Skins mounted, working on side vent mount

I tackled a few "To Do's" tonight.

First up was replacing the stainless steel phillips-head screws with hex socket head screws. I could only locate black ones locally so I may order some stainless ones in the future.

Here's how they look installed with the painted washers...

Once again I wound up at Lowe's tonight needing some aluminum roof flashing and some more silicone adhesive.

For 43 cents each, I am going to cut these to fit between the skin panels, where there is a gap at the bottom.

After trimmed up, they will fit the opening. My plan, after priming and painting, is to have the piece be bolted into place from under the frame.

I clamped the pieces together and trimmed them to the right size. After this, I used contact cement to bond them together.

Finally, on to the side vents.

With some large painter's tape, I taped the side vent into the desirable spot...

Then, from inisde, I determined the right spot for the L bracket on the frame. I marked off the spot on the frame ring.

I mixed up some JB Weld and placed a dab on the frame ring then placed the L-Bracket onto it. To reinforce the bond, I added more JB Weld to the top and sides.

Tomorrow we'll have to remove the tape and see how well the JB Weld holds when the side vent is removed. Fingers crossed!

Side vent mounting work

Between doing my Sunday chores, I made some progress on the side vents as well as a bit more skin work.

First, the washers that go between the socket head screws and skins got painted. I was trying to think of a clever way to spray paint them without blasting them everywhere. Voila! Roll some tape around a popsickle stick and press the washers on!



One small issue I still have is the socket head screws...the only ones I can get locally are black. I have a few that are stainless steel but not enough. I'll have to see how I like the end result before I go and order some online!

Here's the washers drying...



Once again I was wandering the aisles of Lowe's looking for the right odds and ends to mounting the side vents. I found some L-Brackets that were tall enough and I trimmed them up to fit on the frame ring. I also found some larger ceramic magnets as well as some sheet metal used in lumber framing.

The sheet metal was JB Welded to the back of the Side Vent (its made of aluminum)



I used some Very High Bond tape on the L bracket and placed the ceramic magnet on it. Granted, I don't think the magnet will move much, but I am hoping the magnet will stay put when the side vent needs to be removed.

A little backtracking for the sidevents

One issue I was running up against was how to mount the side vents.

The skin mounting blocks I had purchased from Daniel D. worked great under the shoulders but not so well further down the body. This frame is from the first run the club did in 2004, known as the T&J Frame, of JAG version 1. I have since modified it to accept the Lambert 2-3-2 drive system, which required the replacement for a frame plate with a thinner one. The thinner plate makes it very difficult to drill and tap a hole into. As such, it the skin mounting blocks were a great solution for that location. However, they are not working out for the lower ring as the holes put them right into the channel where the side vents will be.

So, that lower skin block has to go. Since that frame ring is not rounded where it meets the skin, I'll have to drill and tap a hole into it then use a longer screw to apply to proper "bend" for the skins to meet.


Once I had that done, I toyed with the side vent to make sure it could sit flush. As always, one of the cats played observer while I worked.

I am still debating whether to paint the hex screw heads while or not. I think I will paint the washers but leave the hex heads alone. Any paint will simply chip away after tools are used to remove the screws a few times.

I also have some patch work to do from misjudging where to drill holes! Whoops!

Don't forget to check the video version of this update at http://www.youtube.com/user/PaulsR2D2

Rear skins, other side mounted up!

Tonight I worked on the other side of the rear skins.

It went pretty smoothly but I found I needed to add a bolt to the bottom of each side to keep things flush....

Here's where I am at now. I think I will work on resolving the side vent area by drilling lower, into the frame ring. That will require some clever patch work, but easier to do now then later.

My next dilemma is making the back panel piece fit. More on that next time

Rear skins, one side done!

Just a few quick pictures from a few days ago...the rear skins are ready to go onto the frame.

The top hole I completely mis-judged, so I'll have to cover my boo-boo with some JB weld and paint over it. I also need to paint the screw heads.

One concern I have is the lower holes, the mounting blocks I have make it so that the holes are in the way of where the side vents would be. I may have to re-think that poistion in a day or so.

Trying out 3M VHB tape for center foot strips

This evening I was debating how best to adhere the center foot strips into place.

I thought about using JB Weld or a similar adhesive....but I really wanted to try out the 3M VHB tape that will eventually be used to bond the skins together for another droid.

Since that tape is used to hold things like automobile trim and logos, it would seem something like this should be a cinch.

First I had to clean off a thin strip of paint, which I used a dremel sanding wheel for. The adhesive works best going on roughed up and clean metal.

Next up was the rough up the backsides of the foot strips.

After thoroughly wiping down the exposed metal, on the 3M VHB tape. I let it set for 10 minutes before gently laying the foot strip into position. I held it firmly in place for two minutes before putting painter's tape to keep it in place.

And here is where we are at now. I'll leave the tape alone and check on this in the morning.

Rear doors stay in place now

Sometimes things come together....by accident.

This evening I had the skins laying down and had the doors taped closed. I wanted to toy with some ideas about what the door magnets should connect to in order to stay closed.

I dropped the L bracket and noticed it was firmly attached to the magnet.

Curious.

So I clamped the L bracket into place, removed the tape holding the door...and sure enough, there's enough pull to hold the door snug.

Why I'll be!

So, I ran with that idea, clamped 4 L brackets into place and used some JB Weld to bond them in place. Nothing fancy is really needed...just enough to hold the door snug, yet able to be opened too.

The paper is under the clamps to prevent the paint to be damaged.

Center foot casters mounted

Well this evening I had planned to work on the power coupling...but it seems I have lost the faceplate! Good news is that the part is currently available....but its a bit beyond my budget right now.

So, we moved on to other things and I decided it was time to get the center foot casters mounted and finished up.


While this doesn't look like much of a chore, the real trick is lining up the caster so that the holes that connect to the top structure pass through. It seems no matter where you hope to drill, you have to deal with how close you come to the raised edge that holds the bearings.

After figuring out the best locations that work for tire clearance and not drilling into the bearings, here's the end result!

3M VHB tape arrives

The 3M Very High Bond (VHB) tape arrived recently. I was able to find a vendor that would sell one roll at https://www.rshughes.com/products/021200_13974.html

This tape will be used for attaching the skin pieces on the second R2. This should make attaching the skins much faster, from a one month job to that of a night or two!

Fixing a door hinge, adding magnets

For some reason, I had a hinge pop loose and not adhere to the inner skin...my bad!

I used a sanding bit from my Dremel and removed the old JB Weld...


...after taping the door shut and lining up where the hinge should go, I put a layer of JB Weld around he ends and top of the hinge...

While I had a batch of JB Weld mixed, I decided to place the ceramic magnets at the top and bottom of each door.

At a later time, I'll figure out how I want that magnet to latch...another magnet or a small piece of stainless steel.

Coin returns mounted

This evening I siliconed the coin returns into place.

On the front one, I placed silicone on the coin return and managed to adhere it into place. However, later on, I wound up having to add more silicone behind the vent to keep it in position.

As such, since that worked so well, I repeated it for the rear panel....

I went heavy with the silicone since the panel will be moved around a lot, acting as a hatch into R2's electronics. The silicone I used is Loctite Silicone adhesive sealant. Much better results than the other clear silciones I have used.

I planned to do more work but that silicone is stinky stuff, so no more work til it dries!

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Rear panel details added, rear skins have doors hinged

This evening I sanded away some paint on the rear panel so the JB Weld would have a bare metal surface to adhere to....


...then put some JB Weld on the bare metal...

...and clamped them into place to dry. I used popsickle sticks so that the clamps would not leave any marks on the paint.

With that drying, I had cleaned up the inside of the door panels of excess JB Weld and lined them up into position. Once happy with the fit, I taped them into place.

I then lined up here I wanted the hinges to be and JB Welded them into place.

Now since these doors are pretty much obstructed when R2-D2 is in 3-leg mode, I will probably just leave them shut and held in place with magnets I will add later. However, with R2 upright and in two leg mode, I would be able to access whatever is behind the doors.

Rear skins painted!

This afternoon and removed the clamps and tape from the trim pieces I glued last night. Here's the result...


Next up was to sand off the paint on the detail pieces so everything gets an even coat of primer & paint.

The etching primer goes on very thin, so the sanded out spots of JB Weld still show. Another coat of primer will help cover this up...

...and here's where I am at now. Two coats of white are on now, after this dries, I'll give it a once over with some 400 grit sandpaper then 2 more coats.

Back Panel trim pieces attached!

This afternoon, I had to refer to the Hasbro Interactive R2-D2 to check how the back panel details are spaced out. Kudos to Hasbro for making such a well detailed R2! (I then turned it loose on the basement floor, where it took turns chasing the cats, then being chased. Sometimes I wonder how intelligent these robots really are!)

Once I was happy with the placement of the trim pieces, I clamped them in place...well, the ones I could...


I then used a pencil to trace the inside borders of the trim pieces...

...like so...

I mixed up some JB Weld and took my time using a popsickle stick to lightly dribble a thin line of the adhesive just behind the pencil line. The sides I could clamp, I did....the others, I taped with painter's tape. I also used a razor blade to try to clean up any excess to minimize using the dremel for cleanup!

This should be dry and ready for prime and paint soon! Rear panel almost done, just more detail pieces and figuring out the best way to affix the door to the frame.