Four sheets

...of Aluminium.

You are searching for them, i have them.

Club specs skins:

Pic will follow

Skinny update

Unexpected phone call this afternoon!

The skins are ready to be picked up.

When i drive to the galvanizer tomorrow morning, this will be on my to do list too. The shop isn't that far away.

The skin thing

A few days ago i ordered a set of new Ali skins for a R2 unit at my favoured Lasercutter.

Today i went there because i was visiting an Enterprise for Metal plating closeby.

Unfortunately the parts weren't cut yet.

I hope to get them this week.

Then i have to round them with my metal forming machine to Club specs.

R2 Greeblies

Here they are; the Ali Greeblies for the R2 outer feet.

Covered with a layer of light grey primer.

Rework

I saw minimal imperfections on the outer foot after a first layer of primer.

So another round of sanding, adding putty to them and again sanding and primering is necessary!

Pic will follow

Primer Day

Today i found some minutes to prepare the three feet for the primer job. 

Sanding was done now and i could paint the light grey primer onto the first two feet!

Bondo Time

I had to add bondo on some spots of the feet, to get a cleaner surface.

Here they are before sanding:

After the sanding job is done, a light grey primer will be painted onto them.

One outer foot

...is done now too!

Now adding some fine putty to some imperfections...

One hour

...of searching for the mistake.

I think i found the issue, why the Ali wire wasn't transported anymore.

There was a fine layer of Ali remains in the structured surface gap of the roll. 

And through the higher pressure of the pressure ball bearing on the other side of the transport system, the wire got flat and caused to get stuck in the transport tube.

I cleaned the roll with a metal brush, cut off the wire that was still in the tubing and took it out.

The pressure roll was again adjusted and the wire was normally running now through the tubing.

Let me see how long it will work...

The last welding spots

...before the welding machine refused to work...

(Sorry for the mess on my working bench)

Another throwback !!

I can't believe it!

First an empty welding gas bottle, then long waiting times for the last ali sheets to be lasercut, additional a lot of work in my enterprise and now problems with the welding machine. Damn'!!

What comes next?!

Yesterday i could bend and weld in the the first channel part (Center foot).

But shortly after that, the welding machine's transport system refused to continue the work. 

 I think i have found the problem. This roll has two small gaps in which the wire is transported.

And if you look closer, there is some fine debris of Ali all around. That comes from the structure of the gaps in the roll. A raw machined surface. Maybe the gaps are worn out? I cleaned the roll, i cleaned the bearing on the other side that is pressing the wire, but until now no success.

Better to order a new roll to get this job done. Meanwhile i will go to the metal Shop where i got the sheets from to ask if they might do the last welding for me.

A big delay

Yesterday i finally could get the last three sheets for the feet.

Now i can finish them!!

Outer feet greeblies

Here they are, freshly picked up at my favourite lasercutter/metalshop.

Unfortunately the boss didn't mentioned to his employee, that the center channels had to be lasercut too. 

So i hope to get the three sheets on monday.

Waiting

Bad news; the responsible person for the Ali parts is on a short vacation, but will be back on thursday. 

I hope the channel parts and the greeblies are ready until then. 

Unfortunately nobody knows where the parts for the feet actually are.

First outer foot

finding the problem on the welding machine wasn´t that easy! there was metal debris on a transportation roll, so the pressure on the roll and the wire wasn´t as expected. i dismantled everything, gave it a good cleaning and then it worked like on the first day!   

here we are; i started early this morning and the first outer foot is almost done! 

Let´s start with foot number two!

One last part

The Metal Shop guy will see my message monday morning. I have to wait for the parts.

So i continued on bending the first outer leg parts.

Pic will follow

While putting them together, the welding machine made some problems again.

No constant wire transport, a stuck piece that had to be drilled out with a 1 mm drill (!!) and an almost empty wire roll...

What else can happen??

Ah yes, good friends visiting me in my enterprise stealing my R2 parts building time...😞

Missing parts

there is always a "but"...

i ordered the feet sheets but didn´t get the channel sheets, neither for the center foot, nor the outer feet. so i contacted the metal shop to do them for me. 

the side greeblies are still there because they missed it to press in the threaded studs. i hope to get more (positive) news on monday!

in the meantime i welded the remaining areas of the center foot.

grinding was done so far too!

next on the agenda is the first outer foot. bending, welding, grinding...i hope the welding wire will be enough to get them finished. or should i better order a new roll of welding wire?

A new center foot

Today i finally got my new Argon gas bottle. I started immediately with the work on the sheets.

Here the first parts welded together:

Unfortunately i had a little problem with the welding machine after some minutes. But i could solve the problem with the help of my neighbour.

So i could continue on spot welding the sheets to a real center foot.

Please keep in mind that they are only spot welded here and there.

Tomorrow i will continue on it hoping the welding machine won't make any more problems!

New sheets

I just picked up the Ali sheets for the feet.

Unfortunately the Metal Shop forgot to press the threaded studs into the side greeblies, so i will have to go there again next week, when they have done this.

On monday morning i will go to the gas bottle shop to get a new Argon gas bottle in exchange for my empty one.

The New Order

In this case it has nothing to do with one of the newer Star Wars films.

It is simply a new order of parts for a spanisch builder that i will build.

Unfortunately i don't have enough sheets for a complete set of outer feet and a center foot.

So i contacted my favorite lasercutter shop to let them make a new set of sheets for me.

More to that in the next thread.

Wochenendveranstaltung

Dieses Wochenende war im Warner Movie Park wieder Cosplay. Dieses Mal sogar an zwei Tagen.

Ich hatte mich vor Monaten dazu entschlossen, dieses Mal nicht mitzumachen.

Der Grund?

Ganz einfach! Der Park wollte für unsere Teilnahme, die bisher immer umsonst war, 10 Euro pro Teilnehmer nehmen. 

Durch diese Cosplay Veranstaltung hat der Park sicher erhebliche Mehreinnahmen (die sind ja auch nicht doof und haben vorher bestimmt fett die Werbetrommel gerührt) generiert. 

Meine Meinung dazu; jahrelang ging das ohne Bezahlung, aber auf einmal muss man für so eine freiwillige Aktion, für die man einen ganzen Tag seines Wochenendes opfert, Kraftstoffkosten hat, um dort hinzugelangen, Geld bezahlen. So etwas vermiest einem die Teilnahme dann doch etwas. 

Würde der Park von sich aus das 'Teilnehmergeld' wenigstens für einen karikativen Zweck spenden, wäre ich dabei gewesen. Aber so bin ich raus aus der Nummer! Denn hier geht es dem Park nur ums Geld, dass er mehr verdienen kann. 

Abgesehen davon steht es mit dem Bestreben, als Cosplayer keine Gewinne mit dem Thema Star Wars zu machen, in direktem Widerspruch. Da sind wir nur Mittel zum Zweck.

Pic of the day

 

A new helmet

von frank bekam ich für einen sehr fairen preis diesen mandalorianer helm, genauer gesagt einen boba fett helm.

der wird nun seiner beule entledigt (die ihn sonst als boba fett helm kennzeichnen würde), ausserdem bekommt er innen noch ein wenig verstärkungen aus glasfaser rein.

der helm wird für timo sein. denn der bekommt ein neues mando kostüm! der junge ist ja die letzten zwei jahre massiv gewachsen!

Sonntags im Zoo

der nächste troop steht an!

im wuppertaler zoo machen wir einen troop. ca. 25 verkleidete stehen meist im eingangsbereich des zoos für eine fotosession zur verfügung.

wer also an dem tag noch nichts vor hat, kommt einfach dort hin! tiere und verkleidungsbekloppte begaffen!

Gruppenfoto

hier noch ein bild vom letzten troop:

bild folgt

Watch Out !

 

Blutspendemarathon

Es ist wieder soweit. Am 20.05. kann wieder Blut gespendet werden.

 

Zusätzlich zu dieser Aktion sind die Star Wars Verrückten wieder am Start und können fotografiert werden.

Doing a troop

The next Red Cross blood donor day in my hometown isn't far away.

We will be there are Ith around 10 people in our Star Wars costumes.

Of course i will be there as Wrecker, the popular character from The Bad Batch TV animated series.

Here my 3d printed Back Pack :

Stopping all this ?!

I am really considering to stop building parts for other builders.

The reason is simple. I don't have the time anymore!!

I am currently restoring three vintage cars of my own. They are taking a lot of my free time. On the other hand i am running a sandblasting enterprise doing at least 53 hours per week. This is way too much to keep my work-life balance. Things have to change!!

I have so many parts to build from all the remaining steel and ali sheets i have on stock. When all these parts are done, i will sell the whole bunch.

But i will keep the parts i need for my droids.

So for all of you hoping to get some new parts in the near future, i must tell you, that you have to wait a little longer...

Davids new droid

david from spain built a new droid. 

here it is:

i am very proud of being part of his dream with building parts for this droid.

R2-KT 25

David from spain is a lucky guy!!

He got the OK to build a R2-KT unit for Charity troops!!!

The Droid is called R2-KT 25.

And i am proud to be part of the build. 

David will get feet, ankles and battery boxes in Ali from me!

Helmet colours