Started Cutting Side Details for Outer Footshells for Droid #2

Today I worked on cutting out the decorative details that adorn the doors on the aluminum outer footshells for droid #2.

I purchased a small saw attachment for my Dremel, since I long ago returned all the power saws I was borrowing from my friend Kelvin.



I decided to make these pieces from PVC, simply because that's what I used on droid #1, and it was some 1/8" thick material I had handy. I set up a poor-man's fence as a guide for the Dremel saw.



I made the cut for the height of the piece, followed by a diagonal cut with a hacksaw.



I traced where the curve will be on the opposite edge, but I haven't gotten to that yet. I'll use the Dremel drum sander attachment to cut the curve soon.

Cut Template for Side Panel for Outer Foot Shell Doors for Droid #2

In preparation for making the side panels details on the outer foot shell doors of droid #2, I dusted off my old binder of blueprints, and turned to the print for this particular piece.




I then used a ruler and compass to draw out the measurements. I actually drew the mirror image of what's in the prints, for whatever reason.



I used a razor blade and scissors to cut it out as accurately as possible.



I can use this template to cut the same shape from 1/8" flat PVC. I'll need four of these pieces, two for each outer door. Hopefully I'll get them cut soon. I also need to cut the strips at the top of the outer doors, but I purposefully knocked one loose from the A&A foot shell doors, so I don't need a template for that.

(How this blog entry qualifies as "building," I don't know.)

Transplanted Half Moons to Aluminum Foot Shell Doors for Droid #2

Today I worked on moving the resin half moon pieces from the plastic A&A foot shell doors to the aluminum foot shell doors for droid #2.

Each resin half moon piece is held in from the back with three short #4-40 screws.



I removed all the half moon pieces.



While I could have drilled new holes through the aluminum foot shell doors and into the back of the half moon pieces, I decided to use the existing holes. I used the holes in the A&A door as a template for drilling the holes in the aluminum doors, by clamping the plastic A&A door to the aluminum door.



And then I drilled the three holes for an exact match.




Looking good.




I continued with the other three foot shell doors (another outer and two center doors).




And done.



I still need to make the strips that go above the half moons and the side panel details that go on either side of them.

Finished Installing Outer Foot Shell Backing Strips for Droid #2

To spare us all, I've condensed several days of boring building activities into one post here, to summarize the fact that all eight backing strips have been installed on the outer foot shells for droid #2. Read this eight times and you'll get the full experience.

First, on goes the JB Weld with a toothpick.




And then on go the clamps, to keep the strip in place while the JB Weld dries.



The next day, off go the clamps, and the foot strip is bonded, and we're ready for the next one.



So those look good, and it's on to the next task.

Combat Radio Appearance

Today R2, Chris Romines and I were invited by Ethan Dettenmaier to be on his weekly Internet radio show, Combat Radio. Ethan heads up the Combat Radio Christmas charity event that we participated in last month.



Our segment runs from around the 40 minute mark to the 1 hour 38 minute mark. The show can be heard in the player widget below, or a link is here.



R2 hung out outside the green room while Chris checked his e-mail, and Ethan was interviewing other guests.




Around 10:40am we were invited into the studio. We were also joined by actress and voice-over artist Salli Saffioti and her son Max.




We chatted about R2 building, and Star Wars stuff in general, among other things, for about an hour. After the show was over at noon, everyone posed for a group picture.



We had a great time, and appreciate that Ethan invited us to be on the show.

Cut Backing Strips for Aluminum Foot Shells on Droid #2

Dragging my feet on working on the foot shells for droid #2. (There must be a pun in there somewhere.)

The little window strips at the bottom of these aluminum foot shells don't have a backing strip behind them.



So I picked up three pieces of 3'x1/2"x1/16" aluminum bar to solve that problem. I cut eight pieces to size for the two feet.




These should work nicely.




I surprised myself by not being too lazy to JB Weld the first strip in place. I used a toothpick to apply the JB Weld to the foot shell side.



I clamped the first strip in place, and cleaned up any excess JB Weld with a toothpick and a moist paper towel.



At the rate I'm going, this may take a while.