Treadwell WED-15-77 build : JamesF

[Paul6700]

Blog update part 22:

https://r5-d4astromechdroid.blogspot.com...2.html?m=1

Finally bit the bullet and took the cut(s)….




This detail had been bugging me for missing it during the build.


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I applaud you James, that is a big move and I think it will look even better!

Thanks Paul, I had been putting it of for months as didn’t want to mess it up.

I worry sometimes about ‘perfection’ but then remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect. …..just close enough


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I do too! Something of this size and with this much detail is hard for the regular person to notice any imperfections.

[Jaffa007]

Blog update: Part 24

https://r5-d4astromechdroid.blogspot.com...4.html?m=1


It’s been a busy month!
At the beginning of it, I finished machining the last two axles (front).

The second motor arrived but the brackets still haven’t, should of been here by the 12th February at the latest..... Got a refund, so had a go at printing my own version in some PETG material.


3D Printing:
• more wheel spacers in polypropylene.
• Drew up a mast base support plate. This was an idea I had to help support the bottom of the mast and add rigidity….. on re-test fitting the mast afterwards, the lower structure was already strong, but this does help.
• battery location brackets I drew up and 3D printed last month.
• Drew up a new receiver unit to secure it to the board, see control board picture below.
• Motor brackets
• covers for the wire holes, to make things look neat.
• Drew up some control panel supports & printed.

Mast base support:

Can be seen fitted here to the PVC pipe.

Electrical:
Once I’d decided on the battery location, it was going to go in the rear, but decided the front might be better, plus more space for the control panel and for the motors. I still need to make some brackets to secure the panel, see below. Bought some 14 swg cable, as the 12 swg looked a bit overkill compared to the motor wire.

Servo wires:
Whilst re-installing the head cables into the mast, the arm servo lead got caught and unplugged. This wasn’t the end of the world, I simply unscrewed the arm box cover and pulled out the cable. I had thought this might be a future problem, just hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. So now it’s secured with some clear heat shrink. ‘A’ for arm servo.


Control Panel:
I used one of the left over boards from the Head Box build, as a panel to mount the speed controller, fuses, switches, receiver, and sound system boards.


The two toggle switches (top right, above the Sabertooth speed controller) are off an old transmitter. One is for power and the other is for turning off the sound board.

UPDATE: A new power switch is to be relocated to outside of the body for quick access.


Detail's:
Another detail I need to continue, was on the front panel. It needed to have pop rivets added to give the illusion of them being metal plate.
panel detail - pop rivets added


I need to add more to other areas of the body.

_ _ _ _ _
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Tracks:
I was going to wait till I’d tested out the temporary display set I had. Unfortunately one of them broke when re-fitting onto the wheels.

Before the temp track broke, I had a go at 3D printing the guide teeth in Polypropylene. These were too stiff, so a redesign was required, but as the temp track broke, I decided to focus on other parts of the project instead.
The idea was to have a thin strip of 3D material linking the teeth, hopefully, helping with retaining them on the track.

The supplier I bought the rubber mould material from, supply in 2Kg , so I’ll be ordering this next along with colour pigment.

I redesigned the 3D track moulds to allow for location pop rivets and/or to help bond the guide parts of the tread.

Photo opportunity:
Co working was leaving (end of February) & wanted to see the assembled droid.
Took this first picture of it about to start working on repairing some machines.


Feels like the end of building is near……


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[savagecreature]

As always, thank you for sharing your build.
The team is in the middle of robotics season, so I haven't had any time to work on my own stuff, but your posts are interesting and inspiring!

[Jaffa007]

As always, thank you for sharing your build.
The team is in the middle of robotics season, so I haven't had any time to work on my own stuff, but your posts are interesting and inspiring!

Thanks, am glad to hear they are.

Just a small update, I decided to only buy a litre of the mix, which was available in black, so didn’t have to buy the pigment.

I made a long video, edited down thankfully lol. With the moulding process.

Making Tracks for Treadwell Droid WED-15-77
https://youtu.be/s7v9d1T-T-U


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[Paul6700]

Great video James. It will be interesting to see how those go together.

[Jaffa007]

Results of joining two pieces of the track together……

Making Tracks: de moulding two joined together tracks
https://youtu.be/IS2mXH7y_Sg


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[Jaffa007]

Morning everyone, Blog update part 25

https://r5-d4astromechdroid.blogspot.com...5.html?m=1

This month’s work in detail.


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[Jaffa007]

Its been a busy few months since my last post.
Life’s ups and downs.

I was working on designing and 3D printing a simple motorised ‘claw’ arm…

Had to wait for more rubber material to be able to make the last joints of the track and it’s ‘teeth’.

Tread has been slightly neglected so haven’t done the final things I should have. Am getting the ‘I don’t want to finish him, feeling’ as if everything goes well, he’ll be complete….

Good news is that friend Mike has been able to secure this years local event building, wasn’t planned in January as the building was expecting to be under renovation, but their plan changed and its free.
So now with everything else, i have a deadline for Tread to be completed by!



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[Dyne]

Its been a busy few months since my last post.
Life’s ups and downs.

I can relate. I made plans to upgrade LD-F1's drive back in September (along with the front axle for my baddeley mouse build), needed new hardware, then took six months to actually get that order taken care of.

Good news is that friend Mike has been able to secure this years local event building, wasn’t planned in January as the building was expecting to be under renovation, but their plan changed and its free.
So now with everything else, i have a deadline for Tread to be completed by!

I find that deadlines for my droids to make an appearance are my best source of motivation (and sometimes stress). At least the less common/more unique ones, as I get eager to see people's reactions.

The majority of my builds to date -- both those here and those on other forums -- were entirely built during or most heavily worked on in the summer, not because of weather, but because of my deadline -- Dragon Con takes place on labor day weekend (late August/early September).

Good to hear your event is moving forward. I've seen videos from prior events. And despite never having come further across the Atlantic than slightly off the Florida and South Carolina coasts, I am vaguely familiar with Bristol, as I've been a fan of certain youtubers based there for almost 15 years.


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[Jaffa007]

Hopefully there isn’t much left to do on Thread. Even if he is finished for the event, with being organisers right hand man so to speak, I’ll be preoccupied with ensuring everything runs smoothly lol.

Aaah, who are these Bristol YouTube’rs??

The teeth for the treads are comingalong and so far the bonding is working.

Will be posting pics soon.


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