R5 damage repair update PART 2

I didn't post up pictures of the rest of the damaged area's on R5. Thankfully most of it was only on his shoulder Horseshoe.

I removed the loose wood filler then I sealed the hardboard with watered down PVA glue.

This helps the wood absorb the glue and makes it hard. Then once dried, I applied more wood filler again to the damaged areas.

After sanding and more filler, repeated until happy [and filler dried]. I gave the area a light spray with white and later, with clear coat.

After a few days, and once the shoulder hub was finished, I re-installed the hub & horseshoe and got to weathering it all again.

Here are the before and after pics:

Damaged horseshoe on left repaired & weathering [WIP] again on right.

The outer foot shell's have already been fixed.

R5 damage repair!!

The high's and lows of droid building.....

You know when you think your in control but gravity reminds you your not!

Well that's what happens when a three wheeled unit rolls down a slope.....turns and falls over....in slow motion.

List of things that broke/broke off:

• Shoulder horse shoe [it is a removable item]
• One half moon crescent - popped off.
• Shoulder hub - smashed edges.
• Dome bearing [lazy suzan type]
• Split Outer Feet shells [both]

I was in shock, fearing the worst, but once righted, and given the once over, R5 was back in action. Luckily he had turned and his fall was broken [no pun intended] by bush's. The foot shells damage was caused by the weight/force on them as he tipped over. Obviously they're not designed to take ANY weight on them as such.

I had to disconnect the dome motor as thankfully R5's dome locking nuts kept his head on, but the force of the fall, twisted and pulled apart the domes bearing race, there were bearings everywhere lol. I managed to press the two pieces a bit closer together, but they had separated and short of some proper tools, this wasn't going to happen.

So if you notice R5's dome doesn't look like it's on right in the MCM Birmingham photos, now you know.

So this week has been spent repairing the shells, with glass fibre and wood filler.

The black tape was very strong in holding the panels together.

The legs showed paint had cracked so sanded and fixed these. The horseshoe took most of the damage, but again, this was fixable with wood filler, sanding and painting. A new bearing race was ordered and refitted as well as a new set of shoulder hubs from DJDesign.

These just need spraying and for refitting back into R5.

Horseshoe No2 - Hydraulic & Buttons fitted

To make space in the bedroom [keeping the wife happy] I took the Horseshoe back out to the garage and fitted [bolted] the Hydraulic & the two Buttons back on. Then fitted the spacer and finally, pushed the location pegs into the holes on the Leg.

Leg No2, is now complete :)

Horseshoe No2 final white spray work

With all this spraying being done, I remembered to finish off the Horseshoe no2.

Satin White applied. then once dry, clear coat went on.

It's all white.......part 2

This morning, early start, finished sanding wood filler on recessed panel, and on the battery box. Then applied some more Satin White all over.

Next the shoulder horseshoe needs sanding and more white.

Then once dried, the vents will get masked off for spraying up Silver.

Horseshoe No2 takes a bit more shape

This work I did last month, but forgot to post to Blog.

So I finished glueing the two sections together, then glued in the dowels to locate the horseshoe to the leg. Next wood filler was applied all over the join lines.

Then light sanding and a bit more filler.

Next was drilling holes. I marked the position of the shoulder Buttons [these fit in the square sockets] and also the Hydraulic Unit. The top Button has to be angled slightly, as per the plans, but also for screen accuracy :). So a small strip on hardboard was trimmed and glued in place at the bottom edge of the socket. Although this wont be seen, I'll apply wood filler to blend it in.

Here you see the Horseshoe with it's first coat of primer. Still a bit to do tho. But need to get the Dome finished.

Horseshoe No2 [for Leg No1]

Lunchtime I got to cutting out the slot for the Hydraulic Unit.

Drilled single hole, then threaded through the Coping Saw and got .....erm....sawing. lol

Next, glued the two sections together and apply more wood filler.

Build update - Head, shoulders knees and toes..........scrub the last two and put a Foot No2 in there..... :)

It's been ages since I've had the time to be able to work on R5.

Outer Foot shell No.2 - The Saga continues.......
So decided to get to work on a more portable work piece, so to speak.
I had already marked out the second foot base edge. So decided, as the material was 'protable', to take it into work to cut it out on my lunchtimes.

wood being cut lol

Next was to 'chain drill' the middle piece or use the jigsaw. Time available.

Shoulder Horseshoe No2.
I did make a start on this earlier in the year, but when I started on the second leg, it got kinda left..... Now that R5 is due to make another appearance in a few months, I thought I'd better crack on with it! 

Shoulder horseshoe No2 - WIP

In order to save material, only three of the horseshoe's are whole pieces.

In order to save material, as I was running out, only three of the horseshoes are whole pieces. The front a middle and the rear. You can see these in the pic above. The Spacer horseshoe will also be a whole piece. The internal pieces of the build I have cut out in half sections. The whole unit will be glued and have fixing dowels, as the other horseshoe does.

Next drilling for fixing dowels, and then taking apart to cut out the circle centre.

Once central holes were cut out, edges trimmed and sanded. they were sealed with watered down PVA glue. And then the glueing together of the pieces began.

Glueing begins

Whilst this was drying, I started on the recess parts. They were already marked, just needed drilling and fileing square. Pic below.

Glued up the pieces and started filling with wood filler to swuare off edges.

Battlestations!!! ;)

What with R5 being on display this Saturday, am a little nervous, to say the least!!

Been trying to get as much done and finished before the big day, so yesterday, I sprayed up Leg No.2 white. I gave it a few coats, but as the can was running out, decided to concentrate on the outside/front. I won't clear coat it till the whole leg has been sprayed, but it still looks good.

I also sprayed silver the second Hub, that didn't turn out great the first time. And the rear strip for the Ankle Bracelet.

Then last night I started to assemble all the components I had for it. I first screwed into place the main Ankle Bracelet. It's screw although countersunk, is also covered when the Booster Cover is in place. Next on was the Booster Strut, which sits in the hole of the Bracelet and an angle bracket secures the top block to the leg. The Booster Cover then is just a push fit with the dowels, into the leg. The Ankle Cylinder [with wedge & holder pre-attached] are push fitted into place, along with the two Ankle Details. The Hub is also just pushed into place for now. And lastly the Horseshoe goes on.

Lastly, I started to dirty up the whole leg.


**UPDATE**
I've now fitted the Large Data Port, touched up the Octagon Ports edges with metallic blue, fitted the lower vent pocket mesh screen.

Outer Foot No.2 - UPDATE
Been working on the crescent detail, to finish off the top section of the shell. Also drilled out the knurled hose fitting holes and added the top strip detail. Only going to be able to primer it up for the show tomorrow.

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.

Lots of work done......

Ankle Braclet
I cut out a piece of hardboard to fit at the back of the Ankle Braclet. Once sanded I sealed it with watered down PVA glue. It will need re-sanding once dried.

Coin Slot
Before I fitted the Coin Slots back into the body, I painted the visible frame black, that could be seen through the slots.

Leg No2
Sprayed primer over Leg No.2. This helps to show up all the bits that need attention! I wil also need to drill and add a few more stratigic holes to help clamp the pieces tighter together. I did this before then applying more wood filler to gaps and all over where needed.

Horseshoe
Whilst the wood filler was setting on the leg, I started spraying Primer onto horseshoe.

Booster Cover
Masked off the 'blue' on the booster cover and then applied primer over the lower half & in the grooves. Left to dry, then later I sprayed it up blue. Need to buy another small can for finishing off the Octagon Port wall edges.

Shoulder Hub
This resin item had already been cleaned, just not got round to painting it. So on went a few light coats of primer. A few as you want to get the paint in all the corners, without the spray 'running'. Spray, leave, spray a bit more, leave......you get the picture :)

Outer Foot Sheel No1.
I already had this piece cut out. I just needed to cut the angles & it to length. It fits on the back face of the foot [actually the inside part of the foot, where the 'foot battery' sits. I bonded it in place with p40. Ooops, when I taped it up, the piece was slightly too long when I measured to check squareness etc. Luckily I had some scrap wood that was enough to move the piece to make it the right length. And then left it all to set. Next I then cut plastic pipe I had for the curved section. Using my coping saw I cut away most of the board I had left on. I then used my dremel with sanding drum attached, to create the curve.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoe No.1 - 1.6

Drilled out the fixing holes in the horseshoe already there, to pushfit in the dowel pegs.
Here it is test fited in place along with it's other components.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoe No.1 - 1.5

Drilled clearance holes in the back pieces of the horseshoe. This will allow the bolt heads to be recessed inside, to clamp the hydraulic in place. 

I cut these bolts tooooo short, so will be using others lol.

Have also done two of the four buttons. [drilled & thread tapped them]

The top 'button' is slightly angled upwards. So i cut a small piece of hardboard & glued it in at the bottom of where the hole would be. I'll then fill in to form the angle. I also marked where the holes are to be drilled for the buttons.

Small piece of wood placed to start my angled face

Applied wood filler around the inside of the recess, sanded and repeated......

Also applied wood filler around the outside to start to build up areas.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoe No.1 = 1.4

So last night I finished preping the pieces of the horseshoe ready to be glued together. I've only glued the top five for starters, the ones with cut-outs in them. I've done this so that I can apply wood filler to the inside walls of the cut-outs and should be easier to sand the surfaces flat.

Pieces being clamped together. The bolts were kept in to keep them aligned.

Applying the wood filler [white]

Because the top parts of my leg(s) are not 100% square/accurate lol. Rather than use a frame to square up the horseshoes, I'm using the bolts that originally secured and squared them up.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoe No1 = 1.3

Fixing holes x3, drilled in leg. These will accept the dowels, that I've cut to length, to secure the horseshoe onto the leg.

I trimmed the spacer to size (it's slightly smaller around all it's outside edges) & added location holes to match the other pieces. Applied more watered down PVA glued all edges. And left to dry.

Next is to smooth over the outside edges. I then need to apply wood filler to smooth over any visiable 'grain'. Ready then for spraying to start.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoes No.1 = 1.2

Cut out the centre area on both group parts. These pieces will be assembled large, small, large, small and so on. This will give the 'groove' effect which can be seen running around the inside edge of the horseshoe.

Above picture shows me starting to cut out the recess areas.

I've only cut through some of the pieces to achieve the correct depth.

Leg No.2 - Horseshoes No.1

I started on this back in April, I made a cardboard template of the horse-shoe. I did this as the first template attempt using the plans and printing out didn't go to scale. This way, all should work. Then used it to mark them out on 3mm hardboard, that I had already.

Then set to work cutting them out.

UPDATE 09.01.13
I decided that really I should attempt to make the Leg Horseshoes. So 10pm last night, I was back out in my garage and started work on cutting out the first set. I bolted the first four pieces together to drill out the centre hole. I then bolted the second set together so as to drill out the larger dia hole.

This morning, in work, I drilled/cut out the central holes using my adjustable hole cutter.

You can see the cut-outs on the lower left and the second set of horseshoes to be cut out on the right.

Shoulder Horseshoes 1.1

Bought 3mm thick hardboard for making the shoulder horseshoe build ups. Got the wood from B&Q for £3+.


I had to double check I had the right piece as the price had gone up over a £1 since April, when I first saw it!


I cut out the three different horseshoe template sizes I had printed out onto paper, that i'll transfere onto the hardboard. I'll then cut them as square blank, screw them together and cut out each set with the jigsaw.