New workshop

I took advatage of the long weekend to upgrade the workshop space in the garage. I built new shelves and added an extra workbench area. Everything was reorganized and a lot of useless junk was thrown out. I can't focus on building or creating when junk is piled all around me. That's been the problem up until now. The last couple of months, the workshop has been in complete chaos. I was out of room and stuff was piling up. That short circuits my creativity and I spent more time digging through piles of junk looking for tools or whatever. It's frustrating and takes the fun out of building.

But now .... this new workshop is excellent. I did a of work on C3PO this weekend and had to redo the base again to add a solid piece of wood beneath the diamond plate. Otherwise he was too tippy and unstable. His pvc frame was modified about a dozen times and glue added to a lot of joints for stability. Decorative wires were permanently added behind the knees and the stomach wires now look excellent. He still needs some work but I'm hoping to finish him up this week.

Temporary building hold

I'm sorry to say that home/garage improvement projects have taken over my life lately. I'm really itching to get back to work on the droids and robots soon.

Yesterday I worked a little on wiring harness's for C3PO by pulling wires out of a bunch of old computer cables that I've been storing for 15 plus years. I've been weeding out junk and reorganizing the garage to make a more effective workshop. I just can't work when parts/tools/junk is piled all around me. Hopefully this long weekend will give me time to tie up all these loose ends and get back to work on R2

Restraining bolt

I finally got around to priming and painting the black area around the restraining bolt I'm installing on C3PO. The play is to hook it to control turning his eyes on and off. Got to use some of the new aluminum primer. Nice trial run of the primer before doing the skins and dome pieces.

The Stand for Bender looks pretty cool. I added a little more color to it today but it still needs a day or so to dry. This weekend some clearcoat or polyurethane will be applied to protect the finish and give it a little shine.

New paint job for Bender Base

In a fit of creative madness, I woke from a nap inspired to redo Benders base. I threw the base together quickly last year and used some gold hammered (very boring looking) paint. Very dull.

Since Bender is a cartoon robot I thought a colorful base was more appropriate. So out came all my leftover paints and I proceeded to make a big mess on the side of our house. It came out ok but I just hope it dries. I laid the paint on pretty thick since some of the acrylics were getting old and thicker.

Bender's door was also adjusted a tad and I spent a few minutes tinkering with C3PO's arm. Just another day in the life of an A.D.D. (Attention deficit disorder) robot builder.

Aluminum Dome

Today was a day to work on R2. Specifically the new Dome I got from Daren. After watching a very informative video he made about deburring the slag from the laser cuts, I was inspired to prep my Dome and remove all the inserts. The video can be found at http://gallery2.astromechbuilder.com/main.php/v/darenmurrer/videos/ I gave up on the idea of household projects and building new shelves. I needed some robot/droid building time.

Trimming the dome pieces is a time consuming process but I found it to be very relaxing and rewarding. I took my time and all the pieces came out great. They were all labeled, deburred and stored in a safe place. The last step will be to lightly sand the edges with 220 grit sandpaper. One challenging task that's still high on the list is to cut the circles for the holo projectors in the inner dome. There's a couple other cuts to the inner dome that also need to be made.

The dome also comes with a plastic inner ring and a metal outer ring that attaches to the lazy susan. ALSO ... Daniel's dome base plate fits beautifully as well as Andy's gear underneath that. This is a great combination. So ... while I wait for the holy grail aluminum frame, I'll get my dome and skins in shape by painting and prepping them all. Also will install a rising periscope working in the Dome. Plenty of projects to go around for the next couple months.

Daren mentioned a good way to treat/polish the aluminum is to use "bom's away" so I ordered a bottle online. Another member I spoke with this weekend mentioned using white Silicone to attach the outer and inner dome pieces. So that's what I'm going to use. Keith and Carolyn have that in their R2.

Doug P. stopped over this weekend and we talked about R2 building. His R2 got a new set of feet recently and this weekend he added a new front foot on his.

I also talked with a couple guys getting ready for Celebration out in California later this month. There's going to be a heck of a party out there and I sure wish we could have made it this year. Maybe next year ...

Still here

I was going to write last weekend several times but kept getting distracted. I got a lot done but not much in the robot/droid building department. Messed up C3PO's base (need to build a new one again) and dismantled C3PO completely. And then there was the tale of the snake in my workshop that refused to leave (so I let him stay). But other than that not too eventful.

This weekend I hope to get some work done on my new Dome. It's the new Daren 300mm dome and it looks sweet. Daren made a video how to deburr the aluminum and I wish I would have seen that before filing my skins. ARRRGGGG. Instead of a file (files are not good) Daren says to scrape the sides with a chisle (gently) and the slag will roll right off. A file gouges and will never be smooth. So now I know. I guess better late than never. Yesterday I found some aluminum primer (self etching primer) at Sherwin Williams. Actually it's for other metals too but aluminum is listed as one it works for.

One other thing on my todo list is to make more shelves in the garage. I'm completely out of room and it's driving me crazy. No room to put things down. Too much junk !!!