Nerd Crew - My robotic R2D2 build v. still in progress.

[God of Thunder]

December 28th, 2011........what a day!!!

I came home to a big box on my doorstep! I knew what it was by the sender, but it didn't stop me from taking a series of photos!!

Here's the box as it sits...


I cut open the edges with a pocket knife.....


I open it up to find........another box?!


Open the other box and reveal this round thing!!!


Now you can start to see the top of something....aluminum, and ROUND?


removing some of the packaging, you can see the 300mm dome!!


Here you can see all the pieces laid out side by side!!!!!!!!


Here is a shot showing how close the two domes are in size!


December 28th!!! A day that is now a new holiday for me!!!

[Caseyguyrr]

everyone has got their own unique hobby i guess

[LiveSteam]

Lets get back to the Melissa thing.

[God of Thunder]

Today I told myself......"I will cut out some dome panels tonight"......however that just didn't happen. Before I dive into the dome, I want to make sure I know 100% what the hell I am doing, and I am just not there yet. So I took today's beautiful weather to sand and repaint my legs.

To start with, I used a thick sanding block to go over the runs on the legs. Gradually, when I could see the primer coming back and the run line gone, I would move to a different area. Here you can see what the leg looks like partially painted.



After I got it to this point, I took some 1200 grit sandpaper, and sanded for awhile to smooth things out.

While this was going on, I figured it was a good time to go ahead and paint the middle leg and skirt as well. The painting of them went a LOT smoother than my main legs did the first time. I thought standing them up would give me an advantage the first time, however all it did was cause the paint to run. The paint on these two turned out fairly well, except for the skirt.



While painting the skirt, I quickly noticed a problem. Because I layered MDF together, and never put a coat of filler or anything on it, all of the lines were starting to show through!!!! Fortunately, this is a very easy fix that just requires some wood filler and sanded. I won't have to do the whole thing, just the sides.




Next, I laid the main legs on the same paper outside, and got them ready for paint. For these, really after the 1200 sanding, all I do is take a microfiber cloth and scrub them really good. This 'should' pick up any loose particles, but the real test of that will come once they dry. Fortunately, there are no bugs right now where I live (knock on wood).



And finally, a shot of when they are all painted. They look 1000000000x better, yes, I said 1000000000x. They are smooth as silk (right now) and have absolutely no runs, tomorrow evening, i'll flip them over and do the opposite side. After that, I want to give them about 2-10 days to fully dry before I clear coat them.



That's it for today, it's one of those days where a lot was accomplished, and it didn't take very much time. Now that's a good day.

[Hammock Parties]

The mighty plastic cocks of R2D2.

[Rain Man]

This is amazing stuff. I can't make a ruler out of a 12-inch stick, so I'm always impressed by people who can build stuff from scratch.

[LiveSteam]

Yup/ Your R2 unit is pretty interesting. Any chance you want it to run on steam?

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

This is amazing stuff. I can't make a ruler out of a 12-inch stick, so I'm always impressed by people who can build stuff from scratch.

Thank you......it hasn't been an easy road that it for sure. I received templates with the legs that allowed me to just rout right around them and then glue them up. Messed up several of them along the process. The frame is all 100% hand done from some plans I found.....it's taken a lot of trial and error, but it's getting there!

Originally Posted by LiveSteam

Yup/ Your R2 unit is pretty interesting. Any chance you want it to run on steam?

Steam. Care to elaborate? Right now it's planned to run off of two windshield wiper motors. The dome has a Pittman motor with a Syren motor controller

[FAX]

Can you make one for me, Mr. God of Thunder?

FAX

[MoreLemonPledge]

I'm in for one. Thanks in advance.

[MoreLemonPledge]

Can you attach a Fleshlight to one? My...uh...friend was wondering.

[God of Thunder]

Holy crap! First all, this takes forever, about 4 hours to get everything you see here complete. In the end, it looks FANTASTIC with a few minor glitches that I can fix later.

First I want to show all my pie panels drawn out. They are numbered how they are on the outer dome so that I will be able to match them up easier.



Next up, I start drilling hundreds of tiny holes all around the pie panels......this takes forever. I did it without stopping and only broke 3 drill bits!






Next, I had to get the panels out! I did this a unique way. I used my Dremel with a reinforced disk, what I did, was slowly trace along the edge of the drill holes so that I had a "track".......then on one end of the drill holes, I used the Dremel to go ALL THE WAY down through the aluminum.....like pictured below.




Then, what I did was throw some WD40 on there, take my hack saw with a handle, and quickly and easily cut the piece out.




Next up, was to file the inner dome cutouts....I started slowly.



Eventually, I got them all fairly smooth. I will still go over them again at a later date to make them even smoother, but so far I am more than pleased.

Next, I had to do what any guy would do........test it with my outer dome! As you can see, the results are pretty good!!! I wanted to start filing the cutout pieces (that attach to the bottom of the pie panels) but decided it was time to take a break for a day or so and recoup from this long mess! Here are the test pictures!!