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.

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 !!!

C3PO Refurb

The next project is to make a few changes to C3PO. First of all his mannequin needs modifying so his right arm is outstretched to look like he's hailing someone. Currently his arms hang to his sides. That pose is just barely adequate.

Also the restraining bolt I got from Daniel (droidstuff.com) will be installed. The restraining bolt is magnetic and will be controlling a switch to turn his eyes off and on. There's a very powerful magnetic on the restraining bolt.

And finally I'm construct a better method to hang the wires from his belly/waist. It's pretty hokey how I have the wires snaked in there now and they're constantly falling into the pelvis area. One day I had my arm in C3PO's pelvis trying to fish out some of the wires that fell when my son walked in. He looked at me slowly shaking his head. "Dad if you only knew how weird that looks".

So now C3PO is out in the workshop area being fixed up. He's going to the science center with Bender in June so he needs to look good

New Shoes

I finally got C3PO a new pair of shoes. They're TK409's old gold vacuum metallized shoes from his C3PO costume. My C3PO was all vacuum metallized except for the feet which look very strange. Now he finally looks complete.

Also lined the B9 transport crates with foam.

Jawa needs a facelift

I'm still in home improvement projects mode so not as much robot building going on.

Last couple of days I was giving some attention to the Jawa. His hood needed work to keep it in the correct shape to semi hide his head. I also worked on the face and eyes. Jawas don't have pupils and the eyeballs I used before had pupils. Today his torso will be rounded out some and the lower hips will get some work. He needs to look good when he meets the R2's at the picnic next week.

I heard C3PO shipped out Friday late afternoon (Thank-you Helen at MC). He should be home in several days and I'm anxious to see how well the plating came out. This gives me one or two days to get him ready for the picnic/meet with the R2 club next Saturday.

I also worked on the resin wheels I made for my B9. If I can get these resin wheels working then I'll sell the aluminum set to finance more robot madness. Speaking of which .. I got a cool remote controlled miniature Dalek last week and recently joined the Dalek builders club. That would be a fairly easy project I imagine. But not until I finish these other projects.

Chatter on the B9 forum about blinking LED's prompted me to find and order some white and red blinking LED's. I'll use them to build a new brain and set of finger lights. Too many wires in the brain now. Which reminds me ... yesterday I painted (hammered silver) a set of the new Scott S. motorized ears which will go into my new radar / brains. I also need to paint this cool radar unit. The mechanisms are ready for bubble up/down and radar left/right motions. I'll try to incorporate the vex system to do all that.

SMASH !!!!

Imagine my surprise when I got home from work today and found the head of my B9 hanging by a wire against the torso. Somehow it was bumped off the torso. Fortunately it had the "stunt bubble" on it because it was in the garage (just in case). I've been planning on redoing the electronics in that part of the B9 completely anyway so I can deal with fixing it.

Nothing terribly broken but I'm glad he wasn't wearing his formal bubble. So I decided to bring B9#1 back in the house and bring B9#2 out to the garage. I'm thinking about using all the premium pieces from B9#2 for my primary B9 so I have a heavy duty B9 ready for the sci-fi robot convention. The steel treadsection and fiberglass legs and knees are very strong and won't get accidentally damaged in transport or at the convention. It probably wouldn't take too much effort either.

C3PO plating has gone slightly stale. The plating company is having troubles with his torso and I'm guessing they wish they never took the job. I was expecting him to be shipped over 2 weeks ago but as of yet, I'm not sure when that will happen. With the R2 club picnic looming in a few weeks I was hoping to bring a shiny protocol droid to the picnic along with the Jawa. It's going to be cutting it close.

I've been redoing the jawa and giving him a complete face lift and head redo. New eyes and resoldering all the electrical connections with a fuse and quick disconnect for the head. Also I ran some heavy duty wire along the hood to keep his face shrounded in shadows better.

Summer break

Now that C3PO is in Massachuttes getting plated, I won't be posting much because I'm taking a break from robot building. Instead I'll be doing a million overdue home improvement projects, art projects and R & R at the beach.

That's a wrap !

Sent C3PO out in a box last night to get vm plated. Sure hope he doesn't get lost in the mail.

I decided to not have one leg silver. He will be all gold.

Last minute prep before shipping C3PO out

Several hours of cleaning and last minute wet sanding of scratches wore me out. I washed all the pieces and epoxied the ears and eyes in the head. Also put a fresh coat of primer on the head.

I also glued the pistons in the outer position as suggested by Chris. By the time I got all this done, I decided to wait an extra day before boxing him up.

In other robot news ... looks like there's going to be a robot convention at a super location in Florida after all. Keep the end of January 2007 free. Details when I return from vacation.

Send feedback • Edit... •

C3PO Neck pistons and work boots to slippers

It looks like the final stages are complete and he's ready to ship off for plating. I mounted the brass neck bolts (er whatever they're called) using some epoxy and plastic putty. After drilling the holes in the torso a coat of epoxy was applied to the inside of the torso and on the outside to keep them in tight. Then for extra measure, some plastic putty was applied over the epoxy (after it dried) on the inside of the torso. They lined up not quite perfect but it's not too bad.

The resin shoes I made included an extra 1" on the bottom of the soles making C3PO look like he had on clodhopper work boots. To cut the extra 1" of the soles off (in resin) has been on my mind the last couple of days. Today I decided to use my chop saw to cut the soles off. The laser guide really paid for itself and the job although a bit intimidating, shaved the bottom of the shoes off pretty clean. I had to make a pass on both sides of the shoes and it's important to have the 2 cuts line up. Now the shoes look correct ... almost like gold slippers.

I also experimented a lot with posing his arms. It's much harder than it seems to get a natural pose that will be secure. Plus another important fact to consider is it's easy to scratch the arms inside the shoulder bells if you're not careful. I scratched mine quite a bit. It's good to experiment now before the finish is on. The dilemma was how should I pose the arms. I was going to get him to wave one hand but that pose would get old after awhile. If I wanted to rig sound into him and have him converse with people then the hand in the air wouldn't look right after one minute. And I won't automate that with servos for quite some time. So the arms will probably just hang naturally at his side for the time being.

C3PO Stomach problems

As much time as I spent on the stomach section, I decided to abandon my idea of using the rubber runner and reverted to using the fiberglass piece that came with the pelvis. There just wasn't enough room to fit everything correctly without bunching up and too tight a fit.

The fiberglass piece now fits well after readjusting the internal skeleton.

I originally thought that the pelvis piece of the TK409 kit was wearable. Now I notice that it's listed as display only. If I had known that then I wouldn't have cut the fiberglass stomach section off of it. My wife put it on after I cut the stomach off and told me that there is no way a guy could fit into the pelvis. She's pretty small and it was a tight fit. They now offer a rubber pants piece that's used in the pelvis area when wearing this as a costume. But I can't justify spending another $300.00 more at this stage unless I want to start sleeping in the garage on a permanent basis.

Today I'm experimenting with posing the arms using different techniques. Positioning the shoulder bells correctly has been a goal before coming up with a way to mount them. It's good I'm doing it now because I notice the arms are getting some small scratches that I need to take care of. Better now than after I get him plated.

Looking at all the reference photos that Chris posted on the C3PO builders forum has been a tremendous help. Thanks Chris !

Today I keep wondering if I should give him a quick coat of gold paint. I have the paint .... and I don't think it matters when sending him off for plating. Hmmmmmmm

Foam B9 knees and working on C3PO's Abs

NOTE: The carpet runner over the fiberglass stomach DOES NOT WORK - a few days later I abandoned the idea after realizing the clearances were too tight to fit it.

I purchased a 4' piece of carpet runner at Home Depot today and wrapped 12" (h) of it around the stomach structure that was built this weekend. While at Home Depot, I noticed that there's a new type of hammered paint that's made for plastic. I love hammered paint - gives a real nice texture.

As soon as I attached the carpet runner to the structure, I sprayed a coat of hammered paint and it looks nice. The stomach rubber will extend about 3-4 inches on top and on the bottom of the fiberglass inner piece. Using just the fiberglass piece that came with the torso doesn't have enough flexibility and length. Next step is to mount the wires directly to this piece. I'm hoping that this will form fit nicely to the upper torso and the pelvis area.

So I had a few more spare minutes and decided to take the plunge and experiment with this new product from smooth-on called foam-it. It's a casting resin that makes a pretty hard foam piece. The foam liquid expands 2.5 times it's original density. I guessed that I would have more than enough foam (3 lbs) to make one B9 knee but ran a little short. That means I'll have just 1/2 knee after demolding. Enough to tell how this will work out and determine feasability of a hard foam knee for a B9 robot.

Also spent some time giving C3PO a shoeshine with lots of sandpaper !

Internal Skeleton

Today's goal is to put together some sort of internal skeleton to make the pieces fit together as opposed to the pvc skeleton which just supports the suit. I epoxied several bolts into the stomach piece which will attach to the skeleton. This skeleton will be removeable in the event that this reverts to being a costume.

Yesterday, the leg bolts were installed using several pieces of scrap sintra which were bent to conform to the angle needed. Construction adhesive was gobbed on the sintra and onto the leg bolts. The advantage of the construction adhesive is it fills in gaps with it's bulk and it's pretty strong.

Today the construction adhesive was dry so I mixed up a batch of epoxy and gobbed it all around the sintra and the inside of the leg bolt. This will strengthen the entire assembly and reinforce the sintra. Especially if the heat from the vm process softens the sintra. The epoxy will not only strengthen but will hold the correct shape and prevent warping.

The feet have been a major work in process but they will be nice when I'm done with them. Very heavy duty and good statue base. I ordered another set of vacuform feet for when he's used as a costume.

The final task on my list today is to attach the shoulder bells and circle gaskets by drilling holes in the suit and pieces. They will probably be attached in a very simple but effective manner .... using locking twist ties.

Almost ready for plating

I took this picture as well as a few others to send out for a quote to get C3PO vacuum metallized. That will give him a shiny gold finish like in the movies. I'm talking to a couple of companies right now but still haven't firmed anything up yet. One of the guys in the C3PO builders club is trying out a company in California.

C3PO's gonna look very cool when finished.

Kids don't try this at home

Just a note to say that the resin into the vacuform shoes didn't work out like I planned. Demolding didn't go well and one of the shoes vacuform skins completely disintegrated. Maybe I'll have to build a vacuform machine to replace it.

The resin shoes are OK but will need a lot of work as the air bubbles were pretty frequent and a few of the lines/seams of the shoes are going to have to be built up.

Oh well, you can't win them all.

Making statue feet

Since I won't fit into the C3PO costume, it probably will be utilized as a statue more than anything else. That's why I decided to make resin feet out of the vacuformed set I have. Another builder I know had a dream one night about making resin feet with a pvc hole toward the ankles so you can mount the feet on the pvc skeleton. I thought it was a good idea and decided to give it a try.

It's been awhile since I last poured resin but the frantic mess that resulted in my first experience has been an experience that I won't forget for a long time. That's why I had my wife present when I got ready to start pouring in case I needed help with anything. Because resin hardens quickly and when problems arise, you don't have time to react.

The feet were hot glued into a plastic container to contain any leaks. And it's a good thing I put it into a leak proof container because once the resin started flowing I realized that the glue from the glue gun was no match and it disintegrated quickly and the resin oozed out. But my vigilence for Murphy showing up paid off. I had a package of clay around just in case there were resin leaks. The clay paid off and worked well in containing the oozing resin. Still a lot of resin leaked out so I needed to quickly add more to the bucket to make sure the feet had enough.

I made a little extra just in case and once I was satisfied the feet would be fine, I poured the extra into the plastic vacuformed glue gun package that I had on the workbence. In Essence, I made a resin gun with the extra. I'll hang some stuff from it and make it look like something from outer space.

One problem I now have is how do I get this resin off my hands. I forgot to put the rubber gloves on and this stuff just doesn't want to come off my hands even after trying soap, water, goop cleaner and turpentine. I guess it could have been worse.

Robot paws

While at the auto parts store with my older son today, I noticed that they carry robot fingers. What a coincidence as I've been looking for some. In the past I've used heavy gauage wire but these new fingers looked so much lighter and easier to pose.

I was lucky to purchase their last 2 sets of KwikTwist Giant wire/Foam twist ties. After working awhile with my son on his truck, I returned home and finished a C3PO hand using a glove and the Tk409 hand parts as well as a small piece of foam for the palm. The preliminary test looks pretty good. I'll dye the gloves charcoal grey (with my all purpose aerosol dye) and then position the foam a little better than this initial test. Adding a piece of pvc pipe at the end gives you something to mount them to in the forearm.

Trimming the waistline

If there's one thing that makes me nervous it's cutting critical parts. Maybe that's why I kept putting off cutting the stomach from the waist section. Especially since I planned on using my lethal but practical rotozip. The rotozip can quickly make a mess of things if you're not careful. I know this from experience. Fortunately I was able to make the cut without any undo excitement. The lines weren't very straight so a few minutes with some sandpaper smoothed things all out.

I completely dismantled C3PO down to the legs. I fixed a minor problem area on my arms that I didn't notice yesterday and nobody should suspect a thing :) It looks like the construction adhesive was a winner and worked well.

After sanding and smoothing the edges of the belly area, I used some dark charcoal color dye on the fiberglass. The dye works well on the fiberglass and is much better than paint in my opinion. No runs.

The knee gap I mentioned earlier was also worked on today. I used some black material in the gap with some foam inside to give it form. Then on the outside I ran some wires. Looks great.

The knee decoration with bolt that was created yesterday got installed and it worked like a charm. The project is really rolling now. Another issue that has been on my mind is how to support the statue internally so it's solid and not just hanging on a pvc frame. Especially getting the stomach, chest and pelvis to be solid. Today I came up with a solution for that which will entail making an internal wooden skeleton for that section that rests and is screwed into the bottom of the pelvis (between the legs). The skeleton will also contact the outsides of the belly region with an internal attachment screw on each side. The legs and arms will be firmly attached with the bungees system.

The C3PO todo list is getting short.

Third time is a charm

The bolts epoxied into the knee decoration just weren't holding. The liquid nails didn't hold and the bolt pulled out easily. Even after putting an additional layer of plastic epoxy.

The second attempt I removed the bolts and I drilled out the hole the bolt sits in to be a little deeper. This time I tried a strong 2 part epoxy. Same problem.

The third attempt I dug out the hole even more and then sanded and roughed up the head of the bolt (it was painted and smooth). Then I mixed a larger batch of epoxy to make sure it was the correct proportions. On top of the epoxy I dropped a small washer and now it's sold as a rock. I also brought it in the house the third time because the Florida humidity was very high today as a tropical wave is coming in from the Caribbean.

C3PO's arms were taken off today and all the additional decorative pieces were added. I wasn't sure what adhesive to use so I thought I'd try construction adhesive. I love that stuff. Works great everytime and it's pretty thick so it forms over contures nicely. Before I started glueing, I had several pictures I printed out to make sure everything was correct. Sure enough I had one of the arms turned around. The arms are now complete. Also the nipples got a shot of primer (Gee, that sounds pretty strange).

Making a C3PO Nipple

Yes, that's right. Ole C3PO has a nipple ... actually there's 4 of them. They're just a couple of raised places on the chest area. I had some extra plastic epoxy so I used that to form the blobs.

The other project was to countersink a couple of bolts into the outside knee decorative piece (not sure the exact terminology here). After countersinking a hole, I filled it with liquid nails {IT DIDN'T WORK) and glued in the bolts. The next day I laid a layer of plastic resin over that with a small washer to strengthen it. This will be one of two bolts to hold each knee together and will have a bungee cord around the inside before the bolt and washer tighten down the other end.

I had a panic attack tonight looking for the outer set of pistons for the arms. I almost gave up and then spied them in an unlikely place. After putting these on, I'll fix the others to display correctly. It was pointed out to me that I had the pistons on backwards ! How embarassing : )

There's a few decorative arm pieces that need to be epoxied to the arms tomorrow. The long decorative ones sure are angled funny and probably won't glue flush to the arms. That could be a problem. But a problem for tomorrow.