Treadwell WED-15-77: Part 27 - Testing

Well…… A few hiccups before the finale.

• The tracks need shortening (both).
• The mast base support needed a slot in it (think i did this as a second version on the model but didn’t reprint it.

May 9th

Connected up the battery and plugged in the fuses and plugs into the receiver, and powered up.

After dipping the Sabertooth into tank mode, right transmitter stick in full control.

I added WED-15 to the transmitter, and colour coded the LED’s to match.

Might also have to invest in some blue sticks.

May 10th

Today was the mast and head install.

This was there I realised I hadn’t but a slot in the mast base plate for the servo leads. I decided NOT to bother with the servo block plug, as it would of been difficult to reach once the mast was fitted. I just extended the servo leads.

I first connected up the head pivot servo.

Then the eye/head servo for the up down action.

Once happy with this, I connected up the main claw arm lift servo to a switch on the transmitter. Again, all good.

Next was the claw servo…. It worked but not for long??

Its been a while since testing it so don’t know if I hadn’t done something right, as on closer inspection, the case looked warped.

Took it out of the forward servo casing and, yes, the gears had jammed and one had melted, over heating the motor and melting the servos housing.

I did take a test video, you can watch it in the next post.

May 13

I trimmed the neck servo to increase it’s turning range. I also adjusted the head servo to increase it’s looking up position.

May 15

I got round to pinning the head/eye supports to the pivot bar. I had to fit an additional cross bar back in, for rigidity.

The ‘piston’ and the two ‘clamp’ rings got a respray, to a more brass look.

The eye/head servo lead I decided to modify by adding an additional plug on the outside of the neck. This allows the eye/head unit to be fully removable, found it so much easier to work on this way.

Added a spacer to reduce the clearance between the neck and mounting plate.

This fits under the bearing shim.

May 21st:

Tested out the track on the ground.

It works, but the teeth are still a problem, also the front brackets are flexing under the tension and there’s not enough torque on the axle nuts.

3D printing some beefier versions out of ABS.

I’ll also be printing new motor brackets in ABS too as these were flexing slightly.

Ordered a new nano servo.

Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 20 making tracks

 

July 9th 2023

As date says, this was work carried out a few months back.

Track moulding 

Step 1:

So after last month’s attempt at test moulding track, this second attempt went much better.

I bought 85 shore compound mix, the higher the shore number the harder the rubber.

I should of used a mould release, but I was rushing lol. Once cured, I had to really prise the new rubber tread out of the mould.

Step 2:

Was to mix up another small batch and see how well it would join up with the first section of tread. Once it had cured, I used the first section to help pull the second section out.

The join, just a straight join line, bonded well together.

I had thought I would need something to help join the two sections.

You can see the flashing where the two join, but it is seamless and strong!

Step 3:

The next step was to assemble the new joined track into the mould and fit the second part of it. Another batch was made and poured into the mould.

This time it didn’t bond with the track???

Had I removed it to soon in my haste?

On the flip side, I did find out that this piece is actually too large, depth wise. This also makes the track less flexible going over the main drive wheels. That is quite a solid chunk of rubber!

Step 4:

I mixed up some of the last rubber and poured it into just the second half of the mold. This I only filled up half way. The result was much better. It wasn’t so ridged which could be better.

Re-mix:

As a re-test, I mixed up a second sample of the 60 shore rubber, this time using the measuring pot I had used for the better track testing, and these came out ……..ok/the same (good or too sticky). The result was a good one. Soft and rubbery without the stickiness as before.

September, and it’s been a while since I did the re-mix re-test and have not had time to do more.

Electronics:

The receiver arrived safely and so I 3D printed off a mounting bracket for it.

Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 19 - wheels/body/tracks

 

3D printing:

Printed off the other three drive wheels, see last post. These green items are printed in PLA+ filament, l ordered to try, instead of standard PLA , for work.

Next up was to print off the idling wheels (image below). Each one I managed to get down to 11hrs per whole wheel. Allowing the 3D printer to be free for work, these were an overnight/weekend print run.

I had a look for suitable fixings for the idlers, and found some old recycled furniture bolts that where just the right length.

So before printing off the wheels, I made an adjustment to allow the bolt head to be recessed flush with the outside face of the wheel. I also drew up and printed off some bushes for the bolts. The bushes help space the wheel away from the body, as well as threading onto the bolt, helping to keep it located. I repurposed and added a soft washer to help with possible friction.

I then sprayed these up with primer, and eventually with silver paint.

The little Details:

Eye servo lead:

The lead for the servo eye movement, needed a sleeve to cover it up, also adding some strength support to it as well. I had kept some thin walled black tubing that was just wide enough for the lead (minus its plug) to slide through.

I added a cable tie to the inside of the eye opening, pull prevention, and then drilled a hole in the upper neck for it to pass through. I then refitted the plug to connect with the appropriate servo lead.

Eye pivot tube:

To stop ‘wiggle’ from the eye supports arms, I drilled holes through into the pivot tube, and secured. This helps prevent the eyes from independent movement when the servo moves them. It was only slight, but it annoyed me lol.

I recently bought off eBay:

STAR WARS MOVIE FORCE ATTAX SERIES  2 BASE / BASIC CARD no19: Treadwell Droid.

Straight knurls:

On closer inspection of the card, I noticed the straight knurled rings around the mast. Don’t know how I missed this detail?!?!?

So I made a copy of the 3D mast model and modified it to include these details. As I wasn’t going to reprint the whole mast again, I decided to just print off the details as rings, with a thin wall thickness, and these would be glued onto the masts diameters. Better than nothing lol. They don’t look too bad actually. The first ring I glued into place.....then thought.....it would be easier to spray them up first before gluing them in place lol oh well.

Sanded back the paint for a better surface to glue to.

For the others, I just cut them to the correct length [diameter], and primed/sprayed them silver. The mast had to have it's paint removed where these were going to be glued.

Base Antenna:

I had drawn this up a few months back but was waiting on the chance I found any better detailed pictures. No such luck, but the trading card did help, so this was the next piece to be 3D printed. 

The idea is based on a split spherical design, with a ‘bolt’ that holds the two ridged semi-circular hemispheres together with the option to adjust the angle.

Filler primer applied.

The 3D version doesn't do this lol, it just looks like it would, I did add a screw location for detail. Lastly I printed off a backing washer to secure to the inside of the lid panel.

The rear lid panel has now had it's inner panel, cut out and glued/clamped in place. This is to give it strength, but also alignment with the panel supports.

Painting & weathering:

I started to apply the acrylic burnt umber and yellow ochre that I used on R5 all those years ago, starting with the mast.

I drilled holes in the arms and mast to accept the wires and tubes that would 'operate' them.

Tracks:

Searching since last post with no luck..... then I came across YouTube videos of model makers making their own tracks. This gave me the idea to use the 3D model I'd created for the tracks and converted them into a mold. I ordered a small batch of Mouldcraft Black Poly Flex 60 Shore Fast Cure 120g Polyurethane Casting Rubber, as a tester to see if I could mold/make my own.

I designed the mold in two half's, the front (outer tread) and rear (inner) section.

I also 3D printed off a joining mold. This was so that the sections of tread could be joined together...... hopefully.

I tested a small batch of the 60 shore and it was to sticky after it had cured, no way it would of stood up to actual track movement lol.

Test sample, binned along with the mold.

So I ordered some 85 shore, let's hope this is better.

Drive wheels:

As mentioned above, in my design haste, I'd forgotten to add the step detail to the front face. So I updated the 3D stl file and then printed off a set of disc's to fit onto the front of the wheels. These were glued in place and then all had primer and then sprayed in Chrome, which dulled to a nice Aluminium look once clear coat was applied.

With our South West Builders Day event approaching, I needed some axle locations for the drive wheels. These will just be to help hold them in place.

Base:

Another BIG annoyance is that on the original magazine article it clearly shows that as well as the upper front angle, there is also a lower one as well. This can also be seen in the rear image seen in the deleted scenes. This detail is missing from the builders own blueprints unfortunately.

Don't know if I can modify the base to suit..... it could be a lot of work, something to look into though.

Tracks pt2:

This last week has been last minute finishing off details as best I can before Sunday’s event.

I wanted tracks but there wasn’t going to be enough time, so I resorted to rubber mats id rescued in work a few months back. These were cut to width and once the ends were trimmed flush, I superglued them together.

These were joined in a loop with a staggered join.

The finished track loop turned out great.

Once dried, I fitted them onto the wheels.

Really happy with this, even if they are just display tracks..... more updates next month.

Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 5 - 3D printing lenses

So this week I have been redesigning the neck (head plate to mast) adaptor, to allow for head movement (rotation) from side to side.

I found some thrust bearings on eBay and also ordered some 3mm Aluminium plate. The new neck adaptor, comes in two parts. One to hold the bearings in place and the other to fit inside the tube. This needed to be extended (miscalculated) and the print fitted perfectly & so did the motor. So much so that I may not now need the bearing, but will see as they will take the weight off the motor shaft.

A new cap was printed for the top neck, this fits in the neck plate connection hole.

With this Sunday’s event coming I wanted to finish up the eyes. So i drew up the lens from Dyne’s excellent plans and using clear’ish PP filament I printed out a lens. And with standard PLA a slightly modified holder, less depth. Think I’ll still get the lenses done in clear resin though, but for now, this will do.

……well, everything is now on pause after my work accident on Friday. I won’t be going to Weston on Sunday now 😢 was really looking forward to going. I don’t like letting people down, but i need to rest fully.

Full accident story see previous post.

On a plus note, I managed to grab a bargain. EBay: a found part, is a grabber, one of WED’s utility arms.

Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 4 - more eye work

 

Part 4:

Last week was a busy one designing components and how best to make everything fit together lol.

I 3D printed the central eye rod, which will connect to the servo horn extension piece (I had already drawn up the servo horn to be used on R5’s Bad Motivator setup). This may be swapped over with a metal servo horn later.

Here’s latest assembly showing the central rod and servo horn extension piece.

Next was a tie bar to keep the eyes connected and moving together and printed it off. Not sure if I’ll be happy with this idea yet. The central rod servo assembly is shown just in mid position for the picture above.

Here’s link to YouTube short of manual test movement.

Looking at a heavy duty servo, just in case a standard one isn’t up to the task.

I made a start on the ‘mast’ part of the droid, using this image:

Also, this version that was built by:

Paul6700

This is the overall look I’m going for, as to me this is THE look identifiable from the film/promo pics.

I sectioned up the mast, so that the   components can be printed separately.

The plan is to use 40mm dia PVC tube, that the 3D parts fit over. All glued and screwed together. I had planned to print the mast parts over the weekend, but have held off for the moment.

Here’s an assembled picture anyway.

After a comment on my Build Blog over on www.rebeldroids.net , I decided to pause and rethink the mast to base plate union…. It got me thinking about the fact the mast rises up (deleted scene), so I’m redesigning this piece.

I have a motor that used to fit on R5 somewhere. This will require the upper mast to be redesigned to accommodate it.

Before the above pause came into effect, I’d already printed off a ‘cap’ for the mast that fits inside the mast/base plate hole.

The cap is the piece with the three fake hex sockets fitted. I say fake, but they are of use as they extend down inside and hopefully help strengthen the connection between the cap, upper neck join and the base plate.

The original idea (which still may happen) uses PVC tube which will fit up inside the upper neck piece. I also printed a template so that the tube could have slots cut into it at the end, to locate it into the ‘cap’.

See picture below showing the inside of the cap. The template will help cutting the tube to match.

Here you can see the three screws (bolt’s) in the extension parts of the cap.

Well, progress is paused for now until I redesign the rotation setup.

**********

Don’t forget this coming Sunday….

Weston-Super-mare