How To Build An R2-D2 – Page 12 – How to make an R2-D2 from scratch.

January 3, 2015March 11, 2016

Wooden Logic Display Surrounds Pt. 2

Lets review the plan for this first. All measurements are in standard form and need to be converted into inches if you don’t have the proper measuring tools that measure in decimal form. There are two types of pieces to cut, a long side and a short side.

Small Logic Display Surrounds — Small Logic Display plans

Our second step in this process is to take our piece of wood and use the router to put a groove into our plank just bigger than 3/16″ deep. The actual plan calls for this to be a bit bigger so it will stick out enough from the two domes on final assembly.

Groove with a Router — Making groove just bigger than 3/16 with a router

Once the groove is cut, we measure 7/64″ from the right edge of our router cut, and 1/8″. We use our small ruler to do this with the 1/32″ marks, and since we are measuring in 64ths, we know this mark will be in between 3/32″ and 1/8″ (4/32″). Get the Rafter Square to do put straight lines down the right side of the board at these markings.

It’s time to cut these pieces to the dimensions we just marked, using our Miter Saw. We start with the mark that is 1/8″ from our router edge. This will be the flat 1/16″ portion of the inside of our surrounds according to the plan. The blade of our saw is about 1/8″ thick, so be sure your blade is to the right of this line, or your cut will be 1/8″ smaller than planned. Once this is cut, we angle our saw to 16° and cut this piece, again lining our blade to the right of the mark.

Flat cut for 1/16" — Flat cut side of logic surround of 1/16″

16° cut on surround — 16° angle cut for surround leaving edge

With our 16° angle cut, we will align our blade with the left side of the router cut on our wood. We can either get the exact measurement for this side, which is 1/16″ to the left side of the right sided portion of the router cut, or just cut our piece from the left side of the router cut flat and use a dremel or possibly a jigsaw to cut our piece down to the proper sizes so it can fit into the dome.

Trimmed surround piece — Trimmed on routed side per plan

We can now cut our 45° angles on both sides using the Miter Saw. We start with the right side edge of our piece close to the edge of our backplate on the saw and make our cut. We then measure 1-19/32″ from the long side of our raised portion of the piece, and cut this at 45°. This will give us our outside measurements of the surround that fits into R2s Small Logic Display port.

45° angle on long side — One side of the 45° angle cut

45° angle on both sides — Both sides cut at 45°

This gives us one complete side of our surround. 3 more pieces like this, and 4 more pieces for the 12° angle side that is 1-1/8″ long, and we can begin to glue the pieces together.

Part 3 of this tutorial is coming soon.

January 3, 2015March 11, 2016

Wooden Logic Display Surrounds Pt. 1

Logic Display Surrounds are made a few different ways.

Aluminum
Resin
DIY

I chose the DIY path since I felt it would give me the greatest benefit and cost the least since I already have tools to do so. All I needed were the plans, tools, materials, and a way of constructing them. I had 3 out of the 4, so I knew this would be a challenge.

The plans were found on the R2-D2 BUILDERS CLUB Yahoo group. Since these plans were in decimal format, I had to convert them into the American Standard of Feet and Inches. I used a calculator to come up with most of the fractions and a few I knew were a hair off from being in between two sets of fractions such as the distance between a 1/32″ and 1/64″. Basically meet those two in the middle and that gives you the number.

The tools need to complete this project are as follows.

Router w/ table
Miter Saw
Wood Glue
Ruler with 1/32 measurements
Rafter Square

Now I needed some construction material, so it was off to the local DIY hardware store to buy a piece of Poplar hobby wood for around $8. The piece I wanted was 1/2″ thick and 4″ wide, just the right height for the part I had to build. The good thing is that this will give you enough wood in case you mess up. I actually bought 3 of these in first trying to figure out the best way to construct these surrounds since I didn’t have any instructions and I was trying to figure out the best method to cut small pieces of wood.

Poplar Wood — Poplar Hobby Wood 4′ X 4″ x 1/2″

For the next part in this series, we will be marking our wood board and CUTTING OUT THE PARTS.

October 26, 2014November 21, 2017

Painting the Panels Blue

Painting the panels will bring your R2D2 dome to life. This three coat system gives them a grade shade of dark blue. I painted all panels with a purple lacquer paint from testors.
I did a couple of coats but perhaps one light coat may work better. I would have to build another dome to find out.

I waited 15 minutes and painted on a wet coat of Blue anodized duplicor that I got from the autoparts store. I painted two coats of this 15 minutes apart. You can tell it really turned the purple into blue.

After the two coats of duplicolor was applied, three coats of Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel was applied 15 minutes apart. This really brings out the blue in the panels and makes them shine.