Spin Doctor

My first video!

Like some other builders, I replaced the bearings in the Rockler with Acetal ones from McMaster-Carr. This was the 3rd time I'd taken a Rockler apart. Cleaning it and replacing the stock lube didn't quite live up to my expectations.

I cleaned the grease from the track, used the dremel to clean up the little bit of slag in there, then sanded it with 400 grit paper and wiped both pieces down as best I could. Then I sprayed a little Teflon Lubricant in the track, replaced the bearings leaving about 2 inches of empty space in the track just as the original bearings did, and finally sprayed a little more lubricant into the open gap in the top.

You can see the difference. It was only getting about 3/4 a turn per spin before. Now its going a full 3-4 rotations. I added the Dome Base Plate and Dome afterwards and still get 3 full rotations with a modest hand spin. It quieted down too. Almost totally gone is that annoying bearing knocking that came from the stock balls. It always sounded like a Newton's Cradle to me. Although not completely silent, it should be loads better and sound a little more like the Artoo in the movies.

Three Legged Race

The day has come. R2 can stand on his own. Pretty freaking cool. Looks like I'll have to use the Center Ankle Adapter for the Com8-B frame. These were made after someone with the same frame noticed the Center Foot didn't sit level on their droid. Mine isn't as extreme as theirs was, but its still not quite level. Before I cut anything I'll see what some of the other builders have to say. It may be best to wait till I have the Foot Drives and center casters in. See below.

Center Justified

Center Ankle has arrived. Now I can put R2 on all feet. Will try to do that in the next week or so. Foot drives should be in fairly soon as well. Looks like I better start getting some electronic guts.

No Longer Feeling Blue

Not much on the blog front lately. I've mainly been getting all the blue paint as finished as I can before the cold weather finally set in a couple weeks ago. All but about 3-4 pieces will need some clear coat touchup next spring when the weather abides again.

Had some success with masking the Booster Covers with Elmer's Glue. The bottom four masked areas on each didn't turn out to well though. Masking Tape on the coin slots didn't fair very good as well. I posted a thread about masking tips on the forums, and the best advice I think I gathered from responses is that masking should be removed fairly quickly - within 2 hours. That way the paint is still pliable enough not to chip. Looks like these 3 parts will be stripped and attempted again this Spring with the remaining blue pieces I've yet to receive.

Not sure yet, but I'd like to attempt the Dome Lighting Kit sometime in the next couple months while its too dang cold to do much else.

I've ordered a few more parts, there's only a handfull left to go and most are electronics. The HP servo mounts came in yesterday. These allow a servo hookup to the HPs to add movement. Some assembly required.

Mad as Hell

Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right? Well today has been one of those.

I've re-sanded several blue pieces and applied a new clear coat, only to find about a third of them have lint, or hair, or bubble imperfections and will need to be stripped and clear coated yet again.

I also dropped a utility arm on the concrete and put a nice, albeit small dent in a corner. Luckily it could have been much worse. A little sanding and some steal stick should fix it - hopefully. But I did have to strip all the paint off it and will have to start over on it when I do the Booster Covers. Speaking of, I looked again on the forums and have decided to try good old white Elmers glue to mask them. I hope it works better than clay. I'm really frustrated because I know theres only a week or so left of weather that will permit painting. Trying not to rush, but I really don't want to have to wait to Spring either.

Strip Searched

Couple of minor setbacks this week. First, after priming the Radar Eye with a couple coats of plastic primer, I went ahead and shot a coat of self etching on it. I only did this because I read it was still good for resin on the boards, and I wanted the same undercoat as all the other pieces so there wouldn't be any color variation. They were wrong. It cracked in several places and I had to do some major sanding to get it back into painting shape. My can of plastic primer sucked and the nozzle didn't work after the first round. So I used some clean metal primer on it. Its taken a few days to completely dry, but I think it just needs a little light sanding to smooth it and I can move ahead.

Thanks to someone else on the astromech.net boards, I tried clay as a masking agent in the booster covers. After over a week, the paint surrounding the clay still hadn't dried. I tried carefully to remove the clay, but it was pretty evident immediately that I would have to repaint. Acetone does a fairly good job of getting the paint off, at first it wasn't removing the primer. But I had to scrub a lot to gett all the paint off and the primer came off too in certain areas. I'll probably just give it a good sanding now and then reprime. One down one to go.

I tried rubber cement before the clay. It wasn't very exact, and shrank after drying. So I'll try good old masking tape this time around, it'll just be hard to get into the nook and crannies. I think I will spray the Radar Eye silver first, then mask off and spray the blue. Luckily weather here is showing in the 60s for the next week or so. Once all this painting is done I'll get started on the Dome Lighting Kit and getting the dome panels all cut out and hinged.

Spaced Out

*EDIT: Just ordered a new part that will replace these, are BC approved and should be the accurate dimensions. A cool new total PSI Housing system will hold the lenses a diffuser and the PCB boards in an aluminum and rubber gasket shell. I doubt I'll be able to unload these, luckily they weren't too expensive. But still, any waste of money is a little irritating.*

PSI Spacers arrived from Taiwan. These are a new part that haven't been run before and are still prototypes. I went ahead and got some because I thought, "how much better can an aluminum ring get?" The sizes are off a little on 300mm Domes, so I guess they can get better. The front (smaller) PSI spacer is just slightly too small, but a little elbow grease and sand paper will correct this. The back (larger) PSI spacer is too small by quite a bit, at least 1/8th an inch. Fortunately though, if you don't use the Outer Dome piece for this PSI panel, and paint the Inner Dome blue here like the real droids, then it really doesn't matter. I have yet to make any additional cuts to my Inner Dome other than the 3 Holoprojector cuts that were already there when I purchased it. So all I have to do is use the spacer for measuring the back PSI hole instead of the Outer Dome panel that already had it cut out. Problem solved.