BB-8

BB8 Dome nearing completion

I hurried putting my dome for BB-8 together for the Sci Fi convention in mid September. This included doing a quick (and not nearly good enough) paint job to just get the dome to some sort of colour.

The paint was too thick in places, and I had not had enough time to do a proper job concealing the joints. You can really see the joint on the left hand side of the picture quite clearly.

I also had no time to really let the paint dry before I hit it with the clear coat, so it all sort of blended together. Not to mention the ugly skirt..

To fix the skirt and the dome ring, I needed to print new parts, something I have done and are still in the process of assembling.

Paint job being botched (and no orange) aside, it still looked pretty cool!

Not to mention the extreme close-up .. 2001 warning ahead:

This got me through the Sci Fi convention, even though it was just a base.

Being back home, I sanded the clear coat and most of the paint off, worked over some of the problem areas with some putty filler, sanded again, and then applied 3 coats of spray filler, before sanding it down AGAIN with 400 grit sand paper to a very smooth finish, before I applied the white paint again. No more problem areas, and no more visible joints!

Once the dome was white (again) and the paint had cured, I taped over the entire dome, and cut out the portions that was going to be orange, and then hit the dome with the brand new orange paint I had custom ordered.

Once cured, the dome looks GREAT!

After the paint had cured properly, it was time to hit it with the clear coat.

The dome feels incredibly smooth.

Time to buy a can of dark grey and tint the Radar Surrounds and the Holo Projector (and the Holo Projector ring) in the proper colour and mount them.

The only annoying thing is that I had made a really good PSI that should sit in the smaller hole on this picture, however, when cleaning out my workshop the other day, I suspect that small PSI that I wrote a nice blog post about, accidentally found its way out in the trash…

Ah well, you gain some, you lose some. I have updated the 3D model for this, so next time it should be a lot easier for me to get what I need to get done!

Next up is putting some more focus on the dome ring and dome skirt so I can paint and mount them for a finalized dome structure. Can’t wait to get this part of the build done so I can start weathering the dome, I’m really looking forward to that!

By micke|2016-12-06T00:00:03+01:00October 7th, 2015|BB-8, Building|Comments Off

Friction Welding to alter appearances

So, during this rather long and tedious 3D printing process to churn out parts for the BB-8, The 3D model has changed along the way, and as a result, some of my prints are no longer accurate.

I had a part of the “triangle” that holds the rounded panels together that changed recently, making 3 parts out of 6 obsolete.

Now, these take a good 4 hours and some change to print, and I didn’t want to just waste 12+ hours on printing parts I didn’t need!

Looking at the specs, I realized that there is another part, that has the same basic construction as this (with overlaps and all) but does NOT have the groove that cuts out what is to be a panel in the finished full part.

Only thing I would need to do, is fill that groove that “splits” the part in two!

Sounds like a perfect job for some friction welding!

Friction welding, is really when you use friction to melt plastic together. I have used this on joints inside my R2, using round styrene rods that I put in my power drill, and then simply “drilled” until the plastic melted, and this created a very stable joint.

When doing this on a 3D print, I insert a piece of 1.75mm filament into my Dremel, and crank it up to about 80% speed, and gently push the quick rotating filament towards the area where I want to do the weld.

As the quick rotating plastic melts, it also melts the surrounding plastic, making the new weld a part of the surrounding material.

First I did one softer go, to fill in as much of the groove as I can in one go..

Then another go, that really pushes the materials inside, and also tried to erase the edges of the old groove, leaving a small extrusion of material after I am done.

Now, this might not look pretty, but remember the plastic here is now part of the old print.

Using a break blade knife to first cut away some of the excess material, then using the same knife to scrape across the surface…

.. and you end up with a groove that is totally gone.

Now, there are still some very small spots here and there, but compared to the layers of the print, they are nothing to worry about. Once I sand this part down properly and spray it with some spray filler, this will be completely invisible!

It only took about 4 minutes to do the three panels, and I saved up tons of time and filament compared to throwing the old pieces out and printing these from scratch!

By micke|2016-12-06T00:00:04+01:00October 7th, 2015|BB-8, Building|Comments Off

BB-8 Progress

Last time I left you hanging right after I’ve sanded and added Tamaiya Putty to my dome.

After I got back from a bit of well deserved vacation, it was time to (in very little time) try and get this as finished as I could in just a day to exhibit on the upcoming Science Fiction convention in Uppsala here in Sweden.

While being away on vacation, I got a nice package from my friend Michael Erwin in the US, who sent me a custom made lens for the holo projector for BB-8.

This.. looks MUCH better!

A little bit of sanding and just a touch of glue to keep it in place for now, and this part is done! I still need to find a good dark grey paint and change the main colour, but the part itself is done!

Next up was the dome. I knew I still had a few small blemishes here and there, and the joint between the dome thirds is not 100%, but I wanted to show something BB-8-ish at the convention, so off to the back yard and start painting!

A bit of filler primer, and it looks a lot smoother all of a sudden.

Normally this is where I would wait for this to cure properly and then sand it down to basically nothing, but no time to waste!

As soon as the surface was dry, It was time to hit it with my Satin White!

Not having enough time to wait for the paint to cure properly, next up was clear coating. Naturally I ended up with a little too much and it got a little runny in one spot. Fortunately, I managed to fix this pretty well, but even so, I am still going to sand this dome after a bit of putty on a few places, and then repaint it.

Next up was the Radar Eye.

It does have a bit of texture from the print still, and I could fix this with a bit of filler primer, but to be honest, I like the extra texture. It gives a bit of depth to the overall look.

Even though I printed the Radar Eye insert at 0.05 mm layer height, and no sanding was done, as it looked just perfect in black ABS, I did still cover it with a thin coat of black paint, and subsequent clear coat.

It just looks better and better. Can’t wait to put this all together!

Waiting for the pieces to dry, it was time to focus on other tasks. Making a lens for the PSI is one of those things.

The PSI lens should be small and round and sort of see thru, but milky white. A bit of clear acrylic will have to do!

Away with the covering plastic and start cutting out the circle.

Basically I cut a basic circle with my cutters. This was neither round nor pretty, but some thick sand paper and some patience solved this nicely.

Once sanded, I brought out some 600 grit sand paper and sanded the fronts and backs of the lens as well to give it a nice, milky, see through look.

Yes, it was really a rough sort of roundish piece that has been sanded by hand to this shape. Honestly!

Time to do the Radar Eye lens!

Having ordered a couple clear acrylic 70 mm hemispheres (to allow for failure), I set up a blade from a break blade knife on a small pad of paper and clamped it all down real good. I then pushed the hemisphere down and against the blade white rotating it as I went along.

After the first attempt I found the proper height from the pad, and did it all over again, a bit more careful this time as well.

Once I had cut through, I sanded off any rough edges through sanding on a flat sandpaper that was on my desk.

Next up: I had a couple of red LED’s lying at home, and I carefully pushed them into the small portion of the Radar Eye insert, and put shrink hose on the legs and routed the legs through the Radar Eye housing.

A small 3 volt battery hooked up (actually, taped) to the LED and it gives us … this!

It really gives a 2001 vibe, doesn’t it ?

I’m sorry Dave. I can’t do that…

Time to put it all together…

PSI insert was treated with a bit of silver rub and buff (after looking at pictures since, I realize this was a mistake, but I will fix that when things calm down a bit..

The Radar Eye was pushed in to the opening, same with the holo projector.

I actually glued the housing of a LED flash light on the back, so all I need to do in order to get it to lit up, is solder a few cables and attach a battery!

No time to fix the dome ring or the dome skirt for now. They area bit crooked, but I will print them over again at a later point.

Anyway, this is the result. Starting to really look as it should!

By micke|2016-12-06T00:00:06+01:00September 13th, 2015|BB-8|Comments Off

BB8 Dome nearing completion

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Friction Welding to alter appearances

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BB-8 Progress

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