Base Ring Cut Out

Today I spent a bit of time in the garage, after work, enjoying the rain coming down.



Was able to get the Base Ring cut out using the same techniques I did for the Upper Ring.




Lastly, I drew all the guides for the Center Ring and will try and get it cut out tomorrow.


While cutting out the Base Ring, my Jig Saw finally started giving up the ghost (it's almost 12 years old). So, on payday this week, I'll pick up another Jig Saw. Now I need to start laying out the ribs, shoulder wings, etc.

Upper Ring Cut

Was able to spend about an hour in the garage tonight after the family Easter Celebrations. First thing I did was cut out a square around the drawn disc I created yesterday. I then nailed the square down via its center point. This allowed me to spin the square. Using my hand jigsaw, I was able to cut into the square, hold the saw firm and spin the square around it's center point, following the drawn 18" circle. The cut was pretty darn good for being done by hand. After I finished, I sanded all the edges. I didn't take a picture of the square cut out, but you can see the remainder of the plywood under the disc in this photo. You can also see the disc is still nailed down by it's center point. This was right after I finished cutting the disc.



Also, in the above photo, you can see I had drilled a hole on the inside of the disc so I can insert my jigsaw to cut out the center portion of the disc. Here's a cleaner shot of the hole with all the sawdust blown away.



Here's the remnant square after being lifted from the disc.



And lastly, a shot of the top ring itself at an almost perfect 18".



After all of this, I began laying out the design for the bottom disc. I think I have most of the angles drawn in, the center foot square dimensions and the flat spots on the sides of the ring. Pictures to follow when I get back to it.


Ya know, I forgot how theraputic working with wood can be! And...R2 is getting his skeleton!

Starting on the Frame

Didn't have as much time this weekend as I originally anticipated; however, I did start out on the layout of the frame ring. I also unpacked the dome and purchased a few simple tools to make life a little easier on me during the frame building process. I was running out of daylight so the photos from my iPhone came out a touch blurry, but I'm making progress.


Upper Disk layout





This is gonna get messy quick!





My new little protractor





This made drawing out the frame circle SUPER easy!!!!!!





My dome unpacked and sitting on the table!!!!




Easter tomorrow...but I'll see if I can get a little work snuck in.

Plywood for frame

I spent the week hunting down the best quality and price I could find on plywood for the frame. In my case, I was able to find $39.00 sheets of 4'x8'x.75" and 4'x8'x.5" at the Home Depot in Folsom, CA. I ended up with the Birch Ply and it looks like it's really good quality. No warping, no visible voids..etc. So, I made the purchase and had them cut each sheet into two 4'x4' squares that would fit into the back of my Xterra. Time to break out the Senna plans and start cuttin' some wood after work (I hope)!

Aluminum JAG Center Ankle

On order! WOO HOO!!!!!



THANK YOU JERRY!!!

R2 in JJ Abrams Star Trek (Update)

Figured I'd better follow up my own post from late last year HERE and show the still image from Star Trek where R2 can be spotted floating in space. Check it out:



Pretty cool!

Haven't Lost Sight!

I'm still here! Just haven't had a lot of time to update the blog and I feel bad about it.
On March 20th, 2010, myself, Matt McCormick, Chris James, Steve Simmons, Gerard Fajardo, Ryan Goff, Grant McKinney, Marc Verdiell and Mark Chu Lin all got together (with a host of kids) at Matt McCormick's house in Davis, CA. We all got to watch and examine the 5 different R2's that were there, talk droids, compare notes, laugh, take pictures and eat food!

THANKS MATT!!! It was a LOT of fun!

So, since I haven't really taken any steps to move on my dome or skins, I think this was the motivation I needed to kick things into gear. I've ordered all of my dome parts, in resin, and they should be here soon. I hope to upgrade a few items to Aluminum sooner or later (like the holo projectors).

Then, it's on to the frame, which I'm hoping to pick up the wood for this weekend...gotta go to Lowes and Home Depot to look around.

Here's a few photos I took throughout the day:


Left to right: Gerard, Steve, Ryan, Chris, Marc, Grant and Matt



A shot of Steve's R2 ("Twitch")



A peak inside Gerard's R2



Matt's R2


We closed out the day with an R2 Race which was won by Gerard's R2...BY A LONG SHOT! Congratulations Gerard!


I'll try to post the video up pretty soon, but it's an HD video and I need to compress it down so it will be manageable on the blog.


Thanks for hanging in there with me! Keep watching my blog, you'll be seeing more updates soon!