R2server

[crazybillybob]

This case is still alive. I was under the weather last weekend and spent the first part of the week out of town for work. Now that the family has left (turkey day's over here!) I hope to get some more work done on R2 this weekend. The Down side is my wife is making me go out into the early bird crap @ the mall before I can start working in the garage!

Good night and good Luck!
CrazyBillybob

[crazybillybob]

I'm back, With the holidays, and work kicking my butt, updates maybe a little slow for a few weeks (but should be better after the first of the year!).

I want to start by saying the old adage of "measure twice cut once" needs adjusted, to read more like this "When measuring twice before cutting once, make sure your looking at the right drawing!". I've got really good plans for R2, too many! When I made the legs I measured the aluminum core 3 or 4 time before I cut it (because I only had one piece and it's hard to come by!) When I cut it was dead on... The problem I was looking at the wrong drawing , so now there 4" short. To add insult to injury There also covered in styrene held down by contact cement. I also have a 3.391" hole to drill 90% of the way through the leg for a detail piece to sit in.

The Answer is I'm going to make a .25" thick aluminum plate to go under the detail. This will let me move the Aluminum core down the 4" it needs. Easy right . . I mean the skins only held on by contact cement, I've heard horror stories about it letting thing peel right off. IT took me an Hour to peel one side off the leg. I separated the ply’s of the plywood in the leg, this stuff is tough! (Elmer’s brand rubber contact cement!) . Here is the leg after I sanded off some of the left over rubber cement.

The black circle is the hole that needs to be cut out.
I've gotta pick up some more Aluminum plate from ASAPSOURCE before I can go much further with the leg refit.

On the Ankle I was able to cut out the 0.08" thick Aluminum sheet to shape. I don't have a vise big enough to put the bends I need in them (the two black lines about 3/4 of the way down on the shape). But we have a good size vise at work, so I'll bend them there one night after work.

I have about 70% of the mold done (sorry no pics, the glue was drying )

It's getting there, the legs/ankles are the big hold up now!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I've started fixing my leg issue. I've got the plate cut and the bolt and wire holes laid on it. Also the recess for the plate was cut into the leg. I've have to cut the recess into the Aluminum extrusion (the tube in the middle of the leg) yet. Then there will be allot of tapping this weekend.

I'm only making up one of the modified legs, I want to make sure it will work before I ruin both the ones I have done.

The glue on the mold has dried. So here's a look at it. Just a few more pieces and it will be ready for glass!

That's it for today. I'll try and get some thing up this weekend as well.

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I got my leg fixed up. I've got to do a little tweaking (grind down screw ends) but other than about 10 mins of clean up it's done.

It doesn't look like much but there is a lot of work in getting every thing aligned and fitting correctly, The leg beam took allot of modification to allow the bolts to sit correctly (there are very few flats to work with on the inside of the beam, it's mostly at higher angles)

I also Fitted the Detail piece into place.

Now to finish the ankle mold and get an ankle on this leg! (I've gotta have one done before I head back home for Christmas. That way I can weld up the slots in the feet to fit the ankle joint correctly.)

More soon!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Just to give you all an Idea of what I'm working in.

This weekend was the warmest for awhile we hit 24 degrees F.

I've been finishing the ankle mold and the reinforcing plates.

Here's the finished mold.

Here's a couple shots of the Reinforcing plates all assembled, but not trimmed up.

Here's a close up of the tip after they were trimmed up.

I also cut out and mounted the ankle "Bracelet" in this shot of the assembled leg.

Now this week I'm planning on laying the glass in the mold to complete the details on this ankle. Assuming I can keep the garage warm enough to lay glass. Over the next few weeks I'll be working on the center foot shell, the outer feet frames, and motor mounts.

Thanks for checking in.
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I sent some drawings off last week to have some prototype circuit boards made, they're due in tomorrow. They are for the two small led arrays on the front of R2's dome. The circuit allows me to program in different patterns (this means words) via the serial port on a pc or let them run randomly (like R2 would in the movies). Another guy (Dave) designed it I'm just seeing how this board place does (as we may order several more of these for the r2 builders group.). Once they get in I'll snap a few pics and post them, it will be a week or three before I get them up and running (other parts still are not here yet), once I do you'll see them (think video here ) This type of flashy stuff is what everyone expects to see here not a bunch of wood and aluminum.

Thanks for sticking around, I promise soon we'll get to the "fun Stuff" the motors and wiring...maybe even the part with a CPU or hard disk! :lol: It's gotta have legs before it can drive around. I've got about 22 weeks (give or take) to MML6 So things are going to start rocking soon (cause I've gotta get practice driving R2 around before MML!)

Billybob

[Malatory]

Nice to see more work getting done .. and can't wait until you get the small video of the LED's working.

Also hopes it warms up so you can do the fiberglass.

[crazybillybob]

Thanks Wingman,

There will be many more update in the next few weeks (though I will be mostly off line the week between Christmas and new years....I'm going to the land of very slow dial up think 28.8 or 33.6 and that's on a good day ). But I'll be off and have access to all the metal working tools that I need to finish the feet and motor mounts oh, and I'll take my Digital cam with me so I'll have pics to share!!!


Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I spent the weekend with my wife's family, a nice family Christmas gathering.

But I did manage to get some work done on R2.

I mounted the 3/8 x 1/2x1 Bronze flanged bushing in the ankle.

The Slot for the Ankle was cut into the foot shell.

We also figured out what Size channel was needed to mount the ankle to the foot. It's going to take a piece of custom bent angle iron (1.25" x 1.5") and a piece of 1.25" flat to make.. So I've got it on order (father in-law is going to pick it up at a local supplier he works with), that way next week I can cut it and weld it into the foot.

Also on Friday I received the PCB prototypes that I sent out.

Front

Back

The rest of the parts for the display should be here soon.

[crazybillybob]

Good Morning R2 fans,
It took me 3 weeks of work to design and build the last Leg. The second leg I got all the parts cut out in a few hours after work last night! I've gotten an offer to weld all the Aluminum parts together on this one, but I have to have it packed and ready to ship by Thursday morning before I leave for work. Having welded will save me more time as 70% of the time spent on the last one was lining up all the boltholes. It's not as easy as I thought it would because the extruded Aluminum tube isn't perfectly flat, it's really close but not as flat as the machined plate that it has to match up too, so it throws things out of line a little bit. My other hope is that I can also get the ankle for the center leg laid out and cut so It can be welded at the same time, that may not get done!!! But I'm going to try!

Here's the pic of the second outer leg pieces (I'll save you all the bandwidth and just post one pic of the group of parts)

Crazybillybob