Shop Clean-Up day

Today its pouring cats and dogs, its dreary out and I thought today would be best served cleanup up the shop.

After about 2 hours, I had re-organized drill bits, found missing taps and even dust-bustered about 2 years worth of drill press debris! The cats get up on the counter a lot, scattering screws and bolts I have delicately placed to make re-assembling components a cinch. Now that things are cleaned up and organized, I actually have room on the counter for both R2's.

The workbench is looking much better, now I need to work on the other two tables I have with parts scattered on them.

If the weather cooperates, I can test out the Krider Blue paint formula on some scrap metal Sunday. Monday I would like to locate some sheet metal to make an electronics mounting board in Droid 1. The 2-3-2 system in there takes up a lot of valuable space but I think I can drill and tap into the frame rods and bolt something on that looks similar to the JAG 5 frame.

Metallic Purple has arrived!

Too many errands to run today to get anything done on R2. But I was able to pick up the Metallic Purple paint that the local hardware store was able to order for me.

I'm not quite sure I'll need a case (6 cans)...but it never hurts to have extra!


I finally have the complete "Krider Blue" formula for R2 blue. Primer, Metallic Purple, Duplicolor Anodized Blue then gloss. I'm not sure if a specific gloss matters...but that's easy to find and replace if need be!

As you can imagine, I'm very anxious to see the Krider Blue. I was hoping I would have time today to try it out on some scrap, but I just had too much to do before crashing for a nap. I work overnights the next 3 days, so perhaps I will get to it Sunday.

I also picked up a clothes drying rack made of wood. Rather than dry clothes on it, I plan to use it for painting the small pieces inside the garage. Along with a bent up metal clothes hanger, it seems like the best way to paint pieces like the utility arms, dataport and such.

That's all for now!

Skin Painting!

Well we all know how much paint likes me and today was another chapter in the love-hate relationship. The paint made the first strike. Using a Rustoleum spray paint pistol grip, for whatever reason, I got a silly-string type blast on most of the skins and my shoe. I did everything right, made sure everything was shaken, aligned and did a few test sprays. Somehow, the pistol grip lever hit the spray nozzle at an odd angle and just spit a huge blob. Joyous!

After removing the pistol grip and shaking my angry fist at the heavens, I proceeded.

Here's the skins with the first coat of Rustoluem White Primer.


Somehow an errant spider decided to join in on my distress.

That spot as well as the coinslot areas will need some more cleanup. When I put the skins together, the top was flush but for some reason, the coin slots have always been a bit off. I'll have to file out the excess material another day.

After an hour I put a second coat of primer on. Then, another hour later, I did a quick once over with some 400 grit sandpaper. After a detailed wipe down, I then put a first coat of Satin White on. I'm a little concerned about the way the paint is filling in the panel area between the lower utilty arm and the top of the vent.

Again, I waited an hour and gave another coat of the Satin White. With the temperature starting to drop, that will be all the painting the skins get for the day.

Here's how they look now...assuming no "grey" spots and a good white fill, I'll call it good.

If the weather is decent tomorrow, its time to sand and put another coat of white on the legs, feet and ankles!

Off to follow the NASA Channel and see the latest on the Phoenix Mars lander!

Installed the skin mounting blocks on droid 2.

I didn't have much time to dedicate to my droids today. The weather was overcast, cool and windy, so painting and priming anything was out. So, I mowed the lawn and installed these great new parts that Jerry Greene offered to the local guys here in New England. (These are identical to the ones being made in a larger part run for many more builders.)

Here they are, fresh out of the bag. Note the flat side and curved side.


First one is in, notice how nicely it blends with the frame ring. Simply bolt in with the allen wrench, curved side facing where the shoulder hubs will be.

See how nicely the they fit around the hub.

And alas, all three are installed. Later on down the line, the real fun will be trying to figure out where to drill the holes in the skin so they line up with the block holes! But that is for another day.

New arrivals!

No pictures since I didn't have time....but today the Leg Struts arrived, as did the Skin Mounting Blocks. JAG did a very small run amongst the local guys here in New England. All of these parts are for droid #2, whose quickly working through the list of missing pieces it needs to come together!

I'm on day two of my three overnight shifts, so I won't have a chance to do anything to the droids until Sunday. If the weather clears and stays warm, I plan to prime the recently cleaned up skins for droid #1. While that dries, I may resume wet sanding the pieces that were painted 2 weeks ago (legs, shoulder, feet)...and see about painting everything the following day!

Cleaning the skins some more

Today I wanted to find a way to clean out the old paint in the "grooves" of the skins. I have this amazing collection of Dremel bits and found two bits of interest. The first was this "polishing" bit that when spun at a medium speed, fit the grooves perfectly. Too fast and it would melt the aluminum. (I tried on a sample piece!)

Here's the bit...


This looks worse than it really is, those black streaks are from all the paint, dust and debris being shot out.

Here's a close up. It takes a real steady hand and some patience to just go slow and keep the bit in the groove.

The area between the utility arms came out really good, as did other areas. Again, I'm not looking for perfection. But before I throw primer and paint on the skins again, I'd like those between-panel areas to be cleaned up. Just adding more paint in there will eventually hide the recessed areas.

I then took this plastic brush, also something for polishing, and used it to clean up whatever the wire one couldn't clean out. It didnt fit into the groove as well, but with some work, it did clean a lot of junk out.

Here's the end result from the clean up. A bit less black outlines kicking around. It actually shined the areas around the grooves!

With that work done, I put the mouse sander back to work. I did a quick once over with 120 grit, then put the 220 on. After cleaning up around all the edges I had worked on, the skins are starting to look good again.

All that remains to do now is the areas I couldn't hit with the power sander. Inside the door areas and places like the panel next to the coin slot (see photo).

I also noticed a few "open" areas that didn't get enough 3M Spray Glue when I bonded the skins. Once the sanding is done, I'll spend a little time with the Crazy Glue and some clamps to close up those gaps.

The weather forecast didn't allow me to paint this week but the good news is that my case of Rustoleum Metallic Purple arrived today! I'll go pick it up next week.

Working on the original skins, removing paint

The original paint job I did on my skins, like most of my painting efforts, did't fair too well. A few areas had some drip lines, plus my cat walked in front of a fan I had running, blasting it with cat hair.

See how hexxed I am with paint?

The one bad thing about sanding off the old paint is its a lot of work. I probably should have left them mounted on the frame...but I didn't want dust all over the frame. I'm sure had I planned ahead, I could've come up with some way of covering everything up. But this gave me more flexibility.

I started out with a 3M 90 grit sanding block. As you can see from this picture, I got a lot of the paint out. The recessed areas I just won't be able to get into.


While taking a break, I recalled having bought some mouse sander paper that was on sale a few months ago. I found a few pieces of 120 grit and went at it. At this point, I realized having the skins off was a huge plus. I could push from behind the skins, applying pressure where the sander wasn't quite making contact (flat sander, rounded skins...go figure).

Here's the progress with the mouse sander...

I stopped there since I do not have great lighting in my garage. I had a 100 watt bulb in there but since I was a sucker to save the world, one light bulb at a time, the energy-saver/twisty thing only puts out 60 watts. Tomorrow, my efforts to drain the world's resources resumes...the 100 watter returns!

As you can see, there are some areas that will be tricky to sand out. Areas like the pocket vent, coin returns and some of the doors will probably require some gentle Dremeling. I have a trillion bits to chose from, having picked up Dremel variety packs anytime there's been a sale.

The weather has remained rainy, so all painting is on hold. Once I have the skins done tomorrow, its time to wet sand the painted pieces.

Quick weekend update

Well the weather is supposed to be lousy over the next few days, so this will give me some time to do some wet sanding. I searched our new, local Lowe's store Friday afternoon and was looking for something in the 400-grit range for sandpaper. A helpful associate asked what I was working on and opted to be very vague (haven't we all faced this decision in R2 Building?). I told her I had some run lines and various spotting from the first coats of spray paint on the project I am working on. She suggested a product I didn't notice on the shelf before, 3M Wet Sanding paper.


I've used the 800 and 100 grit versions of this stuff on my dome. However, due to the deepness of the spin lines, I gave up. I think wet sanding is a great idea, less dust floating around, only to re-appear on wet paint again! So I think this will be my project for Sunday afternoon and Monday, smoothing out the rough spots on the legs, ankles and feet. While there, I picked up another can of Satin White...and some WHITE Rustoleum primer this time around. I think coats one and two are just trying to cover the gray primer still! Lesson learned!

I also sold my FiberOpticProducts PSI lights to Derek. I think he'll really enjoy them, I had FOP add two additional LEDs, one of each color, making the unit a 4 LED unit. Its very bright! I have been sifting through my stacks of parts, figuring out what's going on which droid and if I have duplicates that are not needed, selling them off. I have motors and motor controllers to save for!

Not much other progress today. I visited my Mom in the hospital, whose developed an infection from her hip replacement surgery 7 weeks ago. We'll know more once the testing results come through, so I plan to spend some time up there to keep her company.

That's all for now!

Second Coat is on

Well I put the second coat on today, the weather was again in the 60s but less wind.

I'll have to go back and do the other side of the leg, but the white is slowly filling in.


I sanded smooth the drip lines from the previous coat. It looks like it happened again on the second coat. Part of the dribble is covered by the metal foot strips. The rest...well, who'd notice?

The detail pieces are getting better. In the next coating or so, the visibility of the mounting holes should vanish.

More of the feet. I'm seeing less primer shine through, but I definately have at least another coating to go.

Can you see the "spot" ? (Bottom hole, 3 o'clock position) Again, the additional coats will help. I also took a small flat head screwdriver and cleaned the tapped holes between coatings.


The recessed areas in the shoulder are finally starting to fill in.

Morning Update: Back in the sun!

I have to leave for work at 11:30am so I wanted to take advantage of any sun I could put on the painted pieces. So at 8am, I lugged everything outside so it could "bake" for a few hours...


I'm hoping everything will be dry enough for a light sanding by weekend. Assuming no dribbles, this will be my last time around with the sandpaper and just adding 2 more coats of white. After that, a coat of gloss. Maybe more...I'll have to ask around and see how much gloss to go for.

More painting of the legs and detail pieces

This morning I lugged out the pieces I painted white yesterday. I wanted them to get as much time in the sun as possible. We managed to hit 67F today but the breeze was pretty gusty as well.

Here you can see yesterday's work catching some sun...


While that stuff was drying, I spray painted the outer legs, center ankle and outer foot "half moon" details. There's a "grain" to the center ankle material (alu) so that's going to take a coat or two to completely cover that. I gave the legs 2 hours to dry then flipped them over and painted the other side. Typical to my painting luck, I had a can of Satin White with a moody nozzle. It seeped paint all over the spray-gun handle I was using. Once it had accumulated a lot of seepage, it poured onto my pegs just as I was starting on them. Argh! Its not in a bad spot, I'm sure I could leave it and it would be covered up by future coats...but again, what a pain!

Great shot here of the lame foundation paint the previous homeowner picked...but regardless, a shot of the legs drying.

Here you can see where the paint seems to have gone a wee bit heavy. I haven't decided if this is even worth fussing over. If you click the image to see the high-resolution version, you will note the paint still has most of the texture of the metal. Again, future coats should fix this.

The outer ankles are just going to wind up loosing the paint near where they join the feet. My ankles and feet go in very, very tight...so I'm not expecting the paint to stay for long.

I won't be able to paint again for about a week, so hopefully the weather will cooperate next week!

Primed the feet, ankles and battery boxes

Alas the time for priming and painting has come!

Sadly, the weather wasn't completely cooperative. The winds were gusting and we only hit the low 60's. But it was enough to get me started.

The pictures are sort of in a messed up order. I'm too tired to argue with Blogger to fix it again.

Below, the legs got primed and sanded with some 220 grit paper, then another coat of priming. I used some old coffee cups from a dish set I got a few years ago. They were tiny, who wants a TINY cup of coffee in the morning! So finally, they served a purpose.


The battery boxes, both my JAG set and new set from Ryan got primed. Initially I hung these up on the dog's cable run. I used an old wire clothes hangar to have them dangle there while I spray painted them. The wind quickly made that futile.

Below is my short attempt to use Duplicolor Etching primer. As you can see, its green in tint when applied. For whatever reason, ever Duplicolor paint I have ever tried to use spits from the nozzle. Using the lightest spray possible, it still wound up with a drippy run line. What a pain in the ass.


I broke out the 320 grit 3M sponge-clothe and quickly cleaned it up once it had dried.

Here's me, trying to catch my breath from inhaling all those lovely paint fumes. Mmmm.


I felt brave, so I use the Rustoleum plastic pistol grip accessory and slapped in a can of Satin White. I stuck the foot details in some cardboard and lined up the outer feet and sprayed away. Overall, it looks like the first coat went on really well. I avoided my desire to go a little heavy on the bottom part of the feet, making sure I got paint in the gaps. I figured I could get it in coats two and three.

Here's everything as I wrapped up for the day. On the side foot moons, I put the screws in so they would be elevated while I painted.

Tomorrow calls for the same stinking weather, high of 67 with winds 10-20 MPH. Wednesday has less wind and a bit warmer, but I work at noon. Ugh! I'll just have to do the best with what I have. I plan on putting the white pieces out in the sun for a few hours so they cure properly.

That's it for now.

Getting ready to prime shoulders, 2nd set of Battery Boxes arrive

Finally some time to get some stuff done! Since I work night shift Thursday thru Saturday (9pm-7am), sometimes its tough to wake up and hit the ground running with building.

Today I was debating which parts I want to prime this week. The legs, feet and ankles are on my to do list, as are the shoulders. However for the shoulders, I want the inner part of the horseshoe to remain unpainted. I like that shiney aluminum.

I spent some time looking to see what other builders had done. It looks like many have painted them. The ILM R2 and other screen used R2s seem to be painted as well. Well hmmph! I figure I'll try it...and if it sucks, paint em!

First up was user painter's tape...


...I just took it slow, doing about 3 or 4 inches at a time...


After I completed a stretch, I took the razor out and slowly moved along the edge, removing the tape that passed onto the other side. Sharp and slow are key here. It doesn't tame much pressure to bring up a strivel or aluminum.


There, one done...three more to go. I'm not going to sweat it if a wee bit makes it on the edge. As others have gently pointed out, R2 isn't exactly showroom fresh. Tomorrow's weather calls for mid 60s, so I'll give the shoulders a gentle wipe down of acetone, let dry for an hour in the sun, then use the etching primer. I'll have to use some compressed area to remove the dust from the cutouts that the details go into.


Finally, I forget to mention a few days ago that my aluminum battery boxes arrived from Ryan. This makes two sets now, with my previous from JAG. Ryan was nice enough to offer an option with the cutouts for the NPC motors. These guys are headed for priming soon!

The weather forecast if for mid 60's all week. Not perfect painting weather but I'll take it! I also have a local hardware store that can order the missing paint I need for Krider Blue. Alas, this droid can start looking closer to complete!

Photos from the Tuesday build

LDP installed...


Front skins could use a paint redo...



Everything except Metallic Purple!!

Satellite motors...with brakes...all installed.


Skin blocks installed....


Frame rod removed for door hinge access


Front skin trimmed out to allow the new Power Coupler face plate