Frame!

One of the basic structures that has to be built for our little droid is the frame for the body. It's the part underneath the dome with all the little doors.  Fortunately, a fellow named Senna has already engineered a nice little frame.  The challenge? The PDF appears to be a scan of the plans.  No vectors. Likewise, an updated set of PDF files had all kinds of dimensions...including vectors, but many of the vectors were open and would not work to create pocket cuts...they are also scaled wrong.  So, the only option other than waiting to see if any of the droid builders would offer their own cnc plans....was to re-vector the original plans.  I spent some time yesterday and then last night completing those.

This morning...I cut out the 20+ parts.  Some were 3/4" and others 1/2". There is one 1/4" piece as well.

In less than 20 minutes, all the pieces were cut out, and ready to assemble:

His little body is ready for some skin!  For now, I need to complete some other work, so R2 will continue tomorrow.  Consider this: In just a few days I've almost completed his legs and now have the frame for his body.  Considering I only work a bit each day on this, it's pretty fast progress!

Weekend Progress

I did get some work completed on the little droid this weekend.  I carved up some parts, and even did a little priming and painting. The legs are getting close to complete.  It's still amazing to me that with a decent 3D model, you can break it into smaller parts, and quickly make it real. 

I decided that it would be worth it to join the R2 Builder's Club, and have submitted an application to the Midwest Robots group on Yahoo Groups (also on facebook) as well.

It's clear that almost everything other than the dome is easily created on a cnc machine.  The dome could be done, but would require much more effort.  If I had a big old indexer/lathe like Dan, I could whip one of those out too....He can handle 18" in diameter easily.  In fact, he could probably carve the whole center body that way...and the legs seperately.  Maybe I better hurry up and turn that extra spindle I have into an indexer.

Testing in Foam

One of the great things about foam (pink or blue) from the local big box store is that it's inexpensive.  It's a great way to test cuts and ensure you have everything right before you commit to more expensive materials.  In this case, I'm working on the center portion of r2's legs.  Its a slightly larger piece, and I wanted to make sure I had it right before I went on to HDU.  I carved it in some pink foam in about 20 minutes....and now I'm carving 2 of them in HDU now that I know everything is looking good.  The legs are coming right along....

Next up: It's time to start thinking about the "ankle" and the "feet".  There are also some shapes that many call "battery boxes" on the bottom....I'll be working out how to do those as well.  In just a couple days, by spending a small amount of my time (the machine spends the most time working on this)...I've almost completed the legs.  It's truly amazing how much you can accomplish if you dedicate a few minutes every day.

You Aren't Actually Building A Droid? R2.

So the foam "test" for the circular piece in the middle of the leg worked ok...I duplicated it in HDU foam and then set up a file to do some little "detail pieces" that attach to the shoulder area.  I set them up in the carving program:

The circular pieces are just a straight carve. The longer pieces have been split in two and are being carved then reassembled front and back when it's done.  The carving was done in HDU with a 1/8" ball nose bit:

They were assembled with some glue, and then sanded, primed and painted with an aluminum paint. Here they are test fitted into the legs.

It's not huge progress, but part of my "get a little done each day" plan.  I'm having fun! Tomorrow I'll begin the middle portion of the leg...rocket thrusters that we finally saw in action in the newer films.

I Don't Seem To Remember Ever Owning A Droid

One of the truly fun things about doing the variety of work that I'm now doing is that I can have many projects working simultaneously.  I may be working on several different projects all at once.  What I try to do, is make at least one of those projects a challenge to myself..something that will push what I've learned so far, and help me learn new things.  It may be a sample for my business, a gift I intend for someone...or just something I think is too cool not to attempt.

I've had this one in the back of my mind since I first started working with cnc machines.  It turns out there are many many people who have built them in various ways.  Some with plastic, some with aluminum...some with paper mache.  There are plans all over the internet, but many find that the challenge is large if you want it to look decent.

So, this is now one of my side projects. I'll work on it a little bit each day between the jobs I need to finish and begin this year.  It's a project that will force me to think about how to carve and/or create many many pieces.

I began with some work completed by Wes Thierry over at http://westhierry.net/wordpress/ . 
I'm also using a reference model found on Google's 3d warehouse.  In some cases, I'll seperate pieces from that accurate 3D model, and then export them as individual 3D models.  I can import pieces into  my carving program and carve each piece.  In some cases, it'll be far more easy to treat them not as 3D models to carve, but to use the piece as a guide as I build my own files.  The joy of pink foam is that I can make a prototype and discover whether it's working or not before I commit to some other material like PVC or HDU.

I know it's going to be a challenge, but I think it will be fun. I'm excited to get started and I hope you R2.