Flashback Friday: 5-23-2010, Day 40 of building R2-TD

R2 and I are heading to Lincoln NE today for a fund raising event. Also, I have a cousin graduating today in Lincoln so my whole family will be around today. None of them have seen R2 in person yet and I wanted to make the best impression I could. That meant lots of little detail work even if its just temporary. One of the things that bothered me about my last event was all the "holes". I got what parts in and covered the rest up with spare pieces of styrene. Its not perfect but looks better than a gaping hole for the photos today. Dawn and I also worked on getting my front vents built from the A&A kit. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but the end result did not fit into my vent surrounds. I'll have to do some fine sanding but for now, just taped the vents in without the surrounds. I also got my short shaft struts painted and in place. It took a second try to paint as the weather was windy and I got in a hurry. You think I would of learned my leason after my dome painting troubles. LOL! 

I also did some temp work on the dome. I got the Front Logic and Rear logic displays in. For now I just taped the LEDs in so I wouldnt have a hole. I got my duel LED blinkers installed. For now I velcro'd a 9 volt battery inside the dome to run them. For a Flasher housing, I used a toilet paper roll and just taped it all into place. Its not pretty but has worked really well. We'll see how it holds up after todays events. I hope to have some of these temp things out by next weeks SAC event.

Heres some photos of how things turned out.

Flashback Friday: 3-5-2010, Day 34 of building R2-TD

With the warmer weather continuing today, I took full advantage of it and painted the last coat on the dome. Than I took the pie panels and glued them on after everything was dry. Also, I got a primer coat on my legs. 

Flashback Friday: 3-2,4-2010, Day 32 and 33 of building R2-TD

Well, this weekend will be the third time I've attempted to paint R2's dome. After the last attempt, we had crackling again in the paint. This time, I've sanded way down to the primer of the previous owners and will add my own primer on top of it. Some spots are all the way down to the original dome. I still have a little more sanding to do but heres my progress so far. 



R2 took a big step today. 1 Motor holder complete. I started the night widening the hole for the motors. Than Moose showed me how everything went together. We did a test run to make sure the motor worked. Things are looking good. We will finish up the motors next time than start wiring. 







No pictures but Motor holder number 2 is assembled. Now I begin work on getting the third leg finished. Hopefully the next photo you see of R2 will be one of him standing on his own with wheels and casters! 

Also, I hope to be able to get the dome all painted with the warmer, above freezing weather here. I'm also going to start painting the legs if everything goes right. More to come later!


Chance of rain this weekend and with the sun out and the temps finally above freezing, I thought I had better get moving. I had a chance to paint a little today so I did! I'm letting the paint cure over night and still have a coat or two left but things are finally starting to come into place for the dome.

Flashback Friday: 2-27-10, Day 31 of building R2-TD

Now I've used many glues before but today I used something and was absolutely amazed. I went to work on R2's dome today. I slipped on a patch of ice and the dome slipped out of my hand. When it was all said and done, there were 5 cracks. Brad had some tech bond handy so I thought I give it a shot. Worked like a charm. With the accelerator it made a perfect "weld" in seconds. With a little sanding and a coat of paint, you can't even tell anything was wrong. Check it out. 




Anyways, I went to work on R2's dome today with Brad. I sanded everything smooth from the mishap last week with the crackling and than we were ready to begin. We put several layers of primer on to make sure no 'foreign' substance was reacting to the paint. Things looked good so we moved to the white. After 3 light coats things were looking good. The forth, something happened and the paint began to crackle again. Not near as bad as last week but still a little there. We stopped for the night and made sure we had the dome in a warm place and will take another shot at it Sunday. 

Flashback Friday: 2-22-2010, Day 30 of building R2-TD

R2 got lots of love this weekend. Saturday, the gang got together at Mooses and worked on our parts. I started to assemble my motor holders only to find out the hole is cut too small. I have to now file it out to make it fit. It's going to take forever!! 




Than Sunday, Brad heated up his garage so we could all paint. I finished off my pie pieces and started on the dome. Something weird happened and my dome paint crackled on me. I'm now sanding it off and will try again with a coat of primer.

Flashback Friday: 2-2-2010, Day 26 of building R2-TD

We had a good turn out for build night. LC and Dash worked on their domes, Moose worked on some skin and I worked on my motor holders. After some "trouble" with the pop rivet gun, we got everything together. Heres some shots from the night. 

Flashback Friday: 9-30-2009, Day 22 of building R2-TD

Day 22 brought work on the center leg. Syrena and I sanded all the leg pieces and than began gluing them.






Steve continued work on routing out and cutting his frame.



Jayson worked on his skirt than cut some more on his dome.



Then we all took turns working on shoulder hubs.

Flash Back Monday: September 4th 2009 - Day 18 of building R2-TD, more support and dome motor holders

Its a Flash Back Friday Monday - (Happy Labor Day!)

Day 18 of R2 brought more work on the internal support and dome motor holders. Here I finished assembling the pieces for the motor holders and actually got the motor on it. I had to modify one of the pieces because the motor I'm using is larger than everyone Else's. I also got the internal support bolted down so now R2 will be solid on his legs. Here are some pictures of tonight's build.