Unmasked Dome (blue)

I unmasked the dome today and saw the blue parts turned out well. They were perfect except for some drips and so on. I have blue paint to clean up the edges and some removal stuff as well. Not bad for my first time painting anything that isn't a cheap bird house with washable paints.

Letting it cure for 6-8 days or so then adding silver. Sorry for squished photos again, blogger offers no way to fix them and I haven't found a good solution yet.

Painted dome with good to mixed results

I got a chance to paint the blue section of my dome using gloss blue paint (hopefully this is a good color) I finished masking lats night. I also cut of some panels (space for HP's and lights) with a stencil burner. The holes have rough edges since I haven't got the steadiest hand and haven't use something like this before. Add a week of party planning/setting up stress and working at 10pm because I couldn't sleep and you've got grade b work. I'm going to sand the edges later or find my X-acto knife and slice the scrapy things off.

So far so good with color and panel accuracy. Rough edges not so much. Hopefully no paint seeped under the tape.

before it was painted

first layer

all painted. waiting 24hr to dry and 5-7 days to cure

little bubbles/dumpy things in the paint. 

Hopefully not dirt. Might have to sand and repaint

R2 and I graduated!!!

 I graduated HS on Wednesday but unfortunately R2 couldn't come :(. I had a grad party and dressed R2 for the occasion. Class of 2013.

I also got R2's dome half masked and all I need to do now is finish masking the dome and paint. 

r2 with a beach ball

bowtie for R2

with the diploma

the dome half masked with tape for blue paint

with my friend Justine

R2 in his outfit with a balloon by me

The Big Day AKA R2 Goes to School

So today was the big day, the day I presented R2 to a panel of judges for my Senior Project. I got to school 30 min early and waited for my call time of 2:30pm.
I didn't get too much of a reaction from the panel but they might have been tired from seeing many many people before me, but the people who saw me bringing R2 in were impressed.

 Thank god it's over, I was so nervous.

I got a time of 5:58, two seconds off the limit of 6min. All and all things went good.

R2 all packed in with towels and blankets so he doesn't tip (sorry it's all squished)

R2 at school

R2 coming home (sorry it's all squished again)

R2 Drives

I went to Victor's for the 3rd time to finally get R2 moving.
We added some turn-buckles to the motor holders to keep the chains tight and the wheels away from the motors.

 photo from photo tutorial on AA motor holders.













We got R2 standing up and began working on the orangex remote control. Set it to airplane mode and tested servos to find out which channels ( forward/backward and left/right) were.

Started to test drive R2, he had a bit of a lean to the right. Victor did some "trimming' and R2 seemed to be going straighter. R2 till does lean a bit but I'll try to trim some more.

A short video of R2 driving around. VERY EXCITING!!! He's a bit wobbly but this was my first time driving him in good condition and I didn't want to dump my droid.

2013 Build day photos

So I went to build day to install the center ankle and begin wiring up R2 with the help of Victor Franco, Will Miyamoto, Mike Senna, Roy, and some other builders.

(not sure why the photos are all squished looking but I'll try and fix it. For now get a large images but sideways  and falling off the page :[  )

Parts and rails, almost got impaled

I've been busy lately and haven't been able to post much or add too many pictures. Here's the rundown....

- I got help from Victor Franco to put holes in pipes and in the rails. Also worked out some things about the center ankle over there

- Ordered a ton of parts and received 6/8. Still waiting on The HobbyKing (they're very bad with shipping and

- I put holes in (soft, according to Victor) rails to hold the center ankle. It took 15-20 min to drill onw hole with an old hand drill so if you have a drill press USE IT! YOU WILL SAVE YOURSELF SO MUCH BOREDOM AND PAIN

- Drilled holes for the rails and dropped 3/8 bolts in, used t-nuts to secure them

- Put caster on the center ankle caster holder

- Nearly impaled myself with a spade drill bit while drilling holes in the rail and having a half second loss of attention to my work. I was stupid and had on clothes with strings....that got caught and wrapped around the drill...along with my ear buds. It puled the drill within 4-6 inches of my chest. Needless to say I didn't touch the drill for a day or two after that

The wire up for R2 should take place on Saturday and/or Sunday. Build day is May 4th ( May the 4th be with you!) so expect some pictures and build updates