R2-D2

I know ..

I’ve been lazy, not updating this here properly!

Good thing is, I’ve been building!

I’ve narrowed my search for glue down to really 3 candidates that I’m using for different tasks. Yes, the “remover” is actually used as glue. It’s a nail polish remover that consists of nearly 90% Ethyl Acetate, which is a strong solvent that melts styrene, thus welding the plastic together!

Very volatile, sets very quick, then needs 24 hours to harden, but a joy to work with!

The thin needle is standard polystyrene cement, not as fluent, not as quick setting, and with a needle applicator that allows me to squeeze some extra glue into small crevices!

Finally, the standard superglue. Used for anything where I need something setting fast, or for gluing resin parts to styrene!

Since the Ethyl Acetate chemical is not really healthy to breathe in, I decided after a day of testing to invest in my health and get myself a proper mask. In this baby, I don’t even smell the thing.

Last thing I want from my hobby is health issues due to breathing too many fumes from glue!

Anyway, so what have I actually accomplished?

Well, the legs are now *nearly* done. I need a tiny metal insert, that Sigge is kindly providing to me, hopefully this weekend, and after that I can skin them fully, and then my droid’s legs are 100% DONE!

They are partially skinned now, as you can see in this picture:

Skinned the sides, sanded them down, and now the main part of the leg is ready to be skinned. Then the tiny pieces under the shoulder needs to wait for a tiny piece of aluminium.. =)

While waiting, I’ve started work, and made quite a good way into making the center foot. I attached my resin half-moon’s which are both screwed and glued, and then I realized that I had actually purchased the full plates in resin some months ago, and these half-moons were actually planned to just be half-moons on the outer feet!

Oh well, more spare parts to sell to someone else. Starting to get a few of those!

The foot needs to sit and harden overnight, and then the top pieces sanded down to match the angles. After that, It’s “only” the bottom parts left!

The inside of the foot is complete with mounting plates for 2 double casters. They run smooth and should be quite shock absorbant. I’ve used quite a bit of styrene inside the foot, but since R2 is going to be top heavy, I don’t really think this will be a problem.

I also designed a quick and easy (and sturdy) way to be able to have the main foot detachable. My idea is to have both legs and center foot detachable for easier transport.

I’ll jot up a design tomorrow if I have time, and see if my new CNC friend can make them for me! They should be quite simple, though.

Speaking of Aluminium, these arrived today:

Long awaited, all the way from Australia comes these machined logic surrounds, which will fit nicely into my dome, that should arrive any day now.

Apart from that, I also received and soldered together what might possibly be the controller for my R2 unit. Cheap and simple, and allows for a few servos and/or signals to be controlled from a PS2 compatible controller.

Since I have an Arduino Uno, I’m also hoping that I can use the receiver part in this, and program the Arduino to actually interpret the buttons pressed, and thus allowing me more control with combining buttons pressed on the PS2 controller!