Soldering/Electronics 101

It's been several years since I've tried to build a circuit (back in college). Brad hosted a Soldering/Electronics 101 class. Brad and Clay spent the first half of the night talking about Ohm's Law, electrical components, and soldering techniques. Brad put together kits to make a LED Flasher Circuit Using A 555 Timer IC. It was a great night. I love being able to take schematics and make the actual circuit! I am no longer intimidated by the idea of creating my own circuits; but I will need a little more practice reading schematics and soldering.

Before we got started I had to take pictures of Brad's B9 and R2.

Clay brought over the Wall-E he is building.

I have been hounding Jason to get me some information about the pancake foot motors he purchased off the main R2 Builders board several months ago. He brought them tonight so the group could see how they would fit in outer foot shells and how the Dan Baker Motor Mounts would need to be adjusted to accommodate them.

Clay worked on his rear logic display for his R2 and Jason worked on the kit that Brad provided.

Moose and I are both working on LED Flasher Circuit Kits Using A 555 Timer IC.

After a very productive and informative night, the group decided to pose for a picture.

Heart Of The Empire Movie Night

Our local builders group got together with a few 501st Central Garrison members to watch the Heart Of The Empire Movie Denny bought. Denny provided cake and everyone enjoyed the movie and each others company. Thank you for letting us watch the movie Denny.

Legs Everywhere

Brad, Clay, Tam, Logan, Denny, and I met at a local builder's house to continue our work on the outer legs. Most of the work centered around making the arm pits for the legs. We started out by drawing the lines for the arm pits on the ½” and ¾” boards.

Clay used the band saw to cut the armpits out of the ¾” boards.

Brad cut the 1" pipes to connect the outer legs inside R2's body.

It was a collective effort for Clay, Logan, and Denny to route out the armpits at a 5/16" depth on the ½” boards.

Brad and I chiseled out the what is left by the router on the ½” boards.

Tam is making his own Link costume from the Legend of Zelda. He spent most of the night working on his chainmail and Logan was more than happy to assist.

All this hard work made everyone hungry, so we ordered pizza and everyone took a break for awhile and watched the new R2LA DVD.

The crew decided to put together a gluing jig for the outer legs. This will probably work very well once we get the extra hardware we need.

A very cold and tired crew after a productive night decides to pose for a picture and let me try out the timer function on my new camera (a Christmas present from Michelle, Thank You!).

Checkin' My Dome

When I went to Moose's, I brought my 300mm styrene dome I redrew over the holidays and compared it with his aluminum 300mm dome. Looks like I did a pretty good job!

The 24 channel slip rings arrived at Moose's over the weekend, so I was able to take my new toy home with me. I don't know when I will be able to get around to using it, but I have it when I need it.

I Needed Help Testing My Frame Sanding

It was hard to make sure I sanded my frame enough to have the skins fit properly, so Brad and Moose offered to lend some helping hands so I could check the gaps. I'm really close, but I still have to do a little more sanding.

Brad and Moose noticed right away that I trimmed the upright boards inside my frame to allow myself bigger pockets behind the long R2 doors.

Starting Off The New Year By Sanding My Frame

We cut are frames based on the plans found online, but the when they were glued together we realized they were too big for the aluminum skins we purchased. I picked up a package of 100 and three sheets of 36 grit sandpaper (which really didn't work and it made a huge mess when the paper came apart) to use on my orbital hand sander. This turned out to be a long and tedious process. after about a day's worth of work, I decided to borrow a plainer from my father to slim down the vertical frame boards. The combination of the plainer and the sandpaper did the job, eventually. I'm going to take my frame and my skins to the next build day and compare it with Moose's droid.