler bearing!

Eye-yay-yay!

2011-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I believe that I finally finished work on the PESKY radar eye! Wooooohooo!

Using CA glue I affixed the cut-off screws onto the back, then siliconed in the lens. It's now curing overnight on a coffee can from times of old (before the dark times, before Starbucks!).

Tomorrow I'll screw it onto the dome!

Next I began work on the holoprojector servo assembly. This will allow the HP to be moved around like a wiggly shiny piece of candy for curious little hands, er..., I mean move around to "look" at items of interest. ;-)

Again, some of my hardware was just not quite right. So it was off to the hardware store (this time I did not trip on a drill cord, injure my knee, and spend nearly two weeks side-lined).

Back to it tomorrow!

Wee Re-start

2011-01-31T20:54:00.001-08:00

Took a bit of time off to fully heal my knee, and seem to have turned a corner over the weekend, so...slowly began droid-work again! I repainted that pesky radar eye for the last time (!!!), and started cleaning out my work area for the next bit of work. No pics, and that was all I got around to today, but I feel as if I'm back to it!

Curse My Non-Metal Body!

2011-01-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well my little trip-and-fall at the end of my last building session sidelined me for a couple of days. Just got x-rays, and at least my knee does not appear to be broken (although they are sending the x-rays to a specialist to be sure).

I'm able to hobble about with my shiny new cane, and I hope to be back in action tomorrow!

All the Way to Eleven!!

2011-01-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is the first month since I've started this blog that I've gone over 10 posts! And that was back in May 2010 -- the first month I really started building. Woo!

I'd hoped to get more done today, but we all know how that can go...

Last night when I got home from the hardware store I sorted out my swag -- I had all these little baggies from some old project, so I matched all the bolts with their nuts and washers and grouped them in the bags, labeling them by part to which they belonged.

Today I began work by fixing some things that were bugging me. First off -- the pesky radar eye just wasn't flush enough against the dome. I'd already decided it needed more paint, so I went ahead with the sanding down first.

Then, one of the panels which poked out a bit at the top got some more silicon, and a creative clamp-down.

I decided it still didn't look right (it was bowing out in the middle) so I used a screwdriver to pry it completely off. Yep! As suspected, there was just too much silicon in there!

I scraped it off both the inner dome, and the panel.

I also bent it into proper shape using my super-human strength! A thin layer of silicone, and it's fits like a charm now! You can also see where I've prepped the dome for drilling...

Strangely, I forgot to take a picture of the drilled holes. Oh well, trust me -- they're there!

Next I used a hacksaw to chop off the heads on the machine screws which will be glued into the back of the radar eye.

After placing the radar eye on the dome, marking where to drill on its underbelly, and putting little guidemarks on the side of the eye to keep things level (relatively, anyway), I used my Dremel drill press to get the bolt-holes done. Test fitted the bolts (er- screws)...looks like they'll be easy to get on the dome!

We'd decided to run out to do errands (like replacing my missing hardware) and I was getting up to get ready, when I tripped on the drill cord and went flying across the room. I've messed up my knee -- so no errands, and no more droid work this evening. :-(

This and That Part Deux

2011-01-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Today was almost too pretty to stay inside working on my droid...almost too pretty! ;-)

I began the day by attaching all the small skin parts that I'd needed to paint yesterday:

This went smoothly -- huzzah! One can see in the above pic one area where I failed to file down one of the frame uprights sufficiently, resulting in an unattractive bulge in the skin. Dave E warned us about this! Heed warnings! Don't be like me hahaha...

Below you can see the start of my patching job on the side where the skins don't meet. Some areas needed a small piece of styrene -- others will get some slurry (still not mixed) rubbed over them. After sanding, and a little blast of paint, I'm told it will look right as rain.

Moving all over the place again, I began the dome ring notches needed to fit the dome electronics. After the last Dremel disaster near finished surfaces I taped them off for protection.

I had hubby leave the drawing table and hold the ring down while I chiseled away at this. I made him wear a protective mask too!

After filing, the cuts looked pretty nice!

Next I tested out my Dremel drill press on a piece of scrap styrene. Woooohoooo! It's going to work!

I was planning to start drilling the dome and resin eye (and maybe the Rockler bearing too), but instead decided to jump ahead a bit and run to the hardware store for some of the needed...hardware. Unfortunately when I got home, several critical bits were missing?! How does this happen? Those bolts are hiding out in the land of the missing socks, no doubt.

Oh well...will continue tomorrow!

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

2011-01-16T18:04:00.000-08:00

Spent the little building time I had today on a few miscellaneous chores.

First, I peeled back the masking in the radar eye to see how the aluminum paint had survived. Not bad! I had to touch up a spot or two with a silver pen, but it'll do.

After that I primered and painted the small skin bits I'd forgotten about. I'll let them dry thoroughly overnight and affix 'em tomorrow.

I had hubby hold the dome on the top edge of the dome ring so I could mark the spots that need to be cut away to accomodate electronics. I've been following Victor's blog, and I've decided I'm going to copy him, and mount all my dome electronics to the ring. I'm going to copy his "housings" too - except with stryrene instead of PVC. Thanks, Victor -- super ideas!!

Next up was test placement of the radar eye. I traced around it, and marked where I think good holes for bolts might go.

Then I remembered the radar eye lens! Omitting THAT would have been embarrassing...
I marked the inside of the radar eye using a pencil.

Then I Dremeled out a groove for the rim of the eye.

I attemped to attach the lens using CA glue, but somehow this did not work out. I've since decided to get all the mounting holes drilled first, then come back to this part. Knowing me, I'll somehow damage that lens if it's installed too early!

I got out my Dremel drill press (not yet used) and will do some tests using it tomorrow. Hopefully it will be sufficient for my needs. If not, I'll just buy a drill press! I'm off to read the manual...Happy Droiding!

Skinny-Skin Skins

2011-01-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

Well now, THAT was a looooong day! Pretty much the whole time was spent working on my droid! I guess I really mean business now...

I began the day by sanding down one of the drips on the resin radar eye -- excuse me: the pesky resin radar eye! Here you can see a bit of what I've been trying to resolve:

I took it outside for the first of several coats of paint -- it seems to be on the installment plan, getting a few light coats every day!

Next I tackled some of the silicon that had oozed out from under the dome panels. Using a tiny screwdriver, I drove the silicon out of each tiny groove.

After that I tidied up my workstation (which had gotten crazy!) in preparation for the rest of the work I planned for today:

It's been a while since it looked that good!

I readied the ingredients for my styrene/acetone slurry -- didn't get to mixing it today though:

The last bit of dome work for a while consisted of running a thin line of silicone around the bottom of the two domes, hopefully sealing them together. I also glued in the dome bumps. I'm leaving the rest until it's time to work on electronics in the dome.

For the rest of the day I had working on the skins in mind!!

I decided I'd try to fix that yellow styrene skin bit that had crackled ages ago. First some sanding, then outside to paint (truth to tell this didn't help much -- I may just go ahead and weather it as hubby had suggested)!

In case I needed any support pieces I went ahead and cut a few small scraps of 3mm styrene. Whew, it's been a while since I did that!!!

I'd looked at several ways of affixing the skins, and decided to "paint" weld-on in sections.
I got out some cheap brushes I'd bought for this purpose, and an old can to sacrifice for the weld-on. I also tore zillions of short lengths of tape, to secure each skin section as it got glued. I had to rip tape for each section (about 7 sections in all...)!!

Before getting going with the gluing, I ran out to save my radar eye from the merciless California winter sun before it melted! I think I'm done with it. I'll pull the masking tomorrow and see how that came out.

Gluing. I pulled off a section at a time, frantically painted the weld-on on its back, pressed it back on, and taped it down solid with those little bits of tape I'd prepared earlier. This was a MESSY, frantic endeavor. The glue globs flew everywhere! Some landed on the outside of the skin. I had paper towels at the ready, but some, uh..., weathering happened yet again!

As with the inner skins, the outer skins did not quite fit, coming up a little short. I'll fill this in tomorrow. I figured I must have made my big round frame cuts a little big, but when I tried on the dome ring later IT seemed a little big! This whole thing is mysterious...

The front view:

Gluing on some of the window frames on the skin:

As it happens, I apparently forgot to paint the small skin bits -- will do that tomorrow. Right now the skin application is mostly done, and drying overnight.

Final thoughts: my aluminum "striping" seems to be holding up well, but all the little grooves will need cleaning tomorrow, as some oozing happened here and there; if I had my druthers, I'd have used the VHB tape instead of the weld-on -- I think it would have been much neater. *shrugs* Ah well -- it's a done deal now!

Aaaaand Almost Done With Dome Work For Now!

2011-01-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

Had a busy few days, but did some R2 errands along the way (among other things, I picked up some CA glue and more clamps). Jumped back in full force today!

I started by rejoining the cycle of sand, paint, and dry on that pesky resin eye that's giving me so much grief with its drips and stuff. Still no love, as the day ended with me discovering more (new) drips -- so that cycle will begin, AGAIN, tomorrow. No pics, as I can hardly bear to look at it anymore!

During that whole cycle I worked on the dome proper. As promised, I tweaked some of the cutouts for the various resin pieces. For the most part this went swimmingly -- cutting aluminum is no longer daunting to me!

I decided, after several more test-fittings, to completely do away with the little cross-bar that separates the two front logics -- made getting everything aligned behind it much easier.

UNFORTUNATELY, I'd made a decision to leave on the outer dome for this trimming process -- it was just such a bear to align that I didn't want to ever remove it again. Earlier, I'd planned to tape off the areas around where I'd be cutting to protect the outer dome. Well, I FORGOT! And boy did I pay the price. The Dremel took one of its rare jumps, and skittled right over the pretty metal, leaving a couple of really nasty prominent gashes. I don't think anything can be done about this -- and it doesn't really look like natural weathering. Oh well!! :-(

After I'd finished trimming and fitting, and whimpering a bit about the "accident," it was finally time to glue on those yellow panels! I'd researched the many approaches, and chose silicon so I'd have a little wiggle-room when adjusting. I started with the top panels, and taped each one in place to cure. Or dry. Or whatever it's doing under there!

Then it was time for the bottom panels. I'd noticed when test-fitting that the many months of time the panels had been off the curve of the dome had allowed them to flatten a bit. This is why I needed clamps on the bottom ones -- to press them back into shape.

It mostly worked!

I finished the day's droid-work by gluing the little felt pads into my HP enclosures and making sure their bottoms were smooth.

As of right now most of the resin parts are taped in place. I may glue some of them in tomorrow, as well as run a bead of silicon around the bottom of the two domes. But first I'll have to deal with that pesky resin eye!!

More Dome Work

2011-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

More work accomplished today -- I decided to just cut away the dome bumps area on the inner dome for better bump fit:

That was the last thing to do before placing the outer dome over the inner, and fussing with it until it was back in position. I'm only going to run silicon around the bottom to fix the two together. The radar eye screws should hold the domes together, according to some experts!

Finally, I'm at the point of test-fitting the panels and resin parts!

I'm going to have to fine-tune some of the cuts -- will do that tomorrow. Then, hopefully glue on all those panels!! :-D

You Must Undo What You Have Done!

2011-01-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's a mangled Yoda-ism. :-)

What did I have to undo? Well, a bit of painting. You see, one should not paint where one intends to apply glue, because then the bond will only be as strong as the paint's bond to whatever it's on. I guess I forgot that I'd be gluing my dome bits on, because I should have masked off the glue areas. Since I didn't, I got to sand off those areas! Extra work, just for meeee!

Once I'd finished the sanding job I decided to install the cabochons in my holoprojectors. We are warned in the instructions that this is a tricky job -- but the first one went in easily! Lulled and overconfident I became, yeessss.

The second and third cabochons took forever to get done -- and I had to invent a way! After using the retaining clip tool to get the clip in partway the tools would then fail, leaving me with a clip that couldn't be gripped! I ended up using a small hammer on a screwdriver to drive the clip down. It really tore up the inside of the HP, but I think it'll pass muster.

I'd planned to glue in the little felt bits, but the recommended CA glue was nowhere to be found amongst my rapidly-growing glue collection! Will have to go buy some later... grrrr!

Dome Bits Continued...

2011-01-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

More painting yesterday! I started by masking off the radar eye to preserve the aluminum grooves. Hopefully this will work.

First few coats of yellow, then a dry overnight before sanding. Rinse, repeat!

An example of what goes wrong when Bith uses spray paint. Luckily these drips will be hidden by the cowling. Still, really annoying!

I've just sanded and put more yellow on the radar eye...and see drips like those above. Going to let dry, sand, and try again tomorrow maybe.

Luckily there's always something else to do!

Dome Bits

2011-01-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Painting day. It was a bit overcast today, but the temp and humidity were within the limits on my cans of paint and primer, so I went for it. I went for it. <--- Aren't those someone's famous last words?

The basic idea is to make all the resin dome bits look as if they were fabricated from metal. Using spray paint!

Mind you, I can paint using brushes, I'm pretty great using an airbrush, but spray paint requires some arcane, inscrutable method that has eluded me for a lifetime! Conditions might well nigh be perfect, I might use endless feather-light misty coats...yet still something ALWAYS goes awry.

So I begin with several carefully-applied layers of primer (the sandable kind):

After testing my two samples of aluminum paint on some scrap, I proceed with trying to make the magic happen.

Well, drips happened. Spatters happened. Cracks happened. Quivering lower lips happened!

I let each coat dry 1/2 hour between applications, and it still looked rotten. I could tell it looked rotten, even though by the end of painting it was nearly dark. How rotten will it look in the light of day? Ack! Here is a shot under indoor light. Hmmm, we shall see if any of this can be fixed, or if I'm going to have a droid that looks weathered before I've started weathering it!

Scrubbity, scrubbity...

2011-01-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today was resin parts prep day. I need to remove the release agent from all my resin parts - I'd been saving this chore until I had every part I'm planning to use on my droid. Following Keith's instructions each part was swabbed with alcohol, scrubbed and soaked, rinsed and wiped dry. Woo, it was just like washing a massive load of dishes!!

Here they all are, ready for trimming (as needed), sanding, primering, painting etc.

Remembering horror stories I'd read on astromech.net about storing painted parts, everything I was not going to be working with immediately was packed up again. I also discovered that I missed ordering enough ankle cylinders, so I've either got to get 2 more ordered...or make them myself! Not sure which I'll do, but I've got a while until I get to the ankles so we shall see.

Earlier in the day I'd masked off the area on the inner dome that gets painted, took it outside, and primered and painted it in between resin washing sessions. When I was nearly done, I noticed that I'd forgotten to sand the spin lines down, and now they show through!! Ack! Not sure what I'm going to do about this, but as it's now dark I'll figure it out tomorrow... *sigh*

As I'm hoping to start painting my resin dome parts tomorrow, I finished the day by grinding down the back of the radar eye, and trimming the logics a bit for perfect fit. I think everything's ready for paint!

Hopefully I'll be staying on this roll! :-D

All Hail the Hole-Saw!

2011-01-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, sometimes I feel a sense of near-worship for my power tools. Today's hero? The hole-saw!

Back at R2LA, we met a lovely couple from parts North. Sadly, I can't seem to retrieve names, but they were great! The gentleman-half of the duo mentioned that he'd seen my drilled dome, and that he'd found a better way to produce those HP holes: the hole-saw! Mind you, I'd considered it myself, but was afraid the force of the saw would contort the aluminum. He assured me that it would work like a charm...ah, the wisdom of the builder's group strikes again!

So yes, after a long holiday-hiatus, here we are a-droiding afresh. Now that we've got lovely weather back, and the Christmas decorations are finally put away, I've returned, and I've got my dome in my sights.

I finished off the one HP hole I'd made the most progress on, taped off the one hole that needs to look perfect, and dremelled out all the straight cuts for the front and rear logics. Guys and gals -- be sure to wear a mask when doing this, unless you want lungs full of aluminum dust! Just sayin'...

I'm lucky enough to own two dremels (I guess that should really be Dremels, with a capital D) so I kept them both at hand, loaded with cutting disks. These disks will wear down and shred frequently, launching shrapnel in all directions (note the piece stuck in the cut in the second photo below). I recommend long sleeves and protective eyewear at all times too! And maybe a cupcake, behind you, as motivation. Couldn't hurt!

Filing down sharp edges is important...here I pose with my file in my left hand. I'm not left-handed.

For the holes I had left, I broke out the previously-lauded HOLE SAWS! All those drill-holes I'd put in were simply not needed: I found the center of each hole, started it using a teensy (that's tech talk) bit, then powered through the hole in seconds using the HOLE SAW! Dear readers, it was so elegant and simple I could have wept. Just look at those perfect holes!!

The Hole Saw is so awesome I may need to make a shrine for it... :-) True, it was noisy as all get-out, and shimmied rather fiercely, but I felt pretty cool for taming the thing and bidding it to do my WILL!

Tomorrow -- a bit of paint on the inner dome, and some resin parts prep. Droid work is back ON!

Painting Mop-Up Day

2010-11-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I figured I'd hit the dome pieces with another coat or two of yellow (BTW I failed to mention that it's Dupli-Color School Bus Yellow), and as the weather was still pretty nice (except for the occasional pesky breeze) I went ahead with those plans. First, I sanded some of the embedded grit down. Then painted. I also tossed in the bit of styrene that has color on the body which I'd mistakenly painted white yesterday.

Everything went pretty well except for that dang piece of styrene. I held the spray on it too long, and the paint immediately started to crackle. Hubby likes it -- says it will look good once I weather, but I fear I'm taking this weathering thing too far if I'm using it to cover up all my mistakes! We shall see...

Next I removed the outer skins, and the masking on the inner skins.

Here I found mistake #2 of the day. See that "W"? I'd put those on any panels needing white paint. Silly me -- I'd masked over that one! So...I re-masked, and took it out to paint.

Next I hope to do some styrene reinforcing on the inner skins, then, attach the outer skins!!

Finally -- A Decent Day for Painting!

2010-11-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Yes, it's been a while...around a MONTH! But I've finally made progress again!

It's been either hot as blazes, or rainy and humid, or extremely windy -- and the next step on my droid involved painting. Today I got a weather break; an utterly perfect painting day.

I began giving the skins (still on the body) and all the little frames associated with the skins several coats of Rustoleum Satin White. This went pretty quickly, although part-way through...the WIND PICKED UP AGAIN! Arrrgh! Yes, some tiny bits of I-don't-know-what embedded themselves in the still-wet paint. I gave those bits a good hard look, and then decided they'd look great when I started the weathering process -- Whew!! I didn't take pictures of the white paint going on, as it looked a bit boring. White! On white! Woooo!

Okay, next up was the dome ring, and dome panels (drum roll please) featuring my committment to a yellow droid! I've been looking forward to this for a long, long time...

Another whoopsie that has me grateful I'd decided early on to do a heavily-weathered droid:

They will all dry overnight in my spare room -- here you can see the color a bit better. I may do one more coat tomorrow!

The last of my resin parts from the entirely awesome Keith arrived today -- looks like resin prep will be my next big step!

R2LA Day!

2010-10-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still grinning!

Yes, I had THAT much fun at my first R2LA! For those not in the know, R2LA is an Artoo Builders Party hosted in Southern California by Senior Builder (I just made up that title) Mike Senna and his gracious family. Some travel great distances to attend these fun shin-digs! Food, drink and droids -- how can you beat that? Yes, folks bring droids -- both finished and "in progress" (like mine), so there's a "show and tell" component. Some years feature tutorials, sometimes funny videos are produced for YouTube, sometimes awards are presented...it's different every time. This year we had...chicken races!! When was that last time that happened at a party YOU attended, eh?

I had decided to bring only my partially-completed styrene frame as I didn't want to hog table space with my 4 bins of droid parts. I thought it would be fun to take pics of some of the stuff I'd left at home, so I spent the evening before unpacking some stuff and setting it out on my work table for documenting in all its geeky splendor!

Some styrene (Dave E. plans) leg parts, and wood shoulders:

Some of the resin parts and the battery hoses (which were the 1st parts I obtained!):

Some of the electronics/motor stuff I'm hoarding:

Dome (I ended up bringing it) and panels:

I set my body and dome, display frames with the pics above, my builder's notebook, and cards with this blog address all out on one of the tables provided at the party. I was happy to see new builders checking out the notebook! Please to ignore the adult beverage in the shot...

At several points during the party I took the frame out to hand around, so folks could see how light, yet solid, it is. I was kind of surprised I was the only one doing the styrene build in attendance, but then again -- most of the guys built their droids quite a while ago...

The chicken races were hilarious! And I picked the winning chicken, but not the winning number... hah! My hubby came along too, and was very interested in the various droids; he was struck by the variety of approaches to the project. He did doze a bit -- I'd warned him not to! - and got the "sleeping man" treatment...heeee!

The best part, for me, was getting to spend hours talking droid! I picked up sooo many tips (wrote everything down as soon as I got home), and really studied all the different builds. I think I chatted with almost every person there (a few got away early). I wish I'd written down every person's name, though...that's one of the weak parts of my memory :-( . Hopefully some of them will comment here (hint!).

I took only the one picture above (of my table set-up), but more pics and coverage are available at Victor's blog (see links to the right). Thanks Victor, for allowing me to share this group shot of the gang at R2LA VIII below!

I can't wait until R2LA IX!! Will I have a completed droid ready by then? Here's hoping!!

Wee Building Day

2010-10-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Got my primered dome panels sanded...aaaand that was all -- I've come down with a bad cold! Droid building, along with most everything else I'm supposed to be doing, is temporarily on hold. :-(

Moving Right Along

2010-10-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

When we last parted, I'd anticipated Dremelling goodness. As usual, things did not go according to plan.

What was my plan? Yes, I actually had one LOL! Well, I'd decided to start by getting all the parts I plan to paint this week primered in the morning, then, while that was drying, start Dremeling away. Well first off, some reading I'd done last night convinced me to do a better job sanding and cleaning everything. Again! This time each piece got wiped down with Isopropyl Alcohol after sanding. But darn if this didn't take HOURS! Not to worry though; as it turns out, mornings right now are a bit too humid to do any painting...so I'd have to have waited anyway.

I ran a string around the groove in the dome ring so that inner part would stay nice and metally. A great tip I gleaned from being a regular reader of the forums at astromech.net!

When the humidity broke, it was hot as blazes out there -- so I had to wait until dusk to get started. In the meantime I broke out the Dremel and some heavy-duty cutting disks. That's when I found out all my little drill-holes were a bit too far from my lines, and Dremelling all this out could take forEVER! Tomorrow, I'm going to drill more holes, I hope.

So, back to getting those parts primed! As soon as the balcony was in shade I went out and taped paper to the temporary painting area I'd set up. Then I carefully took all the parts out there, trying to not get my oily paws all over them. Finally, tossed on a mask, shook the heck out of two cans of primer and went to town!

Shhh -- look! R2 is wearing his skirt on his head!

A slight breeze came up partway through and I ended up painting part of my left arm heh-heh. Somehow forgot to get a picture *whistles innocently*.

Managed to get a few coats on...very lightly each time, and after everything was dry brought the parts back in to spend the night away from any dew.

Tomorrow: pretty much the same schedule as today I imagine, as I sand/wash the primered parts, and then paint at dusk. What's going to be fun is seeing the first of the YELLOW as I paint dome panels!

Any spare time will be spent re-drilling those holes on my inner dome. Wooooo -- living large I tell ya!

Countdown to My First R2LA!

2010-10-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hello patient readers!

R2LA VIII is next Saturday, and, wanting to bring along a droid a bit further along I've started stepping up my work. ("Finally!" you say)

Today I did the long-avoided drilling on the inner dome. Some of the panels must be removed (for the electronics etc.) and drilling holes around each panel perimeter is the first step.

I'll be honest: this is the part I've been dreading the most in this build. I'm pretty confident around power tools, but I've never used them on metal. Especially metal with a curved surface. Did I say "curved?" -- I meant convex! Aye-yay-yay!

So, I kept hubby home, to have a buddy to hold the dome still, and paced a bit working up my courage. Finally ready, I used a nail to put a little depression to set the tip of the bit into, and squeezed the trigger! And here we have it -- lovely error #1:

Yep, the drill bit went skidding around! Okay -- turns out this is something that only vanishes with practice, and luckily, for all but one of the panels, the outer dome will hide most egregious mistakes! I'll need this practice for the final hole -- the one that IS visible from the outside. I'm going to do that one LAST! As in: later this week.

So, here's how it was done: we started with a 1/8" bit and then widened each hole with a 3/8" bit. There was a break partway through the process as we decided to run out and buy some rubberized shelf liner to sit the dome on so it would resist skidding around while under the pressure of the drill from the side.

My favorite part was using the step drill to completely bore out the holes for the dome "bumps" -- thanks for the tip on that, Victor! Here's where I am today (you can see the area I filed down too):

Tomorrow I finish the cuts and sand them down with the Dremel! Woooo! I looove my Dremel!

Is it a droid yet?

2010-09-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

Nooo, not quite! Still a bit (cough) to go...

I've been sanding, sanding, sanding my dome, trying to get the top to fit flush on the bottom. Not quite there yet, sadly. And I decided against pictures this time, as a pic of sanding is pretty dull! Although some take sanding to the point of shiny. Rimshot. ;-)

When I get a bit further along I'll post a nice pic...maybe I'll have some test painting done then too!

Edit:

Update! My husband asked what on earth I was doing, and after I explained he said "why don't you just use that big file there on that dome -- nobody's going to see that part anyway!" Well! Less than 20 minutes of big-filing later and I have two dome parts that fit snugly! WTG hubby! :-D

Sorry Styrene, but the Dome is Aluminum...

2010-08-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

...or is that aluminium?! :-D Okay, I feel a bit like a traitor, but I'm using an aluminum dome -- the R & J dome to be exact. It's a thing of beauty, but it does add quite a bit of weight. So it's not a complete styrene build...more like a Frankendroid!

After I finished applying metallic striping to my inner skin, I set work on the body aside until it's a bit cooler, as my next step involves some painting.

So, out comes the next big part of the droid puzzle: the dome! Luckily for me, excellent R2 Build blogger Victor Franco has the same dome (see his blog on the lower right) so I was able to refer to his posts for this part. At least at first. I could see right away the "gap" issue, so I skipped ahead and started removing panels prior to the big sanding I know is coming. Like Victor, I kept attached any panel that would need tracing onto the inner dome later. Standing on the shoulders of building giants, I am!

Instructions for panel-removal called for sawing off three of the wee connectors on each panel, then twisting off the fourth. I chose to saw off only two (on opposite sides) -- so the twisting would be on two connectors -- eliminating some sawing! Woo! Yeah, I'm lazy that way. But it worked!

I used a hacksaw blade, and wrapped one end in toweling so I'd not saw my sawing hand. Good call there, I'd say.

I started filing off the little nubs but ran out of time before finishing. I'm off to a convention in Baltimore for the weekend, so...see y'all next week!

Gimme Some Skin!

2010-08-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

So I spent a couple of days fussing with my inner skins -- I'd tape them on, find a gap, pull them off and try again! I must have re-taped them down about six times before I was not completely displeased. They are still not perfect, but I had to commit at some point! I carefully glued each seam and let the droid sit for a full day while the Weld-On did its thing.

Well, it worked! This droid is now solid as a rock...woooo!

Today I fussed some more -- filling in a couple of spots with some scrap styrene. I then taped on the outer skins in preparation for my special "faux aluminum frame" experiment. I ran pencil lines along each spot where the inner skin would peep through (unless it was to be a white area -- those I just marked for paint). Then I affixed metallic tape along each line. This should create the illusion of an aluminum skin...I hope! I plan to paint the outer skins (in curved position) off of the droid so I don't lose this effect.

Unfortunately, I ran out of tape precisely when my local hobby shop closed. Will continue tomorrow!

Wooo-Hoooo! Another Frame Is Born!

2010-08-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Finally we have gone from 2-D to 3-D! Frame contruction took about 5 hours. Do I have any advice or tips? Why, yes I do! Purchase as many small squares as you can reasonably justify. Waiting for each upright part to "set up" takes most of the time. Here is my start:

Have I started a model of the coliseum? Stonehenge for Spinal Tap? No, it's the start of level 2! I used my taller squares to be sure the rings were even.

Here is where it started to get tricky -- tiny errors multiplied later. Be careful!

She's not perfect, but she'll do. Frame done! I used tape to force some parts together. Will add some extra stryrene in places needed tomorrow. The cutting process caused most of the problems: some pieces weren't precisely the same height/width due to imperfect edges from the "breaking/snapping" method of cutting styrene.

A "frame-is-finished" builder tradition: trying on the skins! Some minor filing will need to be done before they are glued on, but HEY we are starting to look really droid-like, eh?

All in all, I'm glad I did this by myself. If I wanted a perfect droid, however, I'd pay to have the patterns laser-cut. There were so many tiny issues -- things that I will see forever, but that hopefully not too many others will notice. But WHEW I've got one major part done!! Huzzah!

Post-CV Inspiration!

2010-08-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

I had such a fantastic time at CV, mostly in the droid room -- 75 droids! Droid heaven!!

Renewed and inspired (and finally rested), I've started back on my build. Today, I prepared to construct the frame. I thought prep time would be around...oh, one or two hours, and then I'd be on to the actual building! Bwahahhaaahaha!

Preparation consisted of the following steps: score pattern marks into styrene, remove pattern, wipe adhesive off with faux turpentine, soak in sudsy water, scrub, rinse, air-dry, drill any needed holes, counter-sink as needed. Whew! Pics are below, and frame-building finally begins tomorrow! Really, I promise!

All ready for frame assembly tomorrow:

Checking In

2010-07-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hi dear readers of my droid blog! I'm still frantically working on my costume for CV, and I needed to spend last week serving on a jury, so droid-work has remained on hold. I may not have time to resume work until after CV -- but I will return! ;-D

Just Couldn't Stay Away...

2010-07-05T23:46:00.001-07:00

Yep! Although I was planning to put R2 on hold, in spite of not having finished the routering portion of cutting out the styrene, I just couldn't stop when the routering table was all set, ready to go, over there: mocking me.

So I did a hard push and got all of the rest of the styrene cut out -- and it took me the last four days! Okay, just a few hours each day. Not, actually, 96 hours of hard labor.

I finished with a flourish, as I decided to accidentally brush my first finger against the still-spinning router after the last cut; thank goodness for my fingernails, as having longish ones no doubt saved the tip of my finger! I ended up with a mangled nail, and one small slice...and I felt like I dodged a bullet as I packed up the router table and cleaned up the mess. Now, I'm really going on a brief break: R2's parts are packed up and out of the way, and my sewing stuff is out. See you all again after my costuming project is done!

Here is the stack of finished routered circular cuts, alongside a pic of my "jig" for cleaning up some of the straight cuts I was not happy with. I'm glad I'm done with this part -- and I expect I'll be cleaning up styrene "snow" for the next 3 years!

Okay, small droid holding pattern...

2010-06-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

I need to set droid work aside to work on costuming for CV, and some art projects. Not to fear: droid-progress ...er...progresses!

Today I received some more gorgeous parts from Keith (resin bits for the dome and body), and a lovely vacu-formed skirt from Mansugi. It was a bit like my birthday or something :-D.

I may get a bit more cutting done this week before packing that up to make room for sewing. See? See how I'm already trying to plan more droid work? Bwahahaha!

I'm in the Cutting Home Stretch!

2010-06-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

And other sentences I'd never expected to type.

Well, I'd hoped to be done with all the cutting of the styrene today (or was that weeks ago?), but...at least yesterday I finished all the straight cuts!

Today was routering circular cuts day; I'd wanted backup at home in case something went terribly wrong, plus I wanted hubby to document it! So, he observed in a worried fashion, and took a photo or two.

This is surely the messiest thing we've ever attempted inside the apartment! Does anyone out there need some fake snow for their low-budget movie? I've got quite a bit in my kitchen now...

Unfortunately today was also to be lesson-learning day: apparently it is unwise to let the router bit get too hot, as it rather easily melts plastic! *sigh*

Looks like tomorrow will include a trip to the hardware store for some new bits. And I'll miss my self-imposed cutting deadline - but only by one day!

Dome arrival!

2010-06-22T18:14:00.001-07:00

It's a thing of beauty, isn't it! This is the R & J Dome, and I was very lucky to get it! Thanks to Bryan S.!!

Edit: I'm such a noob at this, I didn't notice I'd taken the pic with the dome ring upside-down! I know YOU all noticed didn't you? And you were so polite and said nothing.

Router-Ready!

2010-06-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we finished the router table! I've begun marking the holes for the center cuts.
Today I pulled and prepared all the patterns that will be cut using the table. I wish I'd done it yesterday, as I found I need more .125" styrene, and my styrene supplier is closed on weekends. That sounds pretty bad: "my styrene supplier." Closed on weekends! Jonesing for styrene! Pity me.

Because this is going to make a terrible mess (already did a bit of practicing and "mess" is understating it) I want to do all the needed router cuts in one swell foop! So it looks like Monday-- after more styrene is obtained -- will be the day. In the meantime I'm cutting down the styrene I've got (again) into smaller, more manageable pieces. Thrilling isn't it?

Quick little update

2010-06-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Was out of town for nearly a week (Heroes Con -- wooo!), but yesterday got going again on my droid. We bought more stuff for the router table (we keep running into tiny difficulties, like finding the right screws to mount the router), and I found a local source for the 2mm styrene I still needed. I also bought several paints to test (looks like I'm finally committing to yellow!), and a circle-cutting mechanism for my knife for cutting the smaller curves. Sounds like an exciting, glamourous life I lead, no?

I hope to get this router table situation sorted out this week as I'd really like to get the frame built!

I succeeded in purchasing an R&J Dome (really one of the best domes one can obtain for an R2) from another builder, and that should be arriving this week as well! I ordered, or am in the process of ordering, most of the non-styrene parts for the dome and body. My to-buy list is getting shorter! I'm so easily thrilled.

Next post should have some progress pics...

The Dremel Router Experiment

2010-05-29T14:41:00.001-07:00

Okay, so Dave E. advised against trying to use the Dremel as a router (he'd said he burned one out). Still, I had a router attachment, plus an extra Dremel, so I thought I'd give it a shot. You see, cutting out the round parts requires non-straight scoring, and using a pivot-point is key. Here's the first pass (not bad!):

Unfortunately I wasn't seeing how badly the Dremel was chewing up the styrene! When I was finished, the cut just looked...REALLY CHEWED! Chewie, I daresay. Sorry, it had to be said. Romngowhawaggghayy!

Oh well! I'm going to need to reprint that pattern, and dig out hubby's proper router and go ahead with plan B -- the building of a router table as suggested by Dave E.!

Shoulder grease required

2010-05-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

After several days of frustration attempting to cut the 3 mm styrene (thicker and utterly recalcitrant IMHO) I turned to the experienced builders at astromech.net for help. I got lots of support and advice (thanks guys) and today really got on my first roll with the stuff.

Apparently one must really lean over thick styrene to get it to break. Score it and score it and score it and (ya...about 6-10 times) and then lean over the score like you mean it!!

All my upright frame supports are cut! Tomorrow I'm going to hit the miscellaneous frame pieces, then, with luck, start setting up my router system to get the curved cuts done. Could frame assembly be starting next week? Woo! Am I a dreamer? Yes!

Looking Droid-Like!

2010-05-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Needing to get a sense of progress, I began cutting the skins today. I got the inner ones done! The top photo is the back inner skin, and the bottom pic shows the front inner skin. Cutting styrene is really a lot more like carving: one pares down each edge using multiple gentle passes with the blade, and when it's looking like it's got a nice little styrene canyon forming it's time to put down the knife, pick up the styrene, and start bending until...SNAP! Takes a while, but it's getting to feel fun! Styrene-cutting goodness indeed!

Bith, meet mathematics!

2010-05-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

I've confirmed what I started suspecting part-way through pattern cutting: I did not buy nearly enough styrene! Yeah, those 4X8' 3mm sheets look massive, but it appears one needs five, not one! I think. And I need two more of the 1mm thickness, and 1 2X4' of the 2mm (which I'll have to drive to Anaheim to get). Oh well -- I still have plenty to get started on for now. I think.

I successfully ordered the remaining needed bits for my JEDI Control System, and I have a strong lead on an aluminum dome! I'm feeling like I can almost relax now, as the rest of what I'll need seems to be readily available. Yes, this droid-building business is soooo stressful: perhaps I deserve a luxury day. ;-)

Thursday should see some hearty styrene-cutting goodness. I think.

Whew!

2010-05-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! The patterns are done being cut! Tomorrow they get stuck on styrene and the REAL cutting begins...

Another small step forward! :)

It's a tiny boon, but I'll take it.

Enthusiasm Wall

2010-05-10T03:12:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't hit the enthusiasm wall yet, but a recent post on the forums got me thinking.

It happens in every project: one starts off gung-ho, then it gets...boring? frustrating? tedious? Of course it does.

While I haven't hit a major wall yet, I'm in the doldrums, certainly, of styrene-droid building. I'm cutting...cutting...cutting. And nothing looks remotely droid-like yet.

Luckily, I know this sensation well from sewing. I really despise the pattern-cutting process in sewing! Ugh...it is boring defined! But it must be done. Then...the fun begins: construction!

So, I keep my eyes on the prize (actual building) and I know this boring cutting part will be over as soon as I've applied myself fully to it.

Okay! Onward and upward (and glad I keep parts-ordering dangling as a prize for each step!)...

Inching forward! And I mean inching.

2010-05-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

Parts are arriving -- forgot to mention my utility arms and Jedi Control system arrived. Whoo! Thanks Keith and Chris! And I've started plotting the budget for the rest of the parts. I've paid for a Jedi Display system to complete the Control system -- just waiting on the build for that -- and I've set aside the money in my PP account for the most important part: the aluminum dome! It will add a bit of weight, but I've observed the "patting" R2's dome gets in public, and I just want the most solid part there I can get. Actually the poor droid should get a force-field, as some of those kids can get eeeeevil!

I'm still cutting out the pattern for my future little buddy! Oy!

Well, to be honest I've also been a tad distracted by my sudden desire to whip out a Hoth Snowspeeder jacket for CV (to add to my X-wing Pilot costume, and because I'm nothing if not easily distractible). It won't take long to actually sew, but the research (haha) took a day or so out of droid-building. Anyway, some fabric samples are ordered (along with the gloves and some other stuff), so I can get back to the business of this blog! *cough* Unless some other new shiny comes along...eep!

Progress Continues...Slowly!

2010-05-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm being fussy, and spending too much time on this part, but just taping together and carefully cutting out the styrene patterns (they're not even on the styrene yet!) is taking an age. I'm carefully marking each pattern with the width of styrene required (using a color-coding system), and then filing it by type. Crazy? I hope I'm just being organized.

Well, that's okay -- no need to rush this. There are many parts I cannot make that I need to obtain when the runs happen, so I knew going into this that it would take a great deal of time. Interestingly, I'm finding this very similar to sewing (something I'm rather good at); taking 2-D patterns and constructing something 3-D from them has been intuitive so far. /earnest fervent posting

Anyway, a pic from today's pattern cutting (and yes, our new AC was installed just in time for warm temps to hit):

Did What I Could!

2010-05-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

As I said, we're having new AC installed Monday -- but perhaps due to that I got one more goal accomplished: I cut down my styrene sheets even more, so now they are each 2 X 4'. Much more manageable! I also fixed up this blog a wee bit...which means those reading now can't imagine the hideous blog that I'd made before. But you MUST! Because only by comparison does this new bloggy SHINE!

New AC Incoming

2010-05-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

Okay... had a hydrospanner (just had to use that) tossed in the works: our AC is getting replaced (hooray!) and that means my work area is cleared out for that installation. So, I just spent time doing re-reading (always healthy) of posts and blogs. Plus, have re-watched both ANH and ESB. Yes, that's research now. Remember my Very Important Research Notebook? I need to fill it with...notes. Yes.

I must admit that this droid project has revived my SW fandom. Yes, it had started lagging a bit in the last few years...perhaps I'll blog about why later, but: now it's returning! This gives me much happiness!

Small but important progress!

2010-04-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

I was surprised at how difficult it was to get my temporary adhesive -- is everyone in the San Fernando Valley suddenly building droids? Hahahahah. Okay, I laugh, but I'm just silly enough to actually wonder...

Anyway, finally found it -- well hidden -- at Michael's Crafts. Whew! This adhesive is needed to temporarily stick the patterns I've printed out onto the styrene. So I can cut it out.

Tomorrow I'll finish cutting the patterns down and taping where needed. Also, I'll be organizing them by size styrene needed. I was able to get .125, .040, and .020. I'm sure I have too much of the thinner stuff (but am hoping it's thin enough), and I hope I have too much of the thicker stuff.

Still need to get all the pics off my camera as well! ETA: Done! The horrible pics are now up. I really need to get my Canon back in commission...

Getting Parts in the Field

2010-04-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today I ventured out-of-doors. There was a sinister burning light that filled the air with a yellow hue, and which warmed my skin in an unnatural fashion. For what would I brave such obvious and immediate danger? Only droid parts, my dears, only droid parts (okay, and the occasional groceries).

I'd found a local supplier of plastic (who knew?) -- Gavrieli -- and I drove over and bought the styrene, weld-on (only #4804 was available and I have no idea what that means), and the applicator bottle. Only spent $85! Somehow this seemed thrilling. But -- my supplier only sold the styrene in 4X8' sheets! I convinced them to roll the sheets (they didn't want to) and managed to fit them into the back of my Xterra. Whew! When I got it home I cut each sheet in half so it would somehow fit into the apartment. I think I have more than enough for one droid!

I apologize for the lack of pictures to date, but my camera is malfunctioning. I've been taking pics with my phone, and will eventually get my posts upgraded with images. ETA -- I've updated my posts with my terrible camera-phone pictures...Hey -- check out the geeky license plate!

I've had no luck finding temporary adhesive for my patterns -- but I did find some double-sided tape. Hopefully I can begin cutting soon!

I Guess I Need to Turn in My Girl Card...

2010-04-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

...because hubby offered to buy me a nice pair of boots, and I told him I'd rather spend the money on droid parts!

So over the weekend we went tool shopping: bought a Dremel Router and Drill Press. I have two Dremels, so even if I blow one out (as Dave Everett says he did) I'll still be good to go -- and I really couldn't justify buying a regular router (hubby has an old one if I must use a router) or drill press for just this project. Hopefully this will work out.

I was lucky to get a JEDI Control System and to get in on the Display System run. Those are fancy names for some of the electronics kits the club has made available to those of us who might be "technically challenged." More bits will be needed (along with genius Uncle help) but I'm liking crossing stuff off my "to order" list.

While out tool shopping I actually bought my first droid part: the braided "battery cables" for his feet -- whoooo! Yes, I'm easily thrilled. Yesterday I ordered his arms, too, as I'll be needing those to build part of his body. Plus, he might want arms. I would. Just sayin'.

Finally, my tabloid paper arrived so I spent today printing out the plans: wow -- glad I ordered 100 sheets! Nearly used them all up! But they are all printed out and organized now...

I need to do some data entry* on my spreadsheets to track my spending before it gets out of hand. At least my only other planned immediate expense is the actual styrene -- hopefully tomorrow!

I want to fix up this blog too -- it's pretty ugly! Maybe this weekend...

*again...don't laugh.

To Build a Droid: the Project Ultimate!

2010-04-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Oh! Hello, and welcome to the first blog I expect to actually utilise! I'm Bith (a username I adopted ages ago so I'm stuck with it) and I woke up one day recently thinking I needed a droid around the house. Doesn't everyone?

Yep, I've belonged to the R2 Builder's club for just a few weeks, but, as luck would have it, at this past weekend's Wizard World Anaheim Comic-Con, my hubby's booth was right across from theirs! Droid heaven! I pretty much spent every free moment hanging with the R2 guys and their adorable R2s -- asking questions, studying them, taking notes.

A couple of days ago I moved forward...I finally came to a decision about the basic build: he'll be a styrene droid (with aluminum dome, and skins, hopefully). I need a lighter-weight droid, as I'll often attend events without my sainted hubby, and the styrene build can be built in an apartment. Finally: the build was designed by the founder of the R2 Builders Group (Dave Everett), and I feel confident due to that. Very awesome builds based on the Senna frame are done locally, and I still hope to get a lot of information from those amazing builders.

Anyway, I extracted all the styrene build pdf blueprints, and began the laborious process of adjusting them for accurate size and printing them out...in pieces that need to be taped together of course! Partway through, I remembered my tabloid printer...d'oh! Will start again when my large-stock paper arrives. At least I verified that my printer was producing accurate blueprints.

I also started my formal research notebook. Stop laughing - don't we all use formal research notebooks everyday? Sheesh! Anyway, I'm still trying to get a good organizing system down, so a lot of notes are being jotted on loose paper until that time. (In other words "looseleaf" is the operational term here).

At least I've settled down from some initial crazy ideas (a steampunk R2 with...well lots of crazy variations...like: steam!), and am just going to do a standard R2 with one of the color variations (probably the yellow, as they are less common, but still have screen cred.). I can always swap stuff out later if I want to make him steampunk. I figure, as with costuming, I want something recognizable for the kids. I'd do the standard blue R2, but there are several of those guys locally, done REALLY well, so I figure why compete?

I've also begun a parts list -- just for the body. I took a look at the motor and sound and lights areas and my eyes started to blur (I'm understating that)...so I'm just going to focus on the basic R2 for now...he'll get moving and stuff later. Plus, that's the stuff that is readily available over-the-counter, unlike droid parts!

Next I'll finish printing out my blueprints, and organizing my notebook. Plus, kind of generally plotting the build. I need to buy a few (not many! whew) tools, and set up a building table.* Hubby will help me with that, as I'll need to mount a router to some plywood and drill some guide-holes. Next week I expect to buy some styrene and start cutting parts out! Woooo!

Okay, back to my research.**

*Actually, we bought several parts for the project table tonight! Almost ready to begin!

**Again: stop laughing!