February 28, 2013

Battery Box No.1 - 1.4

Cut pipe for top & bottom area of battery box. But had problems fitting it as it had too much curve. Think I need to find some thinner thickness guttering.



Sanded the battery box and applied primer. But still needs some more filler in places.
Latest photo of box, see previous post: Outer Feet 2.0

Outer Feet 2.0

Front & back 'aluminium' strips: The last lot I made for my centre foot were made out of some aluminium I found in work. They just needed cutting to size. So as it had all run out, I decided to make this set out of wood. These will then of course be sprayed up silver.


Once cut I PVA sealed before glueing them in place. Drilled guide holes for Knurled fittings.
[see second photo below].

Applied more resin to curve. Then wood filler all over. And areas of shell. Sanded once dried. Then primer coated. More wood filler to crescent and sanding all over. Then more primer.


Started to cut out the foot base slots, using my Dremel.


Cut up some small pieces of 3mm hardboard to attempt to make some fixing brackets for the battery box to fit onto. I say brackets, but they will be more like catches for the battery box to slide over.

Cut out a larger hole in foot side to give better access to bolt location. Cut out and screwed to the foot shell, two catches for box to slide over. They hold well.
Had found some thin rubber mat the other day, so i cut it to size and fixed it to the bottom of the temp feet. This should stop any scratching of floors! :-)


February 22, 2013

Outer Feet 1.9 - side panel work

Cut out a piece of hardboard for the side panel, the crescent & the top strip. Then a block to angle the crescent on the panel. I drilled & screwed the crescent to panel with the block in place. But later, removed this screw.

Drilled 1st of two sets of securing screws that will be covered up by the top strip. the two lower side pieces will cover the other two screws. PVA all cut edges.


I found out last night that the top two screw positions & the lower front one [that would be behind the small panel] interfere with the inside foot support frame. Tried to glue the main panel to the shell, but wouldn't stick?? So I've re-positioned the lower two (similar to centre foot) to be in the far bottom corners & for the top two, they will screw through the top strip.
 
I was able to glue on the two details either side of the crescent.

I then started on applying body resin to create and build up the crescent curve.

February 21, 2013

10,000 hits

Well, this evening marks R5's build page hitting the 10K counter mark :)

I didn't think when I started this blog that anybody would want to read about my journey. Especially as there are so many other build's that are more advanced in build & quality!! lol.
 
The lucky 10,000 view was
 
mentho1ite
Who is also a fellow builder on the UK R2 Builders forum (see link to site below)
 
Well to everyone that has viewed, commented, liked on R5's facebook page, thank you.
I hope it's has helped entertained lol and been informative :D and also helped avoid mistakes or just helped in some small way. Here's to the next 10,000 hits....... :D

UK R2D2 Builders Club

Check out the UK R2 Builders forum here:

Also on Facebook

February 20, 2013

Leg No.2 - Horseshoe No.1 complete

Other little bits of work that have slipped through the net

I masked off and silver sprayed the grooves on my shoulder horseshoe. I then sprayed it up white. With hind sight, these will be done after spraying them up white first! Still, they look good :) Next up was to clear spray and dirty up the crevices etc & then I fitted the buttons and hydraulic back on.

I drilled and tapped the second set of shoulder buttons and hydraulic. I just need to make the horseshoe for them to fit into.

February 17, 2013

R5-D4 - 3 Leg Mode :)

Had some time to do a little work on R5 the weekend.

I did some sanding of the foot base & started to mark the recess that i'll dremel out later. I cut the slots in the crescent & added a back piece. Also added wood filler to the sloped panel on it. (No photos yet)

I've been thinking about how to transport R5. So I thought I'd see what wood i had left in the garage. And was lucky enough to have 1 large sheet of 18mm plywood and another one half its size the same thickness. The reason I mention this is because it gave me the oppertunity to fully (legs) assemble R5!!

So on went both legs, then flipped him over to bolt on his centre leg.

Then I bolted on the only temp foot I have at the moment. What could I use to support his other leg?? The paint pot I had just brought out to be put away :D
 
R5D4 Astromech Droid
I didn't fit the foot shell, which I had, but this was just to see if everything worked
 Was a bit nervous, but everything worked and he looked good! :)

I also ordered a lazy suzan (cheep & small in comparison to what you guys use) but it looks ok and didnt break the bank. :) time will tell if its any good.

February 12, 2013

Outer Feet 1.8 - Base & skirt

I finish cutting out the lower foot base ring, then sanded the edges clean. I then started on cutting & fitting the lower skirt to the foot base. Used panel pins to fix in place, then applied wood filler all over :)
R2-D2

R2-D2

R2-D2

Battery Box No.1 - 1.3

I glued false sides to the front and rear ends, this when viewed goes between box & foot shell. To give the impression the box is a solid object. And added false curves to lower front & rear. Drilled dia 16mm for Knurl fittings. Applied more wood filler.
I applied primer to help with sanding of the wood filler over the curves.
Below, panel on plus sanding to curved area then applied more wood filler where needed. 

February 10, 2013

Leg No1, almost fully assembled :)

I got hold of some nice long cap head bolts.
These will be what I need to fix the Leg's ankle to the Outer Foot's internal support.
And just cause it looked good lol, here are a few photos.....
In this picture you can see the cap head bolt, as the top piece of the foot shell was not bonded in at this point. Leg bolted to internal frame.
The frame will be sprayed up white once all is done.
R2D2 Leg
Here's a teaser front shot :D
R2D2 Leg
Here's the side shot.......looking good [in all it's basicness lol]
 
And just to test the strength / tighness of the bolt and also that the internal stand's base area is large enough to support the leg without tipping over..........
R2D2 Leg
I angled the leg over to almost touch the top of the Outer Foot shell. I took this photo with one hand and one eye, the other two were ready in case anythin decided to move!! Lol :D

Outer Feet 1.7 - Ankle Slot work

I marked out the position of the Ankle Slot and then cut it out. 
 then got to work on making the bottom of the slot, using two pieces of wood, 18mm & 8mm, which is the thickness of my Leg's Ankle.
These were screwed in place at the same height as the Slots cut in the Foot Shell.
R2D2 Outer Foot internal


Also the last piece was bonded into place on the shell.
 
I've also got hold of some longer cap head bolts for fitting the Leg Ankle to the Foot.
More in the next post.

February 09, 2013

R5-D4's Events page

I've added a new page (at top of Blog) which will hopefully have events etc reports of R5's appearances. All being well, it shouldn't be too long before his first appearance :) all be it in an incomplete state lol.

February 07, 2013

UK R2D2 Builders Club - T-shirt


I put my name on a list to recieve my 'club' t-shirt.


The Group also has a Facebook page

Outer Feet - 1.6 - Display Feet internals

Untill I can afford motors etc for R5. He will need something to 'take the weight of his feet' when being displayed lol :D
So this is what I've come up with.

I made a cardboard template to fit inside foot shell. Transferred it onto 18mm thick wood. Cut out the three parts & with counter punk holes, screwed them together. Now, as i don't want anything to go wrong by using plan dimensions, as my build is slightly unique lol. I made another template of the leg bolt hole and measured it. This dimension i then transferred onto the temp foot internal's. I then drilled one hole dia 10mm on one side and a dia 12mm hole on the opposite side. The 12mm hole then had an M10mm t-nut fitted.

 Photo no.2 shows where I had to remove material from the edge, this was due to the bonding of the panels.

February 02, 2013

Outer Feet 1.5 - Base

Started to 'chain-drill' out the base for the foot. As I don't have access to any type of band saw, I am having to use this process. Basically, as you can see, I drill mutipule holes as close to each other around the area needed to be 'cut out'. I will then break any joins left and then start the filing flat of the inside edges.
 

Battery Box No.1 - 1.2 Curve Update

Right, I did some quick thinking the other night about how to 'build' the curves.
As I wanted it to be strong and curved :D.
So I cut the curved piece of pipe that wasn't the right size diameter [radii] down into strips.
They still have a partial curve which once all done won't show up :)
R2D2 Battery Box

I pre-drilled and slightly counter bored the holes in the pipe and used panel pins to hold the curved pieces onto the ends.
I later used my sanding drum on the dremel to level the heads that weren't flush.
I then applied P40 resin to the inside to add strength.
Then, as can be seen in the top & next picture, I applied wood filler in gaps & edges.
R5D4 Battery Box
 
And of course, no post would be complete without a mock-up  picture.....or two....lol.
 

February 01, 2013

Battery Box No.1 - 1.1


Found  my last piece of 8mm thick ply. On this i marked out the four ends i'll use for the battery box's. And the extra pieces that extend out from the front face. I'll double up the 8mm to get the correct thickness.
Cut up the main pieces
I spent over 2hr in garage last night, working on this. I finished cutting out the first four pieces for the end face. I Counter sank 4 screws (2 each end). Cut out a side piece [see photo below] & used panel pins to hold it in place, but the pins got pulled through, the panel wasn't very well supported at the time. 
Next the pipe i had cut in half was to small to stretch over the larger radius of the end plates. So couldn't use it. Then tried scoring lines on a thin piece of board to help it to bend to the curve, but even with score lines, it still wouldn't bend properly. So still undecided as to what to use!?!?