Travis' Star Wars blog

I’m going to stop lamenting the fact that I haven’t worked on Artoo in a while. You can just assume I haven’t done much if I haven’t posted.

That being said, I just ordered some new parts! It’s the motion control system
It will convert from the Vex Radio controller that I have to drive the motors for the wheels and dome. It also has a music/sound system also controller by the same controller.

http://www.jedicontrol.com/

Should be here in 2-4 months. Luckily, less assembly is required for these parts.

Found a funny video of somebody translating some of Artoo’s lines in Episodes 1 & 2. Some of Artoo’s language is a bit raw, I must warn you…

There has been progress, though you couldn’t really tell if I put pictures up. Right now I am adding layer after layer onto the legs to build them up to the correct thickness and shape. They are starting to look vaguely like R2’s legs.

After months of not having (or taking) the time to work on R2, I finally had some time this past weekend. Next on the list is his legs.

The main structure of his legs is 5 pieces of ~1/4 inch PVC plastic cut into shapes (this is another structure that I bought from a couple of guys who go by the manufacturing name A&A). I prepped, cleaned, and glued the layers together. I spaced out the work, so that I gave each layer some time to dry before gluing the next layer. Each leg took me about a day to do.

One neat feature of the legs is a channel that is included down the middle, so that I can run wires to power and control the motors that will eventually propel R2 away from any children with messy or sticky fingers

I used bricks to provide a bit of weight on each layer to make sure it dried level (and properly glued). The glue is regular PVC cement, like you would use to do plumbing work.

I will let it dry for a couple of days before adding more layers to build it up to the proper thickness and shape.

Believe it or not, I have been working on R2. I have been organizing and cleaning all of the parts associated with the legs. They were CNC machined (I think), so there is manufacturing oil (or something) everywhere. In order for the glue to stick, I needed to get rid of that oil. So I did a little trimming, and cleaned all the parts with Windex (it’s what I had handy).

There’s not much to see with this progress, so I didn’t bother taking pictures. But the legs parts are now clean, so I can start assembly of the legs!