Shortly after starting my build I discovered that there were a lot of parts that could be 3D printed. I even ordered a few. They weren’t too expensive. I started adding up in my head how much it would cost, based on the parts that were available, and I quickly realized that it would add up pretty quick. I knew that you could get a relatively cheap printer, but I didn’t know how cheap. So I started doing some investigations. It was about this time Tina and I went to the National Maker Faire.

Makers Faire bills itself as “The Greatest Show (and Tell) on earth—a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” It was basically a showcase for any one that builds, anything. Toys, nick-knacks, prosthetic limbs, cars, and just about anything in between. It had Individuals, schools, clubs, corporations all presenting things that they made, tools, techniques, and demonstrations. We had a pretty good time.

A 3D printed car

A paper T-Rex  that someone was walking around in(Tina for scale)

Lego!

Robots!

A wooden robot that Tina and I both purchased for ourselves. (she still hasn’t built hers)

One thing that i noticed, about 80% -90% of the booths had something to do with 3D printing. It is pretty astonishing what can and is being printed. It definitely got both our attentions. All of this and the fact that it would probably pay for itself, if I could print the parts that I needed instead of buying them from someone else. It was decided that we would get a 3D printer.

There are many different types of printers, that use different process for laying material down, or in some cases build material up, to form whatever shape is needed. The process that is most popular in the consumer grade printers is Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). Basically a spool of material, usually plastic, is feed into an extruder that melts the plastic and deposits it on the work surface to form layers of material. The extruder, and/or the work surface, is moved in all three axis’s (X,Y,Z) by motors, which allow the layers to be laid on top of each other in any direction, thereby building a 3D object.

There are a few ways that you can buy a 3D printer. One is go to the store. Home Depot, Best Buy, even Walmart has some printers. Buy one off the shelf, take it home, and be printing within a couple of hours. This requires very little knowledge about 3D printing, but it is expensive. Another way, is to do exhaustive research and buy each individual piece and part yourself, and build it yourself. This requires a lot of knowledge about 3D printing, but it is probably the cheapest way to go. I went for the third option.

I found a company online that sells a 3D printer kit that you assemble yourself. This is a popular choice for people who really want to learn everything about 3D Printing. I decided on what is called a Prusa i3 printer. It is completely open source on both the hardware and software. Basically meaning that anyone is fee to modify either the hardware or software configuration. It also usually means there is a large community of people willing to help, if you get stuck and can’t figure out something.

It arrived on Thursday

Not as big as I was expecting, but it was kind of heavy

Unboxed, or, as Tina put it, a 3D printier in 2D form

Most of the parts laid out

Main Frame, Every thing will be built on top off this. The closest side is the front.

These are the rods that the print bed will travel back and forth on. This will be the Y axis (front to back)

Vertical support, This will be the Z axis (up and down). Also notice that I had one too many bearings on the Y axis rods, I had to take one off.

support bed

Wiring up the heated print bed. For some plastics, especially ABS plastic, you need a heated bed to keep the first couple of layers of your print from warping.

Heated bed is now mounted to the support bed. You could print directly on this but most people don’t. Usually a piece of glass is put on top to make sure you have a completely flat bed to work off of.

Attaching the Z axis motors.

Building the extruder carriage. This will also be the X axis (left and right)

Mounting the extruder

These are the guide rods and the threaded rod. The Z axis motors will attach to the threaded rods.

Installing the X axis assembly onto the frame. The motors will turn the threaded rod, making the assemble move up and down on the guide rods.

Attaching the power supply and control board, thankfully I didn’t have to solder anything on this project.

A little bit closer view

Oh God, the wiring

It even wraps around the back.

That’s much better

I wasn’t able to hide all the wires. Some have to have slack so they can move with the extruder.

Built

I am in the process of setting up the software. It is proven to be one the trickier parts. It doesn’t help that I think I have a bad controller board. I already talked to the company and they are sending out a replacement. That’s were I am right now. It took me about 10 15 hours to assemble it and I have spent 4 or 5 hours trying to get the software to work properly.  but hopefully most of that was the bad controller.

In the middle of all that (Saturday morning to be exact) I got a surprise on our porch.

Hmm what could it be? (yes know its already opened.)

IT’S THE DOME!!!!!

Its a composite dome, a composite of what, I don’t know. But it’s light, less than 4 lbs

The people that make it sign it and put a quote from the movie that they were watching while it was being made.

It also came with these. These are carbon fiber panels that I will cut out paint and put on the dome. These will serve as “doors” that open on the dome that I will be able to control with servo motors.

Safety first, especially when cutting fiberglass/carbon fiber with a Dremmel rotary tool

First panel cut out

Test fit on dome

I screwed up (just a little, fixable) on the second piece I cut out because I lost the cut line. I outlined where i need to cut on the rest.

That is it for now. I’m not sure how often I will put out an update, They should be a little bit more often, especially now with both the printer and the dome finally arriving.

Well, here is my blog. It will mostly be about My R2-D2 project and everything that surrounds it. I already know it will have portions about our adventures in 3D printing as well.

I have known about the R2-D2 Builders club since I attended Celebration 2, in 2002 (Star Wars only convention), in Indianapolis. Saw them again in 2005 at Celebration 3, and at almost every other convention I’ve attended since. I really didn’t give it much thought except for “man, that would be pretty cool to do”. I didn’t even really stop at their table or talk to any one about it. Until last year at Awesome Con. I picked up a brochure, and talked a little bit about it with the person that was manning the table. I learned a little bit about the club and I actually joined up on the website after the con, but i didn’t do much other than that. At this years Awesome Con I learned that a run of domes was currently being put up for sale and it was a “new” type of dome that cut “processing” time down dramatically. To tell the truth i didn’t really have much of a clue as to what he was talking about but it really sparked me into getting off my but and actually start building an R2-D2. That night in the hotel room, using my phone, I was able to “get in Line” to order a dome. I was number 9 out of 10.

This is what I have learned in the past month or so. The R2-D2 Builders club is  a group of people who love Star Wars, love building things, and love R2-D2. Not necessarily in that order. It was started in 1999 and according to Wookiepedia has 7100 members world wide. But Astromech.net, the clubs’ official website, currently has 19503 members with 3533 of them being “active”. The website along with a yahoo users group is pretty much the central depository for all things R2-D2 and how to build one. Members share ideas, Tips, Tricks, and encouragement. It is also the central place for obtaining blueprints and parts.

You very quickly learn that it is a “builders” club not an “assembly” club. You can not buy a kit, at least not through the club, that has all the needed parts in one easy to assemble package. However, unless you have access to a lot of very expensive tools/machines you will need to buy some parts. Usually, you buy them from other members. When you buy a part from another member it is usually a part of a “run” of that particular part. Take for example the dome. The dome is a pretty unique and some what difficult piece to get right. So a member would contact a machine shop and ask how much to make an aluminum dome with x and y dimensions. The machine shop would probably come back with an answer of (just as an example) 500.00 dollars for just one, but if you order 20 domes we will sell them to you for 400.00 dollars each.That member can then contact the Builders Council to get approval to sell a “run” of 19 domes. That way everyone gets access to that discounted price. The Builders Council are the moderators of the website and they also make sure that, say, two aluminum domes don’t go on sale through the website at the same time. This is to prevent one member from undercutting another member on price.

The thing is, not all pieces are on sale at all times. For example, There are three holoprojectors , (the thing that the Princess Leia hologram comes out of, in Star Wars) on the dome. If i need those parts, and I can’t make them myself, or if someone is known to make really good holoprojectors that I want to buy, I will have to wait for that someone to have a run. Now that may be next week or it there may not be a run for six months. I’ve heard of some parts only go on sale once a year. That may be an “urban legend” but I suppose it is entirely plausible.

OK, So here is what I have done in the past month or so that I have been Working on it. Since I am staring on the dome, I decided to work on the lights that are on it. There are two circles of light, one on the front, one on the back. These are called Process State Indicators (PSI) There are also two small stacked rectangles, Front Logic Displays (FLD) and one long rectangle on the back. Rear Logic Display (RLD)

They don’t actually do anything or indicate anything in the real world, in the movie they did, obviously, but right now I can’t find their “in universe” function. At the time no one was offering a set of these for sale so I decided to build them myself. After much research I order all the parts I needed. 280 LEDs, 7 ICs 5 circuit boards, various resistors capacitors and voltage regulators, and one Arduino micro computer.

Here I have started to solder in the LEDs for the front PSI.

After all the LEDs are done

Other side

I unfortunately didn’t take any more pictures of me soldering the rest, I will try to take more pictures as I go from now on.

One of the hardest things I had to do was to make the bezels that are on the front and rear logic displays. The PSI don’t need bezels because they will be hidden behind a opaque diffuser. To “hide” the LEDs for the logic displays you have to put a bezel on them. That means there has to be a hole made in a black piece of plastic for each and every LED. And because there is such a high density of LEDs the clearance between each hole is VERY, VERY small. About .3mm of material between each 3mm hole. I was able to find a template on line and print it to actual size. The tricky part, for me, was finding the exact center of the hole. I tried several methods but in the end i just did it by eye. I got pretty close on most of them. Only a few were obviously off center.

After finding the center I started drilling  each hole with a . 5mm bit and worked my way up to a 2.5mm bit. I used a hand drill so that I could have more control.

To get to the final diameter, 3mm, I used a drill press to make sure the holes were straight and perpendicular to the face of the bezel.

Done with the holes still need to cut too the correct size.

Testing to make sure all the LEDs would fit. You can tell were i got some of the spacing wrong, put i’m pretty happy with the results especially for my first attempt. These are not the correct color of LEDs, and it still needs to be cut down to the correct size.

Taping the template onto a piece of plastic for the rear logic display. The front “only” had 45 holes to drill. This one has 135.

Finding the center of the holes.

Back of finished boards. The red part is the Arduino micro computer. It will control the sequence of the lights.

Front. I screwed up on the clear covering on the Rear Logic display. I had to re-do it.

All lit up.

That pretty much catches up to where I am now. I am still waiting on the dome. Hopefully it will be hear by the start of next week.