More work on the R&J dome. Sanding. Sanding. Sanding...

After unpacking all the R2 items from the weekend gathering, it was back to work on the dome.

Here's the stack of stuff....work cloths, sandpaper (800, 1000 and 2000) and some Mother's Aluminum polish.


Here's my progress after the 800 grit....

...1000 grit....

...2000 grit...

...then after thoroughly drying the dome, I dabbed on some Mother's Polish and rubbed. And rubbed. And rubbed.....and alas! Some shine!

So I'm finally hitting a shiney point I've been trying to get at for a while. More polishing tomorrow!

More work to the R&J dome

In preparation for the New England Get together, I went down a day early to have a day of building at Kevin Helmig's place. His shop can only be described as Mecca for R2 building. It has all those wonderful tools us amateur builders drool over at the hardware store!

One thing I really wanted to work on is my R&J dome. Its from one of the original batches having originally been owned by Jason (the 'J' in R&J). It has really deep spin lines and I've literally been working on it for years.

Last fall I finally went and took 60 grit sandpaper to the deepest lines, all near the panels. My concern has been cleaning up the area between the panels.

Before packing up to head to Kevin's, here's how the dome looked....note the rough look to the dome near the panels from the 60 grit...


Using a mouse sander (which works a lot better than an orbital sander), here's the dome after some 80 grit...

Now some 120 grit...

Now some 220 grit (that's the highest grit you can find for mouse sanders...elbow grease from here on in)...

Wet sanding with some 600, then on to 800....

I had really hoped to be spending my time at Kevin's cutting up the inner dome but opted to get this thing cleaned up. Its close...depending on which version of R2-D2 you like. Its starting to get shiney and reflective, so on to more 800 grit, 900 and such.

The 300mm domes do not need all this labor, they are pretty much perfect out of the box!

New England R2 Builders Summer BBQ

Yesterday was the New England area R2 Builder's BBQ hosted by Mike Velcheck. It was one of the first really hot, humid days of the summer and the weather stayed clear for us.

We had three droids rolling and others, including mine, in pieces...yet present!

Below is Dana, Ethan and Kevin with their droids...


There were two stars of the show, both brought by Jerry Greene.

Below is one of the prototype R4 aluminum domes. Its beautiful and huge!

And the real star of the show is mounted on Jerry's R2....the booster rockets that swivel out from the modified leg. Its a real thing of shiney beauty!

I know the other builders have more pictures of the event, but there's some of the highlights.

More Styrene skin work, gluing panels

This evening I didn't have energy to take on too much.

Typical Monday!

So this evening, I decided to go back to R2-D2 # 2 and work on finishing off the skin work.

I glued two panels into place with Testor's plastic cement and having already cut some 3M Painters tape to length, placed that on top. There isn't any room to place clamps so you have to be inventive!

Finished the Battery Box details (R2-D2 #1)

It was a short weekend for me, so most of the R2 work got put off.

One piece I forgot to finish was one battery box and the detail pieces. A pretty quick job to do and I thought I would document it for the benefit of other builders.

Here's the battery box (and Momma Cat) as it is now.


Here are the pieces we need to silicone on....the round, knurled hose fittings and the detail tabs.

I spread clear silcone on each fitting, put the fitting into place and squeezed it in place.

I used a simple Q-tip to clean up the excess as well as spread the silicone into the area between the battery box and fitting.

And here's the finished results. Now, once the NPC 2212 motor caps have been ground down a bit, they should fit inside.

Working on the Center Vent internals

Tonight I started on the vent internals again. A few days ago, Tom Doucet mailed a replacement pack of internal pieces!

I looked over the pieces and did some careful filing where required.

Once I had a good test fit, I hot glued the pieces into place. One of the internals is vastly easier to work with if you hot glue it to the table!


Once the hot glue had set and I was comfortable with the alignment, I got the JB Kwik ready to go.

If there is anything that smells worse than JB Kwik, I have yet to experience it.

As best I could with a popsickle stick, I dabbed the JB on the pieces.

Once this stuff dries, I'll pry off the Hot Glue and move on!

NPC 2212 Foot Motors & JAG foot drive installed

Well after reading Joe's progress (http://r2droid.com/blog1.php/2009/05/11/installing-my-jag-foot-drives), I decided it was time to get mine mounted up as well.

This evening I removed R2-D2 #1's foot drives and motors from storage. I then lifted R2 onto a plastic milk crate which lifts the feet off the ground enough to remove the legs.


The legs are off...

Thanks to the assistance of a nosey feline, I got the legs and feet seperated.

I already had the motors installed into the drive system. All I had to do was remove the motor, install the drive into the foot shell, then bolt the motor back in while making sure the belts are on everything correctly.

The knurled fittings I have are of the older design. I thought with the shorter drive belt this wouldn't be an issue....but I can see I'll have to saw off some of the bolt.

I'm curious how the bronze hose will work out....but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The hardest part remaining is putting the ankle bolt into the foot....while maneuvering around the foot drive. Removing the rear omni ball from the drive gives you some space to wiggle a finger or wrench in there. But, like some other areas of this droid, you have to be very inventive in the tight spots. (I found scotch-taping the nut to the wrench helped hold it into place while the ankle bolt was finally able to thread into it.)

No, R2-D2 is not broken...but with the drives mounted, I leaned the legs up against R2 as I called it quits for the night.

I still need to work on drilling holes for routing the wiring. I also have other work to do on the skin panels, so no sense putting the legs back up yet.

The center foot casters need to be finished too.

Then I need to lock R2 into 3 leg mode.....and the list goes on and on!

New Arrival: JAG Hinges for Panels/Doors

Nothing beats coming home from work and finding a UPS box from Jerry Greene at your door!

The hinges he designed for use in the doors and panels arrived...I bought enough for two droids...


I was not expecting these to be assembled! What a HUGE task that must have been for Jerry and his crew!

I also have a slew of hinges from a run Jerry C. did, the Robart hinges. These have two attachment spots for the servos to latch onto. Here's what the large and medium hinges look like...

...and finally, a close up.

Finishing up the styrene pocket vent

Now that the chrome-painted pieces are dry, I gently held them into place and hot-glued them into position.

(In hindsight, this was a bad idea...the paint was still soft so the clamps left impressions on it.)


I had to trim the back panel a bit so that it would fit within the skin opening...

Here you can see I went a bit heavy with the adhesive to hold in the back piece.

And here is the finished piece.

I couldn't resist seeing how it fits in the skins...

Styrene Octagon Port completed

A few days ago, while the weather was cooperating, I painted the pieces for the styrene Octagon Port. Here are the pieces all laid out (minus the center round piece).

I was really having a terrible time with glue, both Super Glue and the Testor's Plastic Cement.

I wasn't sure how well a hot glue gun would work on a plastic but I gave it a try. Long story short, it worked nicely....the only caveat is the stringy-residue that a glue gun can create. Just go slow and evenly, keeping that tip off the plastic material.

...and the view from the bottom, with all the tabs carefully glued into position...

Here is the finished product after the glue has hardened...

I then glued the plastic discs together to form the center piece with Testor's Cement and let it dry for 25 minutes.

After a coat of primer and a coat of Rustoleum Chrome, here's what the finished product looks like...

Styrene pocket vents...cheating on the backplate.

A few days ago, I had painted the slabs blue that go into the pocket vent. The problem I had is that because some of the parts are not perfect right angles, when they are place in the guides, they spread open and crack the glue. This sheds the paint and I wound up with a lousy result.

So I pondered what to do. While cleaning off my desk, inspiration struck....cardboard!

I sized out the amount of cardboard I would need and started to dismantle a small box...


After all the thumb pain my Blackberry has given me, the box is making the ultimate sacrifice!

After doing the Krider Blue formula on the cardboard pieces, here's the results. (I also made back pieces for the side vents, too.)

Here's a quick picture of how the cardboard back pieces look in the pocket vent. I haven't glued them in yet. I painted the curved plastic mounts chrome, so once those dry, those will be glued into place. Then the backpiece to maintain the appropriate curvature.

Clean up day...looking thru the part piles

This afternoon I started what I have put off for months.

Weeding through the part piles.

I have 2 R2-D2's in various stages of contruction strewn about my house.

As one is getting closer to being completed, I wanted to make sure I had all the pieces I need. I also wanted to determine what I need for the second droid.

Just one of the totes I have of "stuff". But it was good to learn I had a few pieces for the second droid I will not need to purchase.

Now, with the clear plastic containers I have, I want to re-organize. For example, all the dome pieces in one, electronics in another, etc etc.

So I have a full evening ahead of me!

Aluminum Center Vent Internals

R2-D2 #2 has center vents that arrived a few months back.

I finally started work on them.

One thing I realized early on is one set didnt want to fit together well. After a lot of filing on one tab, I hot glued the pieces into place...


Once I started putting the horizontal pieces in, it was obvious I had a problem...

I got in touch with Tom from Waterset Parts and asked for advice on the best means to fix it. He acknowledged the problem and offered to replace the faulty plate or file the offset side down until it lines up. As he has plates in stock, I accepted his generous offer of a replacement. Thank you, Waterset!!

I then began work on the lower vent pieces. These are a little tricky to line up without knocking over when trying to line up the next piece.

Being the clever guy I am, I hot glued the side to the table! (Hey, it works and pops free easy!)

And again, using the hot glue gun, everything is in place for now. I will eventually scrape away the hot glue and replace it with JB Weld or a similar resin compound.

Now, as you can see, I have a great deal of filing to do on the vent internals to get them to glide inside the vent surrounds.

A rather busy Monday night but good progress was made!