Prime and paint the aluminum skirt, slabs and battery boxes

Today it was time to clean, prime and paint the aluminum skirt, the slabs that attach to it, and the battery boxes.  I had already primed the battery boxes two years ago but they were pretty dusty from being in storage.  

First some cleaning of all the pieces...

I use an old screen for cleaning/drying pieces...the screen allows for excellent air flow.

These are the aluminum slabs.  Aluminum naturally clouds when not protected.  We'll clean it up.

This set of battery boxes has a removable back panel.  We'll have to prime and paint the screw heads too

Etching primer applied...

I forgot I needed to prime the center foot side plates...I cleaned and added those to he to do list

Primed the slabs, making sure to get the front, sides, top and bottom.  The backside will not be seen and don't need paint

And on goes the Rustoleum Satin White

Tomorrow I will do some light sanding with 600 and 800 grit to smooth the finish.  If needed, another light coat of white.  Why no clear enamel?  As I learned with the previous R2, if I need to patch a ding or dent, its just a blast of white paint away.  

In the next few days, it will be time to get the rear skins started...

 

Skirt primed and painted

Today I continued the momentum from yesterday with more painting!

For the shoulder horseshoes, feet and ankles, it was a second coat.  

The next piece to get cleaned up with acetone was the aluminum skirt piece, which mounts to the bottom of R2's body.

Ready, set...go!

All cleaned up...I let it dry for 30 minutes in the warm sunshine

As with the other metal pieces, two light coats of DupliColor Etching Primer, then a coat of Rustoleum Satin White.

 

Paint day for the feet, ankles and shoulder horseshoes

I haven't done a lot of work on R2 #2 in months and with R2 #1 apart, awaiting the resources to repair & upgrade the frame, it decided to get back on track.

R2 #2 has been happily parked in the living room for months, probably wondering what its fate is going to be...."donor" to get my original R2 back together....or continue on the path I intended, being the "Uber", improved version.

Over the past few weeks, I've dismantled R2 #2 in preparation for a nice stretch of weather.  With a week of 80 degree weather on hand, today I dug out the feet, ankles and shoulder horseshoes.

The feet were primed when they first arrived a while back.  Since they are steel, they needed to be rust proofed/primed!  The bottoms have some wear which, after cleaned with acetone, needs to be touched up with more etching primer.

 
The process is going to be really simply:

1)  Clean each piece by wiping it down with acetone
2)  Once dry, prime with DupliColor Etching Primer
3)  Paint with multiple coats of Rustelum Satin White

I have everything lined up...I also have some black primer I was considering using on the inside of the feet, if I felt they needed it.

The inside of the shoulder horseshoes do not get paint.  Some painters tape and trimmed with a razor makes this quick work.  Then, wipe down and clean with acetone

Protect those pretty bushings with painters tape!

Foot detail pieces and side plate

Outer ankles and center ankle ready for cleaning

 A faded t-shirt became the donor for wipe down cloth and away we went.  Please be sure to do this outside with plenty of ventilation for your project.

Knowing how the inside of the foot takes a lot of chips and nicks from the drive system, I went good and heavy with the primer.

And...sometimes you go TOO heavy and wind up with a dribble...which, when dry in 30 minutes, while be sanded smooth with some 320 and 400 grit and primed again

First coat of Rustoleum Satin White drying.  This will get some sanding tomorrow with 400 grit to smooth it out

Tomorrow we'll crack open another can of white spray paint and get a second coat on these pieces.  Depending on the result, perhaps a third....we'll see!

Pocket Vent installed

A few weeks back the pocket vents arrived and it was time to install it.

Usually, most parts built from the R2 Builders blueprints slip right in.  But for some reason, this piece was too big for the opening in the skin.

I'll be honest...that sort of thing annoys me.  The fix is to remove some material from the inner skin.  Since the skins have already been painted and bonded together, its very tricky to do this without damaging what you have already worked on.

The next step was to put some protective Blue Painter's Tape to the edges of the skin, so that the debris flying off the Dremel did not damage the paint.

With the area marked off, it was time to slowly...and awkwardly...cut this out.

First we put the THIN cutting disc on the Dremel...

 And despite that looking really scary ...its on the line and what isn't precisely cut can be filed off.

The part comes with a back plate and when screwed into the front piece, they work like a clamp to pull and hold the piece snug...

And now the final results...til paint!

 

Repairing the Rockler Bearing

As I did for my first R2-D2, I devoted some time to repairing the Rockler Bearing for the second R2.

I didn't have all the tools to do a thorough job as I did the first.  I wanted to see how much of an improvement there was just cleaning, replacing the bearings with acetal ones....and teflon lubricant.

First up, get everything together...a pencil to label the rocklers, a flathead screwdriver and 2 packages of acetal bearings.  You won't need to worry about not having enough bearings, you will only use about a bag and a half.

 After removing the dome plate, I label each ring "top".  It sounds silly but when things are apart, you can quickly second guess the basics!

Now to remove the plug using the flathead screwdriver.  Notice how the end of the plug looks!

 Now have a container ready and start letting the ball bearings fall out.  You'll have to turn the rockler bearing slowly to get all of the bearings out.  As you turn the bearing, the rockler will start to come apart, so be ready for that.  

And now you can see what a mess the rockler bearing tracks have become.  Grease, debris and metal filings...the later probably from not covering the track when drilling out the mounting holes!

 The "booger cloth" after wiping all the gooey junk out...and the inner ring is nasty too...

 All I did next was use an old towel to again wipe away any residue I missed the first time...then sprayed the Teflon silicone on and wiped it again.  The results were pretty nice, visually...

Next up was to piece the rockler back together and, awkwardly, hold it together while filling it with the acetal bearings.  Once filled, it was time to re-insert the plug, making sure the alignment is correct.

Note the white acetal balls visible ...

 While spinning the bearing, I applied more teflon solicone, making sure it has an adequate amount in there.  With this done, the bearing moves considerably better but there is still a lot of chattering going on.  This means the track insisted very smooth and should be sanded and polished.  We'll do that next!
 

Aluminum Utility Arms installed

Finally some time to work on the second R2!

Tonight I wanted to get those beautiful, light-weight utility arms installed.

First, the shafts have to be sanded and filed down a bit so that they will fit thru the opening in the utility arm.  Some people have access to something as elaborate as a lathe to remove some material...I do not, so I used some 60 grit sand paper, a file and attached the shaft to my power drill..

With each shaft now fitting inside the utility arm, I found that I had to add a small washer to the top of each arm.  Otherwise the arm would sag and tip downward.

The addition of the washer will make enclosing them inside the frame's utility arm carrier very snug.  While the arms will still pivot in and out, they won't do so very freely.  If I decide to add servos to these later, I'll have to put some graphite in there.

When it is time to install the vent frame  rails to the bottom of the utility arm carrier, I use hex-head screws.  Why?  I've learned from my first R2 build that if you need to adjust the vent rails, you will not be able to get a screw driver in there at all.  

 I also do the same to where the vent rails attach to the frame ring.

Before I tighten these up I place the center vents in.  There are 10-24 thread holes on the sides of the vent rails to allow 4 machine screws (or set screws) to hold them in place.

And here's how R2-D2 looks now...

 

 

New Part Arrivals

New parts for Droid # 2 have arrived

Side vents

Power Couplers