Droid Engineering Talk at the Orange Library with Mike

Today Mike Senna and I brought our droids out for the Orange Public Library's Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math series of talks. Mike brought WALL•E and I brought R2.



It was reasonably well-attended, even my parents showed up, which is a rarity for my events.



I started the talk with the R2 side of things, explaining tools and materials that are typically used in building a droid, and going on to electronics and portions of the build itself.




Once I was done, I turned the presentation over to Mike, where he explained how he went about the 100% scratch-build of WALL•E. Mike even took apart WALL•E down to the skeletal infrastructure.





The 90 minute presentation went well, and it seemed to be very well received. Thanks to Ryan at the library for inviting us out!

Finished Filling in Foot Shell Slots for Droid #2

Tonight I wrapped up filling in the slots on the right foot shell with JB Weld on droid #2.

By now this should look pretty familiar. I applied a bunch of JB Weld to the slots with a toothpick.



And then I scraped up the excess with a razor blade.



I will do a some additional scraping of the dried JB Weld on all the edges, and then look the foot shells over for anything else that needs fixing before I prepare to paint them.

Finished Applying JB Weld on Left Foot Shell and 80% Done on Right Foot Shell on Droid #2

After taking a day off so I could do battle with a toilet (which is currently at a standoff), I returned to work on the aluminum foot shells on droid #2.

The left foot shell just has one edge of slots remaining to be filled.



On goes the JB Weld. I assure you I am not recycling pictures from the last few days.



Repeat for the right foot shell, which has two sides remaining (well, one after tonight). Clean up the excess JB Weld with a razor blade, and let it dry overnight.



One more edge to go.

JB Weld Work Continues on Foot Shells for Droid #2

Time to get back to work on the foot shells for droid #2. And that means going around the edges where the slots need to be filled with JB Weld.

For the right foot shell, I filled in the thin slots on the opposite side of last night's work.




Once again, I used a razor blade to clean up the excess JB Weld.



On the left foot shell, I worked on one of the two remaining sides. Happily, the two remaining sides are the short ones.



One more edge to do for the left foot shell, two more for the right.

More JB Weld for Foot Shells on Droid #2

Tonight I continued work on filling in the thin slots on the foot shells for droid #2.

First, I used a razor blade to scale away a little bit of dried JB Weld from last night's work.




Next, I continued work on the left foot shell, filling in the thin slots on the opposite side.



Again, I used the razor blade to clear off the excess JB Weld.



While I'm waiting for that to dry, I figured I might was well get started on the right foot shell. The slots get a cleaning with acetone.



And I repeated the process that I did last night.




Two more sides to do for the left foot shell, and three more for the right.

Started Filling Slots in Left Foot Shell for Droid #2

Back to working on the aluminum foot shells for droid #2, for the first time in a long time.

These foot shells have very thin slots where the metal bends at a sharp angle, and these need to be filled in prior to painting. I've decided to use JB Weld for this job. Before applying JB Weld though, I cleaned the slots up with acetone.



Nice and shiny.



I used a toothpick to apply the JB Weld to these slots.



Then, I used a razor blade to clean up most of the excess JB Weld.



I repeated these steps for the slots at the top of the same side of the foot shell.




I'll let this dry overnight, and it may require some light sanding. I may also need to make a second pass if I notice any gaps, or once it's primed.

I still need to do the bottom slots on the other three sides. I'll probably only be able to do one side per day, so as to prevent gravity from causing the JB Weld to drip.

Pearson's Birthday Party

My friend Peter, who I've known since college and then worked with for many years, and his wife Effie, who owned the Droidmobile before I bought it from them, were celebrating their son Pearson's sixth birthday Star Wars-style. Many months ago they asked if I could bring R2, and I was more than happy to do so. They also invited Rob, Michelle and Andrew from the Saber Guild out, and they made a nice charitable donation in return for the Saber Guild's appearance.



Effie put together 40 Jedi outfits, and made lightsabers out of pool noodles. Nothing like seeing a bunch of kids whaling on each other non-stop for 45 minutes.



Master Argus lead the kids through the basic Jedi lightsaber moves.



Not long thereafter, Sith Assassin Darth Draven showed up to challenge Master Argus to a battle.



Master Argus won that round, but the challenge wasn't over yet, as Darth Vader appeared.



Eventually, with help from the kids in the form of a Force-push, Vader was defeated. Afterward, the kids got to line up for pictures with the characters.



And of course they got to have a picture with R2 as well.



Pearson blew out the candles on a successful night. Fun stuff.



Five events in four days. I think R2 and I can use a little break right about now.

Comikaze 2013 - Day 2

Today was Day 2 of the Comikaze convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center.



My droid and I were joined by Todd Gottfried, Chris Romines, Gene Arena, William & Nikki Miyamoto, and their droids. Michael McMaster and Mike Senna each brought their WALL•E robots too.

Everything we left in the booth last night was still there this morning. They do staff the exhibit hall with 24 hour security, but there is always that concern.



Thankfully, our Exhibitor badges allow us to avoid joining the thousands of people waiting to get in.



At 9:00am they threw open the gates, and the non-stop visits began!









Meanwhile, the main stage behind us was busy throughout the day with various personalities.

Alyssa Milano.



Stan Lee, who is very funny and quick on his feet, both literally and figuratively. Not bad for someone going on 91 years old!



The voice cast of the Powerpuff Girls. They were very funny.



Much further down the hall, Michael McMaster's WALL•E paid Louis Anderson a visit.



Mike Senna was getting his head examined by Mark Chu Lin.



After a very fun but tiring day, 8:00pm finally arrived and it was time to wrap up with a partial group picture.



Why is my droid on a cart and the others are still ready to go? Well, Comikaze goes for one more day tomorrow, but my droid already has a prior commitment, so he'll be elsewhere closer to home. It was another fun day, and I'm sure our next convention will be here before we know it.