Finally started with the legs...

Here is one of the first tests of R2D2:s wooden legs. We have just put them into a pile, for later glueing together. We just wanted to get started and see how this will fit together with the frame and also see how much 3D printing we are going to have to do just to get all the nice looking details and greebles!

So far, we seem to have the basic parts for constructing the legs! They too, lack a lot of love and work that goes into this process. Just nice to see how they will come together. The ankle is basically made of resin, then we have some birch wood and plywood. We use PLA for 3D printing and mix and match materials together. It is the look we are after, and in the end, it will be very hard to tell what is made of what kind of material...

Also, we just cant afford getting it all in metal and even if we did I am not so sure we would go for the all-metal look!

Video of first testfitting...

This is the first testfitting, with aluminium dome, skin and some greebles. Nothing is really attached yet, we just wanted to get a good feel of the finished look. There is a lot of work to be done on each part!

Aluminium skin and adding greebles...

So we did the same basic work on our aluminium skin, just washed it with a sponge, scotch brite and made sure it didn't have that oily coat on the aluminium since we are going to paint it later. Here we testfit the whole thing together!

Basic test, seems like the Lazy Susan can be adjusted and just leave a 1-2 mm gap between the skin and the dome. We tried to see how greebles will fit behind the skin and later we will start cutting into the skin. But this is good for now!

Testfitting lights inside dome...

This is the Teeces light system that really have a wonderful look to them, as they are perfected by Astromech club members. Since we just want to testfit inside the dome, we used tape for the fitting, since there is a lot more work to do on the dome before any electronics are to be put inside!

It really just ended up looking really great!

In just two weeks time there is a Maker Faire, here in Luleå and we are going to showcase R2D2 there. Since we have no other moving parts yet, the lights gives it a more lively feel! We like to support our local Makerspace community even though we don't have any other R2 builders here locally. It might inspire others to start their own build!

Resume Build!

Who would have known it would take almost six months to be up and running again? Selling the apartment, selling a summerhouse, buying another house, empty all spaces, vacate the apartment and finally moving and settle into our new home!

Last week we finally threw out the Christmas tree and thus got the corner of our living room back. Suddenly, building R2D2 was resumed! We started by bringing up the wooden frame and this time putting in our first screws. We just testfitted it before! Also here with the Lazy Susan (which will give the aluminium dome its spinning action)!

We unpacked the 300 mm (Derren Muller) Aluminium dome and this time we went over it with scotch brite and polished it inside and out! Got a really nice shine to it without making it too shiny. If we want to we can bring it up to high-glossy-shine, but we will see what kind of look we feel comforable with later on.

Testing them together for the first time, we got ourselves a really nice looking garbage-can here!

We also found our old boxes with greebles and various electronics parts!

It feels good to get our R2D2 build up and running again!