2-3-2 manual legs

This has been something that has bugged me for a while now. Transporting R5 in his 3 leg mode is not easy.

First was the new leg transport board.

This worked and R5 etc could be loaded up into my small car. But the legs then took up a lot of space (height wise) so making packing the dome(s) etc in, a tight squeeze.

I have been envious of droids that could be pivoted from 3 leg mode into 2 leg since i first made R5. If i had known then what i know now lol.

So after last weekend’s Builders meet, I decided it was time to upgrade……again.

I wasn’t able to use opposite bolt locations (4 off) due to my top plate bracket. So had to go with the four consecutive bolt holes.

This is fine as i can use the remaining hole as a locking one. The washers and wing nuts are temporary whilst the other side was worked on.

I’ve got some larger washers and nylock nuts coming.

Next will be designing a new transport sledge.

Weathering 1.3 - Body, Leg, Outer Foot and Battery Box

My attempt at weathing R5's body. Started next to the fitted rear hatch and worked my way round. The Leg got in the way so moved onto this lol. This then led down to the Battery Box. I then turned him round and carried on with the Body, working down to his skirt (no pics yet).

I got round as far as the Centre Vent's but didn't take pictures, will do for next post.

This is by no means perfect, not that it's supposed to be, just my interpretation.

Leg Assembly......again

Last night I got to re-assembly Leg No1 again.

The way most of these components were designed to be connected together was not my 'new' idea. I have followed several other R2 Builders builds. And this, along with building the actual components, are mostly not original to me.

Adam Strawson's R2 was one of the first R2 Build's I followed.

The other being Emy by Podpadstudio's.

So here's all the parts....

Left pic shows the front, the right pic shows the rear fixing points etc.

For my build, I secure the Ankle Braclet to the Ankle 'curved' section with a small screw. This holds it in place and will locate the Booster Strut in place.

Next I secure the Booster Strut by inserting the bottom of it into the Ankle Bracelet, then a screw into a bracket on the rear of the top square part, picture below.

Booster Cover over the Strut, and press it down into the dowel location holes.

The other components, the Ankle Cylinder, cylinder wedge and support are already assembled as one piece. These are push fitted into the leg with dowels.

The last three items are the 'Ankle Details' these fit on the lower ankle sides, fron and back.
And the Shoulder Horseshoe assembly, which is pre-assembled.
The centre hub is also a snug push fit.

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 :)

Outer Feet - Aluminium channel strip upgrades

The channel strip pieces were made of wood. These were ok, but not strong enough to support the foot internals when separated from shell.

So I cut down a U section piece of aluminium to width and then cut to length, filed the angles and cleaned up the edges. Counter-sunk location holes were next.
So i went from these on the right of pic, to theses full length ones.

Of course, nothing (with my build work) is ever straight forward lol. The reason the original strips were in two pieces was because the lowest edge of the legs was to close to the bottom of the channel. Soooooo in order for the leg location bolt to fit through the leg & internal foot threaded hole, I needed to cut a little excess material off.

Filed the flat edge round, and will later primer and spray white. Much happier now as it all fits :-)

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.

R5-D4's Head 3.4 - silver tape applied

I was originally planning on spraying the silver dome band. But thought I'd give the silver tape a second chance lol. My last go at using the tape on the leg spacer discs didn't end well.

I first wrapped the tape around and cut to length. Then applied, peeling the backing tape a bit at a time. I then trimmed the width and stuck the excess under the edge. I then used a cloth to smooth any bumps & creases out.

Then I fitted all the dome components back on.

All ready for tomorrows appearance at my children's school summer fair :)

Leg No.2

Sanding filler on 2nd leg. Marked ankle hole position & drilled it. Then pressed in my brass insert. Have to do some more filler work on the side as some of the wood joins are showing through, might even have to use resin!

 Well I opened up the join areas and filler with wood filler. So will see how this goes.

Ankle Bush

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.

Here's a teaser front shot :D

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..........

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

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.

Main Leg 2 - 2.5 Ankle Detail work

Busy weekend:

Drilled the marked areas on both the Ankle Details and on the leg itself. Marking was done using a cardboard template :). Available dowel was cut and glued into the Ankle Details but not into the leg as this still needs to be sprayed and a few more bits to be finished on it.





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.

Main Leg 2 - 2.4 - Ankle work [bracelet & wedge]

Ankle
I marked out the curve section needed on the two blocks I'll be using to make up the ankle. I also marked where I need to drill counter sunk holes to fix them to the leg.

Image is from first Leg build

Did this then screwed them on. Next I used my trusty saw to cut chunks off to shape. Then I used a file to smooth over. I then used dowel cut to length to plug the screw holes. The next step was to apply wood filler all over and sand all over....again.

Image is from first Leg build

Had a 'lost item' moment last night. I couldn't find my Ankle Cylinder Holder ????? I'd taken it out of the storage tin to remind myself what needed to be done, if anything, to it. Then........it was gone!?!?! I'd had a bit of a tidy up to make some space and yes, you guessed it, it had fallen into my box of off-cuts! Phew....... :D

Ankle Braclet:
Marked out the Ankle Bracelet for the 2nd leg & cut it out. Then measured my leg and cut the inside of the Ankle Bracelet to fit it. I then marked up and drilled a location hole for the Leg Strut to fit into. Next up I applied watered down PVA glue all over and allowed this to soak in and dry. This hardens the wood and seals the cut edges, which stops the spray paint from being absorbed into the wood and gives a better finish.

Image is from first Leg build. Wood filler to underside of bracelet

I then applied wood filler to the underside of the Ankle Bracelet, that may be visable to anyone on all fours looking up underneath R5, lol. This will smooth over the textured underside of the hardboard :). I then fitted the Booster Strut in place and secured the support angle with a screw. The bottom of the strut fitted into the hole in the Ankle Bracelet. Some wood filler was applied to the gap between the bracelet and the lower ankle area.

Ankle Wedge:

Cut out a piece of 3mm hardboard to make the ankle wedge front panel. I angled the back faces to fit flush up against the angle face of the ankle and the curved part of the cylinder. Next I applied masking tape all over the cylinder & angled face of the ankle and applied p40 resin to fill the gap & build the sides. Once dried, this new piece came away easily and was then ready for trimming of the excess P40 resin and then filling any gaps with wood filler. Once all this was dried, I drilled and screwed the new Ankle Wedge and also the Cylinder holder onto the Ankle Cylinder. Once painted, these become a one piece item which is then held on the leg via the fixing method mentioned in prev post.

Image is from previous wedge build. This image shows sides and P40 resin.
For the last wedge, I didn't use sides.

The weather has been very cold, so build time has been limited, hence lack of photos. I will take some up-to-date ones soon.

Main Leg 2 - 2.3

T-nuts are now in place so I test fitted the leg studding through the body, shoulder discs & into the Leg. Thightened up the internal nuts, pulling the studding tight onto the T-Nuts [fitted inside the leg]. Once happy, I fitted all the screws in place, clamping the leg sections together. Next I attached the rear & front ankle plates, that thicken up the ankle. Before I went any further, I opened out the hole in the Leg to accept the Shoulder Hub, as I'd forgot to do this the other day, lol. I then added aluminium strips as guides to the side edge of leg & started to apply wood filler. Also applied to the ankle side edge & edge of shoulder radius. Once dried I started to file flat any high spots.

Main Leg 2 - 2.2

Main Leg 2 secured ready for holes to be marked

Under Shoulder Stabiliser sockets & cable channel view

Leg holes being drilled for T-Nuts to be fitted

First I marked and cut the recesses which will be for the Under Shoulder Stabiliser sockets.

Screwed the cut out centre section, to allow cable to be routed through the leg, all together with it's inside & outside parts. Next I screwed the lower rear piece onto the ankle area. I then marked and cut these off.

last night I then fixed both legs onto R5's body, via shoulder hubs (discs). Then new leg was held in place with a single studded bar, whilst it was angled and its leg holes were marked ready for drilling. Dia 12mm holes were then drilled through the 'inside' part of the leg.  The 'middle' part had clearance holes drilled for the 'T-Nuts' to fit. I also drilled a hole through all for the centre hub to fit in.