Wingspan's Baby GONK Build

[Wingspan]

I know many of you will have seen this already on Astromech.net but I thought I'd reproduce my Baby Gonk build thread here in the interest of growing the site.  So far it's the only thing I've got to contribute here!

On to the build:

I've had the idea for a while now to build a smaller scale "Baby GONK" droid.  The new little guy will house the charger for R2 which seems fitting for a power droid.  I want this project to be the opposite of R2...that being FAST and CHEAP.  A few days work max and I set  a budget of $50 for materials not counting any junk I happen to have lying around to re-purpose (I consider that free).

I picked up a pair of 12qt. storage containers at Walmart for $2.94 ea. Then I went to the dollar store and spent about 20 minutes looking for anything that might pass for a greeblie and any left over blinky Christmas light junk.  I found $12.27 worth of crap that I think I can work with.  Last stop on the shopping trip was the hardware store for a can of dark green spray paint and a 3/4" dowl rod.  That was the biggest budget buster...$14.34.  

Total spent $32.49!  I think that's going to be the total outlay.  The rest of the droid will be built with whatever I have on hand.  

Time to pile up the stuff I bought along with a section of hose from an old shop vac, old computer parts (both saved for this very purpose), and some off-cuts/scrap wood from my R2 build:



First up is the feet.  I thought about using plastic containers or junction boxes for this until I found a chunk of plywood big enough to make them.  This hefty bit of timber is an offcut from the main structural "U" shaped element of my R2 frame. I sketched a basic pair of GONK feet directly on the block and hacked away at it with the table and band saws until I had a pair of feet.  These two feet are actually still one piece of wood.  The gap between them doesn't go all the way thru.  There is still ~1/2" of plywood connecting them at the bottom.  When I was happy with the shape of the feet I drilled them for the 3/4" dowl and then cut a larger recess around the dowel for the vacuum hose to fit down into.







More leftover birch ply formed a tray the top of the legs fit into.  This will hold the charger later on.  I made the tray so the weight of the charger will sit level and centered over the feet.



The lower storage bin is screwed to the above tray from the bottom.  I put a thicker piece of wood between the rear of the tray and the storage container so Baby GONK will look up a bit at R2 while he is charging him.

Starting to look like a GONK!



Moving on to Greeblies!

At the dollar store I grabbed small containers, little flashlights, some blinky light up stuff, and a few cell phone camera lenses.  I also have some circuit boards, heat sinks,and cables from old computers I've scrapped recently.  Not sure what I'll end up using or how, we'll just see what happens! :p:p:p