Thomas' R5D4

Twin Drive

2010-09-21T16:25:00.003-04:00

I went ahead and mounted the second Gear Drive system.
I have some work to do to this shoulder, But I wanted to see how they
would look inside the droid.

More 2-3-2

2010-09-20T15:34:00.003-04:00

The drive system is bolted in the frame now.
I had a hard time figuring out how to bolt all the parts and being able to get to
the screws.
I drilled a 1/2 inch hole just above the main shaft on the gear and the way I bolt everything is:
Bolt the bearing to the frame, Through the 1/2 inch hole screw the body to shoulder hub
to the outer flange of the bearing.
Then mount the drive system into the frame.
I'll show pictures next time.
Now the only thing I need is the drive motor. getting the right size, speed and strength will be the hardest part.

Shoulder Work

2010-09-18T17:09:00.006-04:00

I cut a body to leg circle today and I routed into it to mount a aluminum
plate. The plate will act as a gear so the D shaft from the gear box will
have something to lock and turn the legs.

You can see the bearing bolts to the circle and the aluminum plate is under it.
The shoulder looks off right now because I need to sand it with my drum sander to true the circle.
It really is not that far out of round it's just the camera makes it look bad.
The bottom picture shows the gear box inside the frame. It's not bolted yet,
It's just for the picture.

2-3-2 Motor

2010-09-18T17:04:00.007-04:00

I got this motor setup out of a brand new Linear Garage Door Opener.
The opener is rated at 1/2 Hp and can lift up to a 18 foot x 7 foot garage door.
It's more than enough to move the legs.
It already has limit switches built into the drive system.
All I need is to locate another one for the other outer leg.

Bearing Update

2010-02-03T14:31:00.002-05:00

I had to order some new bearings for the shoulders.
The one's I had were 6 inch which was fine, But they would not leave enough
room at the skins for the legs to be removed easily.
So, I ordered some 4 inch bearings and they fit perfect.
Actually I may have stumbled onto something Dave E. had already thought about.
In his plans the shoulder area has 4 drilled holes that do not come into play.
Unless you are adding this same bearing. The holes are a perfect fit.

General Update

2010-01-17T13:15:00.001-05:00

Here's where we all stand as far as the new Droid builds.

Outer Skins

2010-01-17T13:10:00.004-05:00

After the inner skins have dried and sanded, The outer skins are next.
Here again I had to let Brenda do the gluing since I can't see it run.
The back door is also being taped and glued into place.
I didn't go into much detail about this process because Dave's plans
already tell much about the process.

Skin Bonding

2010-01-12T14:52:00.003-05:00

I found out that I can't glue :o(
Brenda had to do all the gluing because I can't see the drip that runs down the frame. She's got the glue down pat. It's such a small amount that it's almost like
not even using any at all.
But here's the body after a good sand with 220 grit paper.
I don't know if Dave E. sands his droids, But I like how it smooths every spot out.
Next will be adding the outer layer of skins and more sanding.

Inner Skins

2010-01-06T16:15:00.005-05:00

After building your frame, It's time to lay on that 1st layer of skins.
You tape the front and back skin to the frame and adjust it the best you can so
all the doors and pockets line up.
You may have some spots that just don't set edge to edge and it may be a off spot
in the frame. I tried my best to get everything perfect, But I do have some bad spots.
Once your satisfied with the fit, You glue the skin to the frame from the inside.
I learned that when you use Weldon Glue, Use it very lightly.
Just a rolling drip down each frame rail that touches the skin is enough.
If you use to much glue it will melt and warp the skin. I would practice on some
scraps before you glue the real thing.

Frame Mod

2010-01-06T14:57:00.003-05:00

The pictures show where I have been adding supports to the side area of the frame
and top the back of the frame. Do you need this in a Dave E. Frame? No.
I'm adding these because I wanted the frame extra ridged to with stand the torque
from going from 2 legs to 3 legs.
I will add some more supports to the front of the frame once I get the skins mounted.
Adding the supports sure made the frame much stronger, But it will make it a little
harder to get the glue to the inner skin.

Extra support for Shoulders

2009-12-17T17:36:00.003-05:00

If your not doing the 2-3-2 movement you won't need this area beefed up.
I'm adding extra to this area and I'm also going to add 2 more shoulder plates
to the inside of Dave's shoulder plate which will make this area 3/8 thick
for the outer leg bearings to mount.
I just figure the movement will add stress to this area and it needs to be strong.

2009-12-14T17:42:00.002-05:00

I started fitting the bearing into the outer leg.
What I had to do was cut a new size sideplate that Dave E. uses in his build.
The plate had to be mount 3/8 further into the leg opening to make up the
difference that the bearing used.
The bearing has more than enough turning radius and has very little play.
I used Dave's blueprint to center the bearing and you can see the drilled
holes that Dave marks on the blueprints.
I have 2 drive system in mind and hopefully one of them will work.
I guess I should warn everyone not to try this until I get it all worked out.

Leg Bearings

2009-12-10T18:28:00.002-05:00

I bought 2 of these 6 inch bearings from Rockler, I will use these for the outer legs on R5. Since the legs won't have to move a great distance to do the 2-3-2 and the bearing weight rating is more than enough for a styrene droid, I'm sure they will work.
I will have to trim the square at the points to fit in the droid.
The good part about this bearing is it's only 1/4 inch thick which will be easy
to modify the frame to accept the bearing.

2nd Bottom Plate

2009-12-06T15:18:00.003-05:00

This is the 2nd bottom plate that gets glued to the bottom of the frame.
This makes the bottom 1/4 inch thick and much stronger.
I used 3 screws in the center to help me align the plates together.
The only thing is if I had to do this again, I think I would have just used a
1/4 inch thick plate instead of laminating the 2- 1/8 inch plates together.
I'm sure Dave does this to eliminate the need for additional styrene.

Top Plate and Shoulder Plates

2009-11-27T15:05:00.005-05:00

The top plate has holes marked that you will need to drill for the dome bearing
and the motor mount in the rear of the droid.
Lay the top plate down with the scribed marks facing up and set the frame on
top then glue all the top verticals in place.
After this is done and dried, You can glue in the Shoulder Plates in the sides.
The shoulder plates are for the outer legs to attach.

Top Rear Verticals

2009-11-27T12:04:00.005-05:00

We glued the top rear verticals in place and it's the same process as
the others.
Once these dry, We can glue the top ring into place.

Front Vent Area

2009-11-26T19:23:00.007-05:00

This area was alittle bit more tricky than the others.
Dave E. say's to pay close attention to this area and make sure you get the alignment
very accurate or the frame will try and twist.
I'm pretty positive that we got it right, But I won't know until I move on
with the build.

3rd Ring & Front Door Vertical

2009-11-26T14:20:00.006-05:00

In the pictures from bottom to top, You can see the blueprint on the 3rd ring
and where you will need to scribe and cut the ring.
The next picture shows the ring after the cuts have been made and this leaves
you with 3 usable parts. The ring we are using now is the large ring for the rear of the droid.
Here again you work your way around the ring making sure everything lines up.
We also glued 2 Door Verticals at the front part of the ring.
These add support for the 2 large doors on the droid and you can see it also
adds support for the next ring plate.

2nd Set of Verticals

2009-11-26T11:09:00.005-05:00

Now we start gluing the next set of vertical plates on top of the 2nd ring.
There are 8 verticals and like the 1st set, Take your time and glue them
around the backside of the droid frame.
Make sure again to check them for square and flush the outer edge with the
2nd ring.

Baseplate Ankle Insets & 2nd Plate

2009-11-24T19:17:00.004-05:00

On the bottom picture, You can see the Ankle Insets being glued into place.
This area provides a clearing for the outer legs to pass the body if your
building your droid to stand on 2 feet and then move to the 3 leg position.
This movement is known as the 2-3-2.

The next picture shows the 2nd ring being glued into position.
There's 10 spots that have to be glued and the way I did this one
is to lay the plate on top of the verticals and align the plate as
best as you can with the scribed marks facing up.
Glue 1 vertical then after it dries glue another vertical across
from the one you just glued. Make sure you pay close attention to all
the scribes as you work around the plate.
I left the Ankle Inserts as the last parts that get glued after the
other eight.
I also used the Weldon can as a weight to keep the verticals in place as I glued
them.

Baseplate Verticals

2009-11-23T18:10:00.009-05:00

In the bottom picture it shows how you start gluing the 1st set of verticals to the bottom plate.
We bought some small angle brackets to help support the plate as the glue starts
to set, We're also using a small square to check the parts as we glue.

As you look at the pictures from bottom to top, You can see how the process gets
repeated 8 times for a total of 8 verticals.
We now have 2 Ankle Insets to glue to the bottom plate.
These are lined up with the straight edges on the bottom plate.
When you cut the bottom plate you will have 2 small parts left over and these
get glued to the Ankle Insets and they provide support for the skins.

Frame Cutting

2009-11-22T18:13:00.003-05:00

We spent most of the day cutting out more frame parts.
I'm not going to post pictures of the parts being cut,
Because the blueprints do a very good job of showing how
to cut the parts.
I will be showing the parts cut with the blueprint still attached
to the part and how the construction is done.
So far, We have used 1 4x8 sheet of Styrene to build the frame.
1 Sheet of 3mm Styrene cost $32.00 and you will have some
leftovers for small parts.
More to come :o)

Bottom plate

2009-11-21T16:43:00.004-05:00

Once you bond your blueprint to the Styrene,
You can get ready for the routing.
If you notice, There are 3 small holes in the center of the circle.
These are marked on the blueprint and I used a 1/8 drill bit to mark
the location of each.
The outer 2 holes are for the center leg to mount and the center hole
is your pilot hole for the router pin.
Carefully run the router around the 20x20 inch Styrene plate and you will get your
rough cut using the R9 pin hole.
Then using the 9 pin hole, Run around the plate again and you will get a nice
smooth plate.

Now lightly scribe the lines marked on the blueprint.
These lines will be used as a mark for the vertical plates to be glued.
The solid lines on each side get cut completely off the plate and saved for
a future plate.

Now you can peel the blueprint off the plate and I lightly sand the sides
of the plate, Just to make it nice and clean.

Router Jig

2009-11-21T16:37:00.005-05:00

This is the router jig I made to cut the circles.
It's made of 1/4 styrene and you can see in the pictures how I bolted
it to the router.
I also have marked holes in the plate for a pin to keep it in place while
we slide it around on top of the 3mm Styrene.
I made the 1st cut with the R9 hole which is a ruff cut and then
I use the 9 hole for the finish cut.
This gives me a smooth cut all around the 3mm circle.

R5 Skins

2009-09-13T19:49:00.004-04:00

And this is how it looks after cutting.
I only cut the areas where I will have something mounted or a opening for something to open.
When your working the skins you need to decide what will open on your droid.
I will only have one large door opening and the charge port opening.

Since the 3mm (1/8) Styrene has not arrived yet, We decided to work on the skins.
We all took turns using the cutting table and I've got 1 inner skin almost finished.
I went ahead and cut the sides, bottom and top down to the print.
But this is how it looks with the blueprint spray tacked to the styrene.

Once the frame material arrives, I'll have tons of pics to post.

Ryobi Trimmer

2009-09-06T10:33:00.005-04:00

This is the Trimmer I bought at Home Depot for around $80.00.
It's small and compact, So it should be easy to use.
The bottom of the Trimmer has 4 small screws that the large plate mount, But I
plan to use these holes for mounting the Trimmer upside down on a wood surface
to cut the frame circles. You can see the large plate has the same mounting holes.
I won't use the large plate except to get the measurements for mounting.

Once I get the Trimmer setup, I can start cutting my frame.
Everything I'm doing to build this droid is the Dave E. design and
he made a Trimmer setup just like this setup.

Finally Posting

2009-08-30T19:21:00.002-04:00

Ok Guy's,
I'm finally getting ready to actually start the build of my R5.
We're ordering the styrene this week and I will start posting the progress.
There will be tons of pictures, I'm trying to make this build as a pictorial
for other builders to follow.
As soon as the plastic arrives, I will get started.

Center Foot Update 2

2008-11-02T18:10:00.002-05:00

Here's where we stopped today.
I'm going to continue this on my wife's blog.
www.r3t7.blogspot.com

Center Foot Update

2008-11-01T17:36:00.001-04:00

Here's how the foot looks now.
It's rough, But it will look better soon.

Center Foot

2008-10-30T17:08:00.004-04:00

I know I said I was not going to post any new items until I
get the build on track, But my wife needed a Center Foot.
So here's the drawing on 1/4 inch (.250) Polystyrene.
This will be different than Dave's design, But I wanted
something really strong.
More to come.

Closing the Skirt

2008-09-21T16:50:00.003-04:00

Front/Back is now closed.
All we need now is to cut the Ribs for the skirt
and do the final putty work and paint.
Now again, This Skirt is for my wife's droid and
I will be building another for R5.
This will be the only project that was done early
in the build. The next post will be on schedule.

Skirt Part 2

2008-09-14T17:02:00.001-04:00

Now you can start adding the front/rear panels
Here again the tape helps to hold the styrene in place.

In this pic you can see the sides are attached.
We also added more side and front/back supports. On the each side
we added 2 and the front/back we added 2 extra supports.
I just thought it made the build even stronger.

Add the 6 front side supports in place.
Next you add the side panels. A lesson learned during this part is:
Don't use rolled plastic, It makes it much harder to work with.

While the bottom plate was drying, We attached the 4 side supports.

The bottom plate was put into place and glue with Weldon.
To keep it from moving and to keep the plate and the supports
together we strapped it with tape.

This is how your skirt will look at this stage and the next pic shows
how we did the work.

Skirt Construction

2008-09-13T16:50:00.000-04:00

After the frame supports have had time to dry.
You add the 2 side supports. At this point I suggest you let it all dry and
the glue set. I also plan to add Goop Adhesive to the joints of all the supports.
This is not a necessary procedure, But I just want a extra strong bond in the
joints.

There are 12 small supports to be added to the front/back and also 8 wider
supports added to the sides.

Next you add the front and back supports, These are glued with Weldon.
Each piece you cut from the blueprint is easily identified by the tutorial.

Although I'm helping my wife build her skirt, I want to show the steps
to build the skirt.
This is how you start with the blueprints. I used a tack spray to bond the
prints to the plastic temporally. You use a razor type cutting blade to cut
the parts out of the prints.

Prints

2008-09-12T19:58:00.000-04:00

We got some of the blueprints printed today.
I currently helping my wife complete her R3T7 and we
printed the battery boxes and the skirt.
Now this will be out of place as for as the build goes,
But I did'nt want to waste time with the printers, So I had
them print enough for both droids. Pics coming soon!!

Coming Soon!!!

2008-09-11T14:19:00.001-04:00

Soon I will starting my new Droid, R5D4.
This droid will be based on Dave Everett's Styrene plans.
This will make the droid super light weight and will keep
the cost down to a minimum.
I will post many pics on this build and do the best I can do
on providing a tutorial to build this droid.
SeeYa Soon!!!