These videos are of my father making the necessary cuts and holes for the second aluminum foot drive on Saturday, May 5, 2012. He is using woodworking tools. The only special equipment used for a heavy-duty metal brake that a neighbor contractor handled and gloves.
Dealing with aluminum turned out to be not much more difficult than working with wood.
Enjoy!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Using wood tools to work aluminum
My father and I spent the morning of May 4 creating the third version of foot drives for R2-D2. These are based on Ted's designs, which he posted under the R2 Builder's Club Yahoo Group files section. We used only woodworking tools for the cutting, drilling and wheel-cutting. A contractor neighbor graciously bent each sheet into the three-sided drive for us.
Dad punching guide holes into the second piece:
Dad punching guide holes into the second piece:
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Foot drives
My father and I have produced three versions of a foot drive in the past year. Each has been designed for the 135-watt Currie scooter motors I bought from All Electronics some years ago.
The first was based on Jerry Greene's drive for R2-R9 and was made out of wood. We included ball casters for support. Since we didn't have plans, I eyeballed the rough dimensions, used the actual motor and wheel to mark drill holes and circles and made a posterboard template for the final wood pieces. It was larger than it should have been for the outer foot shell and had the motor sticking out in the wrong place, but I took it to DroidCon in May 2011 and showed Jerry, who was encouraging. Best of all, when we applied current, the motor turned the belt, which turned the wheel.
The dimensions bothered me. Early this year, I came across Ted's -- buhatkj on the group -- blog and saw a promising aluminum design. It was clean and simple, and Ted had uploaded his design to the Yahoo group three months before DroidCon. I printed the full-sized templates at Staples, and my father and I used hardboard to execute it. The design required cuts for two rectangular sides, drilled holes for the three mounting screws and the motor cap and two circles for the other end of the motor. We cut and added a top rectangular piece with some angle aluminum. With spacers, screws, the belt, wheels and motors, it also turned.
If the hardboard came into contact with water, however, it would disintegrate. My father wanted to try again with the same design, but this time with sheet aluminum. Neither of us had worked with aluminum before, but the foot drives were a project that came with full-size templates and our experience with the other two foot drives. It really was a re-execution of the second foot drive with only a few adjustments. My father ordered the aluminum, I ordered new templates, and on Saturday we went to work.
The cutting, drilling and circle-cutting took only a few hours. The problem came with the aluminum brake my father had bought for the job. We didn't really know whether it would be powerful enough for the job and ... well, it wasn't. We both tried several times and succeeded only in lifting the aluminum and brake up from the workbench and finally in bending the brake's handles.
Here's how we solved the problem: My parents have lived in Cross Plains for more than 15 years now. In that time, they've had work done to their house -- roofing, new tile floor for the downstairs workshop, that sort of thing. They're big believers in the local economy, so for these jobs they've turned to Carl, a general contractor who also lives practically down the street.
Carl said he'd be over in an hour. He arrived as my father was cutting the last hole on the second drive and I was taking video. Carl didn't have the tools to bend that metal, either, but he had a relative who did ...
The job was done Monday. Take a look:
The first was based on Jerry Greene's drive for R2-R9 and was made out of wood. We included ball casters for support. Since we didn't have plans, I eyeballed the rough dimensions, used the actual motor and wheel to mark drill holes and circles and made a posterboard template for the final wood pieces. It was larger than it should have been for the outer foot shell and had the motor sticking out in the wrong place, but I took it to DroidCon in May 2011 and showed Jerry, who was encouraging. Best of all, when we applied current, the motor turned the belt, which turned the wheel.
The dimensions bothered me. Early this year, I came across Ted's -- buhatkj on the group -- blog and saw a promising aluminum design. It was clean and simple, and Ted had uploaded his design to the Yahoo group three months before DroidCon. I printed the full-sized templates at Staples, and my father and I used hardboard to execute it. The design required cuts for two rectangular sides, drilled holes for the three mounting screws and the motor cap and two circles for the other end of the motor. We cut and added a top rectangular piece with some angle aluminum. With spacers, screws, the belt, wheels and motors, it also turned.
If the hardboard came into contact with water, however, it would disintegrate. My father wanted to try again with the same design, but this time with sheet aluminum. Neither of us had worked with aluminum before, but the foot drives were a project that came with full-size templates and our experience with the other two foot drives. It really was a re-execution of the second foot drive with only a few adjustments. My father ordered the aluminum, I ordered new templates, and on Saturday we went to work.
The cutting, drilling and circle-cutting took only a few hours. The problem came with the aluminum brake my father had bought for the job. We didn't really know whether it would be powerful enough for the job and ... well, it wasn't. We both tried several times and succeeded only in lifting the aluminum and brake up from the workbench and finally in bending the brake's handles.
Here's how we solved the problem: My parents have lived in Cross Plains for more than 15 years now. In that time, they've had work done to their house -- roofing, new tile floor for the downstairs workshop, that sort of thing. They're big believers in the local economy, so for these jobs they've turned to Carl, a general contractor who also lives practically down the street.
Carl said he'd be over in an hour. He arrived as my father was cutting the last hole on the second drive and I was taking video. Carl didn't have the tools to bend that metal, either, but he had a relative who did ...
The job was done Monday. Take a look:
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Ralph McQuarrie dies at age 82
The man who translated George Lucas' words about his developing characters into concept art died Saturday.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
FLDs, RLDs soldered
After a training day in the "big city" yesterday and a conference call for work after that, I drove to my parents' house and, over the next three hours, soldered the LEDs for the Rear Logic Display.
The lights light.
The pattern doesn't seem to be quite what it should be, but it seems to be a result of wiring or possibly the program. I'd guess it's the wiring, since I used only some loose jumper cables and because the program is just a random test that many people using this display have used apparently without incident. All of the LEDs appear to be lighting, so I'm not concerned that I'll have to make a new board. The FLDs are fine.
If I have time this weekend, I'll work on the dome. It needs patching and sanding, and it needs a couple of holes drilled for HPs and PSIs.
August seems close. My father and I will be on our Civil War trip in the spring, and with Wisconsin weather these next six months aren't going to translate into many available working days in the unheated workshop.
But we'll get it done.
Monday, February 13, 2012
It's logical
About 9 last night, my wife texted: Where are you?
I spent a full day in my parents' basement workshop soldering Teeces' front logic displays and clipping, poking and prodding the LEDs for the rear logic display. All that's left now is the solder the rear display, all 120 LEDS (240 points ... ack).
Here is droid-building in all its elegance: Hunching over a workbench with heavy-duty nail clippers taking the flanges off the non-flangeless 3mm LEDs and then taking wire cutters and snipping the LEDs' leads short so they'll make for easier soldering on the boards. It works, even if it wouldn't pass an FDA inspection for use in medical devices.
My dad did some searching while I was at work and formed a theory that the LEDs I had purchased so cheaply from eBay might have started life in large lots meant for military or medical or other precision work that contained a single component that failed inspection. It'd be cheaper, he guessed, to throw out the whole batch rather than to test each LED. The tossed LEDs then might have been broken up into small batches for cheap sales. I don't know whether it's true, but it's at least plausible.
My father was a great help when things went wrong with the FLDs. One LED on a board stayed lit. Others flickered. He (a retired electrical engineer) talked about how he would have gone about troubleshooting such a problem. After some trials, I got the thing working. Score one for rational problem-solving!
Friday, January 6, 2012
New group
I joined the Midwest Robots Yahoo group this week. The group covers robotics, not just R2-D2 replicas, but the group moderator who approved my request to join said most people started by building R2s.
The group is small but spread out. The next build day will be in Omaha next weekend. Well, the Midwest is a big place. Anyway, I'm happy to join.
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