R2-D2

All things related to R2-D2

Mounting the Ankle… stuff

So, after the ankle wedge was done, it was a simple task to just slap some paint on to it.

I’ve been toying around with ideas on how to mount this, as I really want most of the things on the droid to be removable, in case of service!

Not fixed the ankle wedge per se, but I’ve fixed the ankle cylinder and the ankle half-moon (The half round part underneath the cylinder that the cylinder rests on.

I drilled a hole from inside the cylinder down into the half-moon, and went as deep as I dared (watch your thoughts, Edwardo), glued 2 long M4 screws into the holes with superglue, cut the heads off with my dremel (wear goggles people!) and finally just secured them together with two bolts.

The cylinder itself sits tight on the ankle, by pressure alone, and if I need to, I can simply add some double stick 3M tape underneath the half-moon to really fix them into place.

Just look how nice it all looks when it’s all in place.

I still haven’t decided how to fix the ankle itself though. I may use magnets, I’ve got a shipment of magnets coming in..

Please note that the leg itself is not painted, but the half-moon is painted satin white. No clear coat, though.

By |2016-12-06T00:01:09+01:00October 11th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Mounting the Ankle… stuff
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Building an ankle wedge

Something I’ve realized over the past year where I’ve been building my R2, is that I really love scratch building things from styrene.

Styrene is very forgiving, and once you’ve learned how, making things is actually quite easy!

Today’ I set out to build a small silly piece with lots of weird angles and stuff: An ankle Wedge! (Actually I built two of them, but who’s couting… I need 4 in total, so halfway there… unless I cave in and use the two resin ones that I do have laying around…)

Anyway, back on track! The ankle wedge is a small piece that is sitting on the bottom of the legs, holding the Ankle Cylinder.

I’ve previously built my ankle cylinders out of PVC pipe and styrene, and even though they still need a bit of work, they sit good enough on my robot in order to me to make the wedges!

These are the main pieces. A big piece of styrene, with no straight angles. The short edge will be closest to the ankle, and the big end will rest on the cylinder. The sides are made up by small triangular pieces. I’ve cut out larger triangles, measure, then place a piece of extra pipe on top my 1mm styrene piece and cut around it (had to cut a few times to get the proper fit) to get the right curve.

This is really a try/test/try/test again sort of procedure in order to get these to sit snug, but after a few test tries, I did get my triangular piece to sit pretty spot on to the cylinder.

Once the triangular pieces are made (be sure to mark them properly so you know which side is which, what is in, what is out, etc) I chamfered the long edge of the flat styrene piece, to make it look good on the cylinder. Then glue time!

Two pieces of tape to hold the triangles to the large piece of styrene, and then just glue it all down!

Once the glue set, I added another piece in the center, just for stability.

Then time to use my secret instrument to make it fit really well…

No, not THAT kind of instrument. It’s not a plastic didgeridoo!

However, the PVC pipe with a piece of sand paper strapped on to it, makes for a perfect tool to sand the little wedge to remove any irregularities after glueing it all together!

Finally, let’s end this brief tutorial with taking a look at the results!

Nice and smooth! Now I just need to paint them blue and set aside as finished!

Oh yeah.. need to make another two… unless I use them old resin ones.. I kinda like these better, and they fit SO much nicer…

By |2016-12-06T00:01:09+01:00October 11th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Building an ankle wedge
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Second side vent

First off:

Woohoo! I can has superglue!

The first side vent is therefor complete!

After trying out the “can opener” method on parts of the first vent, I decided to try this out fully on this second vent.

I drilled a large hole (10mm) in the middle of the parts that should be cut out from the second side vent. Just one hole per cutaway rib.

After that was done, I scored fairly deep with my breakblade knife, inserted my pliers in the big hole in the middle, and started rolling the pieces away, and they rolled off nicely!

Fairly good result after I’ve removed the pieces, too!

Since I didn’t drill in the edges, but merely score the short ends, these broke off nice and easily. Don’t worry about it being a bit crooked, I’ve got a solution for that!

My trusty stel ruler laid on top of the vent, and then bang onto the ruler with my plastic hammer, and that seems to work well.

The last few dents was just taken out with my sander.

Not a bad result, and this was done with a minimum of filing, and the corners came out great!

Now, it’s late at night, and I’ve finished glueing my 2mm aluminum clad styrene strips to the back. It’s left to set over night, and tomorrow I’ll paint and add the backing to this second side vent.

Three down, one to go.

Why was I worried about these aluminium vents to begin with? Once I found a method that I liked, it was really a breeze! =)

 

By |2016-12-06T00:01:10+01:00October 8th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Second side vent
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