Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 16 - Eye Lenses

 

The version 2 lenses came out okay. Gave them a little wet sanding with some aluminium grit sandpaper to make them look opaque, below image.

version 2 lens on left

Version 1 on the right, which had the print lines still visible.

Version 2 on the left, much better.

Servo Arm bracket:

This is more of a wedge than a bracket lol. It fits inside the opening and wedges the servo in place to stop it from moving. I didn't have one dimension so I went large and was then able to trim it to fit around the servo. It's a tight fit, but that was the point.

LED holders:

I drew up and printed off some LED holders for these large opaque 8mm's.

These are 5v ones and need to be wired up to a suitable supply.

May 11th:

First chance to do some work on WED. Got out the car body filler and filled in over the fibre glass join gap, front and back. Before it fully hardened, I trimmed the edges flat.

Additional work was to add supports for the centre span. This is to also add structural strength. The wood was cut and drilled/screwed into place, top and bottom.

Front panel:

To finish off the day, I measured and cut first piece of wood for the front angled surface. I chamfered the leading edge to sit flush with the front edge of the lower frame. To support these, I’ll either add wood or 3D print supports. See below for the 3D printed supports.

The single panel did require some added strength, so I cut out a second, slightly smaller in size, panel to be glued underneath. This required the use of some spare wood, G-clamps and my vice.

The two pieces clamped together.

Logic Housing:
The week started with drawing up the ‘Logic Housing’ grill panels that go either side of the central mast mount. I could just buy some perforated metal sheet, but where would be the fun in that. So I decided to design and 3D print the pieces.

I can’t remember where I saw it, or if I confused what I saw (in a picture) but I thought I had seen the perforation being square ‘holes’. So my first print was this:

Test fitting 1 idea done, so I redrew the panels as perforated circles.

Test assembly

I also reduced the panels thickness down to 2mm, something I will reverse for the next prints, as these new ones were OK, but felt like they wouldn’t stand up to much wear’n’tear. I could (carefully) stand on the 4mm thicker panels and they didn’t break.

Here’s the old square logic cover (left) with the new (right) circular panel cut out.

Once the rest of the panels were printed, I test fitted onto the shell. Liking the look, so will reprint at original 4mm thickness.

Panel supports:
I also drew up and printed off, lid supports.

I still need to design a way to secure the lid(s) in place, but am happy for now.

Finally: I placed one of R5’s batteries inside WED to check height and possible location.

I need to get on with the wheel drive system, but trying to find suitable wheels/size is not so easy. So I’ll keep on building until then.

Rear panel:

Marked up and cut out the rear sloped panel. Shaped the edges to fit the angles on the front lip.

The new Logic housing parts will hopefully of printed without filament jamming on the real.

Rear panel supports to be printed.

OpenR2 - original ‘77: R5-D4 Blueprints - 3D drawn up

 Years ago, My father served along side you in the Clone Wars......

..... not quite, but you get the idea 😆

When I first started searching up online for info about R5, one of the finds was a Blueprint for the original dome design. I think I remember it being up for auction??

I had a blurred image, which has always interested me in what R5 could of looked like. The three eyes looked like they were holoprojector’s similar to the ones in R2’s dome.

May

With my recent work on upgrading R5’s eyes to versions that were probably actually used, got me searching for the blueprints again. OpenR2 had a non blurry image of them, so I was able to draw up in CAD a version similar to the sketch. A rough scale in comparison to the dome, so not 100%, but it looked good. First printed version was okay but I wanted to refine the design.

So some tinkering and removal of the inner part that would be the lens, and I got this:

The rear was shaped to better fit the curvature of the dome. This was to the plans I had used, but as my dome was made from wood, it’s not spot on, so the final prints will need to be shaped to fit flush.

This version was good but I wanted to orientate to get better quality prints. So I sectioned it up into two pieces which gave me to these.

This main piece I printed face down, the ring section I printed vertically to retain a better smoother surface for the ‘front’.

I set these up for printing in ABS, sanding is easier. I had already done some searching for cabochon’s for the size I needed. I could go bigger in size later by modifying the design if needed.

May 20th

Cabochons arrived. They only came in pairs so I had to get two sets. Opened up the first packet and tried them for size.

They fitted well, but they will need to be a tighter fit on the recess or a retention ring in front of the lens.

Next up: retention ring, dome fit testing and then painting.