Kitty Litter PSI lenses and Dome moutning plates

I finished one PSI and started work on the other one. I used the large 40 pound litter containers for material. They make great PSI lenses.

The starting container


The rear plate being fitted. The holes are drilled in the dome and the plastic is clamped in place. 1 hole is drilled through the plastic and then a screw is inserted through the dome and the plastic. A T-nut is screwed to hold the plastic in place. The clamps are moved to a new location and a heat gun heats the plastic while slowly screwing the clamps down. Once the plastic is mostly in place, I used crushed ice in a baggie to cool and the plastic to form. Repeat the drilling process until the whole plate is in place.


The completed product (front). The holoprojector still needs to be cut out.

Back side of the front plate. The PSI LED holder will be changed out and the cone will have a new holder mounted soon.

PSI setup

I have been toying with some materials to use for my PSI lenses. The main concern has been that they need to hold up against poking fingers. The next thing is the space needed to diffuse the hotspots, and since I am using a multicolored LED to create any color I want it also needs to help mix the colors. After many trials and errors I think I may have found a cheap solution.

If you have or know someone who has cats, the litter can come in huge white plastic buckets. These buckets need to be able to hold 20lb-40lb, so the plastic is nice and string. I cut one of the buckets up and did a few tests and they work great with one layer of material and even better with 2 sandwiched together. The setup consists of 1 or 2 layers of litter bin material and a LED source. The barrel to contain the light source is the smaller cup of a bar tenders jigger with the bottom cut out of it. Since the jigger is metal, it reflects the light just fine.

Even More Update Pics

Been busy around here. First there was DragonCon then we had to get ready to leave for Hawaii. A week in Hawaii... so there has not been much time to work on R2.

Here are some update pictures of what he looks like now.

More Updated pictures

He is missing his bottom ring and\or skirt because I am still working on the rear door and the rear Power Coupler mounting.

Front ViewSide View
3/4 View
Shoulder

DragonCon

Even Cookie Monster showed up, though we didn't get a great picture of him

Update Pics

Just a couple update pictures:

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....