Goal: Fully automated R2-D2 Dome. All door panels controlled and automated by servos.
November 2016
I started on my R2D2 dome that I received from Granite Earth from the R2 Builders Club (Astromech.net). It’s an aluminum spun dome that has a base, an inner and outer dome, and a plate to hold all of the electronics. The door panels are laser cut with a water jet CNC and held onto the dome by little tabs.
I marked the inner dome once the 2 were perfectly aligned (eyeballed) using the cutout shapes from the outer dome. This is one of those scenarios where you really want to measure about 10 times before you actually cut, because once you start cutting, you have to stay in that configuration. The panels were cut using a handheld mini hack saw from Home Depot. Then I filed and sanded each panel to remove the remnants of the aluminum tabs.
Once cut, I had to trim the inner dome because there was too much of a gap in between the dome ring and the outer panel. Using tin shears, I cut the inner dome about 2-3 mm. This allows the dome ring to have about 1 mm of spacing when centered.
I painted each of the dome panels with Sonic Pearl Blue from Autozone. Right now, this is the standard to use for R2D2 parts that are blue.
Here are some pics from this portion of the build.
For more pics, go here: