R2-D2

After several attempts at growing my dome (actually I think I managed slightly), and getting my inner dome to fit properly, I decided to go the easy route and split my inner dome in two. Attempt three and four at growing the dome, with proper aluminum tape did not give the desired results.

After sanding the inner dome down to make it slightly less pointy and fit better, I still had a gap at the bottom of the dome, something I did not like!

A Sanded inner dome, ready to be sliced open..

So, I marked a line that would be nice and well below the upper panels, and took out my now almost destroyed dremel knockoff and cut a slit in the dome.

Once that was done, out came the blade:

It was hard work, but was easier than I thought it would be! Plenty of silicone lubricant standing by to get the blade to run as smoothly as possible. Once the cut was made, I sanded off the edges, and my R2 now had a rather odd look..

I taped the upper part of the dome to the inside of the outer dome.

I’m lucky enough this is the only large cut I need to make. The inner dome is within acceptable sizes so I do not need to actually cut a few millimeters off it at the bottom, something that would have been really tough, no doubt.

I also got around to remove the rather large remains of when the aluminum ring was welded together. This was almost a centimeter thick of weld residue on the inside of the weld. This prevented the metal ring from spin properly on the body of my R2.

I missed out on a “before” pic, but not too bad for a guy with only a dremel knockoff, eh? =)

Anyway, even though I’ve cut up R2’s head, he doesn’t mind and shows no side effects after the operation…

This really marks the first day of working with the dome. I have not yet decided if I should try and sand off the spin lines from the dome or not. I tried sanding the inner dome to a dull coat, just to get an idea what it would be like, and there are many, many hours of work, should I go down that route.

Since I’m planning on having everything removable (yes, everything) it is something that can be done further down the line, should I chose to do so.

Anyway: I mentioned that I had primed a few parts recently!

They are mostly ok, but since I’m not used to spray painting, I need to sand and paint again. That’s the idea anyway to get a smooth finish on the droid!

I did notice, however that there are some bubbles in the resin parts and some styrene joints that I need to attend to before continuing the paint job:

Those bubbles will not do! Also, I realized that I need to apply some more putty on the joins between the styrene and resin half-moons that I have on the center foot, since they have not bonded properly!

Last thing done today was making a motor mount for my Pittman motor, that will take care of the dome movement. Since this is imported from the US, first step on the agenda was to tap the mounting holes in the motor for european standards. Tapping to M5 here below:

Yes, my desk is suitable messy during this build.

I strengthened the back portion of the upper ring of my droid with 7 more millimeters of styrene, and drilled mounting holes to mount my pittman motor.

I have no idea (yet) how to actually fasten the gear to the motor, so right now it is just lying around the axle, to test the distance, and I’m sure this will provide great traction for my dome movements!

Tomorrow, I’ll see if I can mount the gear properly, and see if I can’t hook up my Syren 10 motor controller as well, to get a first test of the moving head!

Can’t wait!