Status Update

Well DragonCon is over. I only spent a day there, but I did get some R2 building done. I made a major push to get some things complete. Over the weekend I shaved the center ankle mounting block down adn now the center foot is mounted. I finished painting all the feet, ankles, and legs. This includes all the blue parts too. The Radar Eye is also painted blue too. I then moved to the dome where I cut the large hole for the 1 piece Front Logic Port (FLP). I then drilled and counter sunk screws for the FLP, Rear Logic Port, and all Holoprojectors. He is now looking more like a complete R2 droid.

Photos coming soon....

Shoulder Hub Update

As promised here are the pictures. I mounted the hubs using rare earth magnets.





Here is is an update photo on what the feet currently look like.

Weekend Update 2

Finished drilling the shoulder hubs. I JB Welded some rare earth magnets in the holes. They are now ready for mounting. I just need to attach some magnets on the legs. It will be interesting to see how the JB Weld reacts with the magnets. You can acually see the JB Weld interact with the magnetic fields.

I finished the final foot shell, and applied some white primer to the shells. I also cut all the craided hose and tubes. I now need to cut the nuts that will hold the KHFs on the feet.

Weekend Build

Busy build weekend. The first thing I worked on is cutting 1 of the braided hoses and testing out the KHF. It looks like I will need to cut the hose a little longer as the braided hose expanded a little and shortened the length as I put a section of tube in side.

I moved to putting a coat of white primer on the center foot. This is just a base coat for the foot since I plan on using Satin White later, but I already used a gray primer to stop any rust on the foot. The white primer will cover up the gray one better.

I needed to put the mounting screws in the battery boxes so I can start figuring out how to attach the boxes so they don't rattle. I marked the location of the holes and then drilled and tapped them.


Next I drilled and tapped the ankle cylinders so the wedges can attach to the cylinders. I lined up and measured the first cylinder and made a jig to do the other 3. A few adjustments need to be made before the cylinders and attached wedges can be moutned on to the ankles. I expanded a few holes, but the center ankle has one wedge combo that is really going to need some fitting.

I primed and test sprayed a piece of scrap to test the Krylon X-Metal purple as an alternative to the elusive Rustoleum. More to come on that.

The last thing I worked on was mounting the LDP to the frame. I mounted the LDP and marked it's location. I then drilled and counter sunk holes for screws. I now just have to drill and tap holes in the LDP.

Back to the Feet

Not much going on since I have been busy. I did counter sink the holes in the center foot shell and attached some screws to the foot strips. I will do the same for the outer shells tomorrow.

Hoses and Feet

Had to goto a homeowners meeting so I only had enough time to enlarge the hole for the hose fittings. No picture since this was a basic operation.

More Foot Work

Rounding out the weekend, I decided to work on the feet some more. I marked out the holes in the side of the foot shells for the motor mounts. I then cut the holes out using my Dremel. I then mounted the motor mounts and marked and drilled the holes to mount them to the foot shells.


I decided to also take a look at the under the shoulder details. I drilled a small hole to tap a threaded rod into. I will cut a hole in the legs to allow me to use a wing nut to attach the detail to the legs.

Foot Work

I need to cut the holes for the foot motors. I started marking out the hole on the foot shell and took out the handy Dremel. I almost finished the first one before I had to stop for the night.

No pictures yet... I so covered in metal filings, slag, and pieces of cutting disk that i didn't want that all over the camera.

Some Fixing, Finishing, and Some Prepping

I lightly sanded the feet and sprayed another coat of primer on them. This should do them until the white paint... or more primer after I cut the motor holes.

I then fixed the skins in the the area where the Super 77 didn't adhere the skins very well. I mixed up some JB Weld and clamped the skins together.




Next I started preparing the front skins to be bonded together. First I needed the coin slots to be able to attach to the skins. I had already cut the holes, but I needed to coutner sink the screw heads to be flush with the inner skins. I then used some of the JB Weld mixture and welded the screw heads onto the inner skins.




Yes, from the images you can see that the coin slots are backwards. This is to keep the coin slots away from the JB Weld on the screws but still keeping the screws aligned and in position.

The Prime Directive

After another quick cleanup I primed the feet. I made sure that the inside got good coverage, especially on the welds and seams. I will probably lightly sand the outsides tomorrow and give them another light coat on the outside. The CLR really took the rust right off. I just applied teh CLR liberally to the foot shell and let it sit of a minute. I scrubbed the shell with a metal brush and wipe it down with another rag soaked in CLR. I did this about 3 times. After the 3rd time I coated the shells in CLR again and scrubbed them with a 3M scuffing pad and wiped clean with a dry rag. After they were dry I primed the shells.




I still haven't decided how much foot work I am going to do just yet. I know I need to get the front skins done so they are out of the way.

Feet

Wow, something besides skins. Well I pulled out my feet today and noticed a little bit of rust. Yea, I know I should have primed them before, but they were stuck in the back of the storage unit and I couldn't get to them. I rearranged the whole thing this weekend, so I found the feet and decided to prime them. Well I saw the rust, so out came the wire brush, chemical rust remover, and sander. The rust remover took the rust right off. I had to do a couple of passes of the chemical and wire brush, but they are now nice and shiny. The feet are now rust free and will be primed tomorrow.