Ewoks Sighted in Northern California

I almost forgot to mention that while we were having our build day at Chris James' house it appears that there were some Ewoks lurking around the house.  But who knew they were so tall?  That makes them kinda scary if you ask me.

R2 Platform

Finally found the camera.  Ok, so some builders had some very cool platforms for displaying their droids at CV and that got some of us talking at Chris James' house a couple of weeks ago.  I have been brainstorming about ideas and mocking up plans to try to get the proportions right.  Here's where I am now.  I have two different plans in mind.  One is inspired, at least in my head, by some of the round Death Star platforms you see especially in Return of the Jedi.  The Freezing Chamber from Empire has some cool lighted steps that have been in my mind.

The top is 1/2" MDF.  I cut the curve with the circle jig on my router, and then I routed out a channel (rabbet) to accept the strip of 1/8" fiberboard that makes the edge piece.  There are some pieces of 3/4" plywood in a cross pattern underneath that hold it up.

This was the result after I made a template from a cardboard box and I thought it was too small.  But now I think it's actually a bit too big.  I think I'll try taking 1" off the outside the trim it down.  And if necessary, I'll lower the whole thing a bit too.  There aren't many pieces and they come apart easily with screws.

My plan is to cut out oblong rounded slots and circles in the side piece, and then put a strip of light diffuser plastic behind the slot (probably from TAP plastics), then I can mount some cheap lights inside and have it illuminated.
I figure it should be painted in a fairly dark battleship grey too.  Black would be too much.  And other colors would be distracting.

 Here's the slots I have in mind:















Next I played around with the dimensions on a wedge shaped platform.  I am picturing something like a section out of a curving platform with a curved front and back and sides that angle in.  This size and shape is pretty good although it needs some tuning up.  The foreshortening in the picture angle seems to rob it of any bevel or trapezoid shape, but the side actually do angle in some:

Here the cutout pattern is on top.  I was thinking that these panels could be cut out and then light diffuser plastic put underneath, maybe red or orange, and then have R2 lit from the bottom.

But this MDF is 1/2" thick, so the vents would be deep.  I haven't thought of a good, economical, and easy way to make the top surface flat for R2's wheels.  And I think this may be too busy to have under him.


I like some of the narrow vent patterns like you see in Deathstar decking seens (think the prison cells where they kept Princess Leia.  Jonathan Burton and Chris James both sent me some cool pictures.  But cutting that many slots in this would create tons of carcinogenic MDF dust in my garage so I'm not into it.  I suspect that using an industrial CNC machine on acrylic or aluminum is the best way to do that, and that boosts the cost of this little project way up.   Maybe I'll mock this deck shape up in the MDF and try putting light vents on the sides like the other plan.  I'll wait to get some feedback from some other builders.

So my idea was that I'd get a few workable plans on this with some different options, and then if the local builders are interested in having a build day, we can get together here sometime soon and bang out some more of these.  Let me know guys.

Marin County Fair Star Wars Exhibit

Mike Morris of the Golden Gate Garrison of the 501st:  http://www.goldengategarrison.com/memberdetail.php?TKID=0901, invited me to bring R2 to their exhibit at the Marin County Fair over the weekend.  It was a great gig.  Mike put an enormous amount of work into organizing the 5 day event, and he runs the fireworks at night.  Thanks for all your hard work Mike.  Vader and a number of others were there.

This little guy talked to Lord Vader for at least an hour about various nuances of the Star Wars saga.  Vader was gracious, informative, and really funny.  At one point I heard him trying to explain the conflict between him and Luke Skywalker to the boy and he said, "In retrospect, I probably made some poor decisions."  He killed me.

The highlight of the weekend was getting my mother to pose with some Stormtroopers (and Leia).  I'm working on getting my mom an honorary membership in the 501st.

Marin County Fair Star Wars Exhibit

Mike Morris of the Golden Gate Garrison of the 501st:  http://www.goldengategarrison.com/memberdetail.php?TKID=0901, invited me to bring R2 to their exhibit at the Marin County Fair over the weekend.  It was a great gig.  Mike put an enormous amount of work into organizing the 5 day event, and he runs the fireworks at night.  Thanks for all your hard work Mike.  Vader and a number of others were there.

This little guy talked to Lord Vader for at least an hour about various nuances of the Star Wars saga.  Vader was gracious, informative, and really funny.  At one point I heard him trying to explain the conflict between him and Luke Skywalker to the boy and he said, "In retrospect, I probably made some poor decisions."  He killed me.

The highlight of the weekend was getting my mother to pose with some Stormtroopers (and Leia).  I'm working on getting my mom an honorary membership in the 501st.

Maker Faire, part 1

I'm still behind getting my pictures sorted and writing up the trip to the Maker Faire last weekend.  There's a lot to talk about.  I'm really inspired by a lot of the creative projects we saw.  But until I get to all of that, Jonathan Burton, one of our local members, has a bunch of great pictures up on his blog:

http://r2-d2project.blogspot.com/2010/05/maker-faire-2010.html

Headed to Maker Faire tomorrow

Three years ago, I went to my first Maker Faire.  If you haven't seen Make magazine, you're missing out.  These are definitely my people.  And the Maker Faire in San Francisco is a huge gathering of think for yourself, do it yourself, hack it, re-adapt it, figure it out and do something cool and unexpected with it people.  It's sort of like Burning Man without the extreme heat, dust, and camping.

So on my first visit, Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame, gave a talk and slide show about prop building.  And I was totally inspired.  I already idolized the guy, and after he showed his years long quest to build a perfect Maltese Falcon, an Indiana Jones whip, and the badass gun from The Fifth Element, it opened new doors for me.  I had been craving for a project, and his example gave me the courage to tackle it.

Shortly after that, I put two and two together and started thinking about R2D2.  I must have seen the R2 builders there that trip, and I had seen Michael McMaster's R2 at the California State Fair a few years before that.  I've always had a serious robot fetish, and a huge sci fi (esp. Star Wars) fan, so taking on the R2 project was a natural fit.   I started my R2 in earnest shortly after that, and finished him a little over a year later.  But I wasn't done in time to take him to the Maker Faire last year.  So this year, I'm going to be on the other side of the table with a fully functioning droid.  I'm psyched.  Chris James took the lead on this one and got us all set up, so it should be a great two days for the Bay Area R2 Builders.  I'll post a full report when I get back, or maybe even during.  If you're there, stop by and see us in the Fiesta Hall.

R2D2 Dolly

A while back I had a brainstorm when I was thinking about how to haul R2 around on his back in my SUV.  So I quickly threw together a cart that fits him custom and that carries his weight without damage when he's on his back.  I've made a few improvements on it and a number of builders have been lusting after it.  So here's some video to give you an idea of what I did.  Eventually I'll try to get some real dimensions up, but chances are, if you're tackling this, you're good enough with wood tools to be able to figure this out from the video.  I'll probably do a small run of these too, but I'm busy getting ready for the Maker Faire this week.





The other huge advantage to having this cart around is how easily I can flip him on his back and work on the drive system.  That would be impossible without the cart.