Expense Chart Updated

after a long time of putting it off, the expense chart has been updated and added in through a google sheets document.  As of right now $1400 has been spent on R2D2 however around some of this was parent donations as well as items that are being used for other things alongside R2D2.  You can find the link to the expense chart at the bottom of the main screen of this blog.

~Jacob

Senior Design

After talking with my professor for Senior Design, my work on R2D2 has been approved.  I will be able to form a small team in order to work on two subsystems that will work inside of R2.  This projects as of now include a voice control system (being modified from the hasbro toy) and a pneumatic system that will run the CPU arm and the light saber launcher from the dome.  As for the rest of the the R2D2 i will continue to work on it with help from my friend Nate during our spare time.

~Jacob

Painting Some Parts

Took some time this week to carefully paint some of the painted CAD parts and give them the blue detailing.  using the same Ford Blue spray paint i sprayed the paint in a small cup and use a paint brush to carefully apply the paint to the necessary areas.  A few weeks ago i took a sample part and attempted to color match the paint at a few local hardware stores but did not have any success.  The parts ended up turning out very nice and will look good on the finished frame.  The utility arms needed a second coat of paint after the blue spray paint ran out half way through the first coat some time ago.  Also the new front vents received a few coats of the the silver paint and are ready to be added back into the skins.

Finished Utility Arms

Painted Coin Slot

Painted Pocket Vents

Painted Power Coupling and Ankle Details

Painted Side Vents

Painted Front Upper and Lower Vents

~Jacob

Sanding With A Working Dremel

Now that we have a working rotary tool we are able to get the final touches on a few different parts.  Through out this week i was able to do some sanding on the legs in order to get the layers of wood and flush as possible.  During the original manufacturing process there were a few areas that once lined up did not match the rest of the legs.  Due to tracing and then cutting out the legs with a vertical band-saw the tolerances were less than adequate...  With this issue now fixed the legs can no be "skined" with styrene similar to what was done with the frame.

Finished Legs

Fixed Area of Legs

~Jacob

Fourth of July

Got a chance to go to a few hardware stores today.  Picked up my dome bumps at Lowes as well as some rotary tool accessories and some new tips so that the rotary tool can be used again.  Just as a recap the tip inside the rotary tool that i bought earlier this year was to small for any standard bits.  Now that we have the rotary tool up and running again we can finish off the dome and touch up on multiple areas of our droid!

~Jacob