R2 Takes on C3PO's "Empire" Position ( time for the new frame)

THIS IS WHAT KIDS DO TO YOUR R2 WHEN YOU DON'T LET THEM DRIVE HIM!!!!!
 (I'm joking)

Remember when they pulled C3PO apart in "The Empire Strikes Back"?  My R2 had a chance to experience that feeling. R2 has a new frame but needs the stuff pulled out of the old one first. I planned to take the center ankle off first then pull the electrical and gas pipes apart....this wouldn't happen. To get to the pipes and get the center ankle out I had to rip R2's old frame apart with my jigsaw. My poor friend became a pile again.

R2 had most of his frame removed except for the wood attached to the rails. Having an airplane mechanic (Roy Powers did almost too good of a job) tighten the nuts and bolts on your R2 can be a double edged sword, they will never fall off but will be hard to get off. They came off eventually with help from Victor but my dad's old wrench couldn't get them.

So this is what remained of R2 except for to whole jumble in the pic before this. His dome is ok too.

Here's the pile of stuff and the new wood frame ready to be worked on.

R2LA10!!!

I actually had a droid to bring to the 10th R2LA. This is my second R2LA and met even more cool builders. I arrived at 10am to help set up and also put on the badge Damien makes for R2 Builders at the pre-R2LA10 dinner at Lamppost Pizza.

When I arrived, a morning chat was going on. McMaster was advertising a Kohls sale

 

The early bird droids

More people came and more droids. I hot glued my Radar Eye on the night before (so Will would stop the blind jokes :P) and it's holding so far.

Ed Perello's droid was as awesome as ever.

Nikki Miyamoto's Million Dollar Dome looks awesome

 

Mike and Amy Senna were gifted with a award from Damien for putting up with us crazies for years.

Group photo

The Upgrade Begins: New Frame!!!

I was lucky enough to get a new frame from Thomas Clark and it arrived today! I knew I wouldn't have the new frame installed for R2LA 10 (YAY! IT'S FINALLY HERE!) this weekend due to college taking most of my time but I still did mark ups. I marked up the places to be cut on the "H" pieces and on the bottom ring where I would install the center ankle (see pics below text).
I'm not sure when I'll have time to pull out the jig saw and drill and go but it will be slower than last time.
I may or may not keep the "H" pieces I already have since they are strong and have things attached to them pretty good. I may just keep the new ones in case R2 takes another body slam.
I'm saving my energy for R2LA10 this Friday and Saturday and don't want R2 to be in around 3 pieces with less than a day to go. I may start cutting the new frame and gluing it but won't do any major surgery yet. R2's full system transplant will come soon enough...

The new frame still in the box

The pieces I have marked up, waiting to be cut.

OC Public Library: Star Wars Day

Yesterday, I joined Victor Franco at the OC Public Library for their SW day.
I would call this R2's second outing but due to car troubles, only the dome and a few resin parts could make it. I also brought along my lush Vader and Yoda figures for decoration.

Victors R2 stood by

The event started off with Obi Shawn reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to the kids and their families.

Victor gave a small talk about The R2 Builders

Next, we had some Jedi knights visit and Vader (and some friends) crash the party.

Fortunately, the kids used The Force to help the Jedi fight off Vader. 

 Han Solo also made an appearance.

After this Victor had R2 pose for pictures and let some of the kids play with R2's sound.

 R2, Victor, and I made our way over to another part of the library to take picures with more people in SW costumes.

Discovery Sci Center: Day 2

I kept R2 in the car overnight and rose early again to go to the second day of the R2 Builders Discovery Science Center visit. The crowd was a lot rowdier this time around and my in-the-works R2 got some more attention.

Victor, Rico, Paul, William, and I were in the booth this time around. Gvardaman also came by for a bit. Everything was going great until one ambitious 6 yr old decided to tackle R2 and knock him completely over. The kids dad made a great catch so R2 didn't crash and burn. There was another funky little robot hanging around us all day as well.Paul brought his treadmill droid, it was so tall the whole thing wobbled with every tiny move. Paul's R2 also got roughed up a bit by the kids and one lady who wouldn't stop looking into the HP. That same lady also ran off with a whole bowl of m&m's meant for the kids to grab a few from. Definitely a wild day.

The official banner goes up

The treadmill droid

The droids kinda took the floor

Paul did the 3pm presentation

If you look closely, you can see the plastic covering the PSI lights was pushed in by a kid

Mini Entry: R2's weight

Out of curiosity I weighed R2's batteries and motors today. Each 24 volt battery weighs 14.4 pounds and each motor weighs about 7 pounds (estimated). So R2's about 42 pounds worth of electronic-y stuff. Without those things he might be about 30-40 pounds so I'm guessing he weighs anywhere from 72-82 pounds. I think a good number to settle on for now is 78 pounds. He's really heavy with everything inside, heavy enough to give me shoulder and back pain from too much lifting.I bet he'll get heavier with a new dome and a dome drive.

On a side note I'll be posting about the second day of Discovery Center tomorrow afternoon. Our internet connection is having problems and I get enough connection to finish a post and then lose it because the internet cut before I could save it.