Battery boxes for the feet

So I've got the PVC battery boxes for the feet, and commenced to work on getting them ready. I had the cutout points marked on the foot shells, so I transferred 'em to the battery boxes and got 'em opened up, thus:

Couple bolt holes going through, and I can fasten them on. Tada:

Also, check out what was parked at the hair place next to the hackerspace: a Tesla!

(one for me too, please)

Skin prep

So started work on getting the skins all ready. First, I (on the advice of previous builders) went through and labeled all the detachable panels and such, numbering them so I could get them back together properly later:

Next up, I punched out all the bits that needed punching-out (you'll see that I left some panels in, at first, but did eventually fully remove all of them so I could clean off the "tabs")

Now it's time to start painting. I've been going back and forth on this, but decided to just paint the outside and leave the inner skins metal. Should be a nice look for 'em.

Skins are here :)

Got my aluminum skin set. Really nice, these are. Two outer, two inner, front and back. Gonna take some serious prep to get 'em ready, but they will definitely do nicely.

(trying out the coin slots I printed. Fit nice.)

I bring you a message from the future...

Whoops! Looks like I haven't updated the build blog in a while. Greetings from October 16, when I've got R2 100% complete and have begun weathering and other detail work. I realized I hadn't updated this blog in quite some time, so I'll be going through my pictures and bringing it up to speed presently. Bar with me. Meantime, have a sneak peek at how it ends:

5 months down, 7 to go: and we are MOVING!!!

Went by the hammerspace today to pick up the last prints for the foot--actually the last prints period, I believe--and got into a conversation with the others about the shells. They helped me do some smoothing on the joins, and I did some repairs and things here and there. Going to reinforce the back with some E6000 (I already tacked some braising back there). I think I'm ready to saw open the holes and start working on the actual mountings. Should be pretty soonish. The feet are looking okay:

(Though you can tell this is definitely my first time doing any kind of braising or similar.)

The print jobs were the foot strips and plugs for the braided copper hose. I went by Home Depot but they didn't have any, so I'll have to shop around, alas. Meantime, I can paint and prep as usual.

The big news is we've got a con this weekend. I dunno if I'm going or not, but I might because (drumroll please) R2 is rolling! I figured out the connections and everything, got it all together, and he rolls great--at least on a solid floor. Carpets, not so much. Still, it's pretty exciting.

Dig my main bot's moves:

Oh, and the skins came today--but there was no one to sign for them, so back they went. Yet another delay. Honest to pete.

More fancy footwork

Got some stuff done this weekend: got the foot shells all braised together all right. Also printed off some parts and got them prepped & painted. I won't show the shells just yet, as my braising is kind of grody, but hopefully I'll be able to clean them up soon.

In the meantime, I did some prints as I said, so here are those. First, the shoulder hubs. I did them on two different days, so one came out orange and the other white. Of course, since they'll be painted anyway, there would be no way for people to tell if I were to, oh, I dunno, swap the parts around...

MUAHAHAHAHAAAAA! NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW!!!!!

*ahem* Anyway. Printed out the top and bottom front vents as well, managed to get those painted before dark:

And got the foot strips and knurled hose fittings queued up so they should be done tomorrow. I believe that will make the last of the 3D-printed parts. When my skin shows up (possibly tomorrow) and I can track down some copper hose, that should make me parts-complete--oh, except for the skirt. Forgot about that. But that's on order too, so yeah. Getting pretty close to a major milestone, which is good as tomorrow makes it 5 months down, 7 to go. Cruising right along, I gotta say.

Ouch.

So I came in tonight to get some braising done on the feet. Got a few edges done--it's coming along nicely, really--but at one point I was closing up the hole in one point and managed to splash some molten braising on my fingers. Now, I don't know if you've had molten metal splash all over you, but on the whole it is a sensation I cannot in good conscience recommend. Seriously, I wouldn't try it. Not as much fun as it sounds.

Anyway, that pretty much brought the evening's activities to an end, but the bits for the front foot shell are ready for painting and assembly, so I think I may go ahead and do that thing. Also printing off a few more parts in anticipation of the skin showing up soon.

Foot shell braising

So tonight I went to the hammerspace to get a lesson in braising. Braising is basically using a metal allow to connect two pieces of metal together. Basically, if you'e ever done soldering, it's very similar. Think of it as soldering supersized, with a propane torch instead of an iron. We wired up the joins on the foot shells, used handheld and pneumatic tools to buff and clean the edges really good (which is VERY important in braising aluminum, as you want to be connecting to the actual metal, not the oxidized layer on top), then Joseph (the metal shop mentor) showed me how to braise. Most of it is getting the aluminum to temperature, which can take a while. But once it's there you just lay the braising rod to it, and melt it into the edge or wherever. Works great.

Works better than the quick steel putty one of the other folks there mentioned. I tried some last night and it seemed to be solid enough until I tested in the morning--came right apart. Brittle as heck, too. Perhaps I needed to buff it as well, but in any case, the braising is working and I can go ahead and do the feet that way.

Footwork begins

OK< so now that the legs and drives are ready, it's time to do the feet. I got the shells in, and it trns out they don't have a channel on the inside, meaning there's nothing for either the ankles or the drives to bolt onto. So I have to figure out how to weld up a set of channels. I've talked to the folks at Hammerspace, and am scheduled to go in Thursday and take care of that, as well as making holes for the motors and so on.

In the meantime, I printed up some foot details. They're called "Half Moons", and they go on the sides of the feet. Here are the batch of four I need, fresh off the printer:

I've sanded them already a bit. Then a few layers of paint, and I can test them against the foot shells:

Looking good.

The other main thing I did was to verify the wiring works for the motor drives. It took a little futzing around to get it right--turns out you have to hit the "Start" button on the controller to engage the drive, and my kill switch was the opposite of how I thought it was, but once I got it all sorted out, it worked great:

If you have a 'droid up on blocks, you just might be a space redneck: