Cut Center Foot Door Openings for Droid #2

Time to get back to work on the aluminum foot shells for droid #2, at least for a little bit. Today, it was cutting the side doors out for the center foot shell.



I traced where the door is supposed to go, and then marked parallel lines about 1/8" inset from the door outline, and used that as the place to cut. This way, the door will have something to rest upon.

Naturally, I used the Dremel with the cutoff wheel attachment.



Getting there.



There really isn't any need to cut the curved corners at the bottom, so I just took a shortcut.



I finished the cuts with a hacksaw blade.



All done, for now at least. I filed and sanded the edges smooth.



I may need to remove a little more material toward the center of the top edge of one side, to allow the ankle bolt to slide in and out of its hole. I'll deal with that if and when the time comes.

Radiothon Benefiting the Homeless and Hungry

For the second time in less than a week, I woke up before 4:30am to have R2 help with a benefit for those in need. Today, it was a Radiothon for local radio station KFI, as they raised funds and collected food for Caterina's Club. Caterina's Club is an organization that provides 300 nutritious meals every night, and helps families in transient living situations establish a more stable residence. The event was held at the White House restaurant, in Anaheim, CA.

This is what 5:30am looks like in Anaheim, CA. Very similar to what 6:00am looked like in Valencia the other day.



R2 and I were joined by Saber Guild members Rob Estrada, Michele Headley, Sal & Liz Perales and Andrew Wood. They brought 500 pounds(!) of pasta and sauce to donate toward the cause.



We were there to help promote the benefit broadcast. Talk show host Bill Handel repeatedly mentioned to the listeners to come on down to donate and meet the characters. I especially appreciated it when he said my R2 was "absolutely perfect" on the air. :)



Many folks (guessing mostly retirees) sat in on the broadcast in a large banquet room.



R2 got some love from Miss California 2012, Leah Cecil.




Newsman Gary Hoffmann had some fun dancing with R2 and the characters.




After the show we took a few pictures with host Bill Handel, and then I had to get my butt in to work.



My next event on the schedule has a start time of 2:00pm. I think I'll sleep until noon that day.

The full photoset is here.

Christmas Event for Homeless Children & The Shelter for Domestic Violence

Today I got up bright and early (4:00am) for a roughly 75-mile drive to Valencia, CA, for Combat Radio's Christmas Event For Homeless Children and The Shelter For Domestic Violence charity event. This was held at the Salt Creek Grill restaurant. Joining me and R2-D2 were Chris Romines and R2-A1, Paul Thompson and R5-D1, and Michael McMaster and WALL•E. Several other Star Wars costumers and other costumers joined in the event as well.



It was a very cold and drizzly day. This is what 6:00am looks like in Valencia, CA.



Besides serving a hearty meal to those in need, dozens of autographed memorabilia were being auctioned to patrons to help raise money for the cause. (The liquor in the background was not up for auction.)



The Marines were also there collecting toys for Toys-4-Tots. I contributed about 30 unopened Star Wars action figures to the collection.



Ethan Dettenmaier from Combat Radio puts this event together each year, and of course Santa is a guest of honor.



While R2 was hanging out in the relative warmth of the restaurant, the other two Star Wars droids were entertaining the line in the cold and wet weather.




At 8:00am they opened the doors, and hundred of kids and their families came in.








It was a good event for a good cause, and it's always good to get together with droid-building buddies.

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.