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Third Try:
The ugly looking R2D2 was not what I had intended. One of the reasons to build a robot was to fill it with electronic gadgets, but also making sure no one would die out of laugh was important. The knowledge acquired at the moment was almost enough to build a better looking replica. All that I needed now were tools. So I went to Sears and bought tools on a weekly basis until I had what I needed. Also I needed some schematics as watching the movies and my friends MPC plans were not enough. To solve this problem I bought my own MPC R2D2 model and measure every corner with a caliper.
Cylinder Body: The cylinder body used was the same used for the Second Try. R2D2 bottom was attached as well as the neck collar to attach the Head Dome. The collar was designed using old zinc casting technology (the one explained on SECOND TRY) and then reworked with a router.
Dome Head: The Dome Head was now fitted with a neck collar (very similar to that used with the Body Cylinder) that would allow me to attach it to the body by means of screws. All typical head markings were cut out with a hand reciprocating saw (bad idea!) and then recasted with black painted resin using the same head mold. This allowed me to know where the lines of each segment were, for future painting (at least it was worth something; imagine marking with a pencil every line each time you are to paint the dome?)
Legs: Ahhh! At least! Tools proved impressively useful at this stage. I nailed a couple of squares of plywood together to form a block. At this time I had become proficient in drawing templates with Visio. Printing and placing the templates over the wood "block" allowed me to form the leg prototype with a Craftsman router. Detail level was achieved with a Dremel tool.
Problem!!! The router is a very powerful tool, but to inexperienced users it yields imperfect parts. Molds were very hard to retrieve (sometimes impossible breaking both negative and positive) and pain was not released out of the tasks. A milling machine is far much better, unfortunately I did not had mine until a year later.
Feet, Ankles, Battery Pack and Cylinder bottom: To build this complicated parts (the wood block would not prove easy) I devised another strategy. What if I could build a prototype using mesh wire? And so I tried! Since this technology was not perfected, the feet, ankles and cylinder bottom are not a 100% perfect but they can fool most eyes! The trick is to place the top and the bottom cross section as plywood exacts. You then clip the wire mesh forming the skeleton. To fill the holes, really thick resin or plastiline can be applied. After the part is hardened you shape by sanding (or routing!).
Psychology Profile: Any chance of going nuts was now less probable. For the first time I felt as an R2D2 builder. I recall one day that the UPS delivery guy saw R2D2 as shown on the photo. He said "Its R2D2!". It made me feel great as now it was looking better!
Things were definitely going better. Making him walk was next. But a router and a bunch of sanders and saws are no good tools to create the mechanics of a droid. I needed precision tools. Machine Tools! The last stage was the longer in time. Making R2D2 walk, adding ornaments, fixing parts, painting, repainting and re-repainting! It was very frustrating as I did not had the tools not the knowledge..... Would that stop me? I have not had the knowledge since the beginning and it had not stopped me. Join me in the LAST CRUSADE to see how it all ended.
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