BB-8 Display Stand

[kresty]

Plans posted - click on the image for the .zip - includes DXF, SVG & PDF, though dimensions aren't marked right now.

Pulled this out of our room build thread since it's probably of more general interest.  Working on the display stands for BB-8 & L3-G0.  Wanted that star wars light pattern thingy.  I think it's working out.

This is what we're aiming for, we've started on the BB-8 stand.

Working on the L3-G0 and BB-8 platform design.

[kresty]

I didn't get as much done a couple weekends ago as I expected.  We have to cut outside and it was raining all day.  Either that or I was too lazy doing other stuff.  We did manage to get the wood cut last night though!  (Our neighbors may not have been terribly pleased).  

First time doing a big project with the Shaper Origin.  I may have been pushing/rushing it too much &/or otherwise not having much experience with that router, or any router for that matter.  Some of the edges ended up a bit rougher than I'd've liked.  Hopefully not too bad though.

The pattern it left behind on the spoil board was pretty cool too:

We ended up with a pile of parts.

It was getting late, but I was curious if the parts were close, so I did a cursory fit test.  It's upside down since there's nothing holding it together.

Since then I've started cutting some of the translucent panels, but we still need to clean up the boards before we can assemble the stand. The 45 degree boards need 45 degree edges.  I so happen to have a 90 degree router bit sitting on my desk, so I'll see if I can get that to work.  The edges need a tiny bit of sanding, and maybe some putty where I was a little over-aggressive with the tool, but I don't think it'll take much.

[kresty]

I wanted to assemble it last week, but things came up (furnace was replaced and all sorts of other fun stuff).  But I got around to gluing and screwing it together today!

Assembling BB-8 Stand

Note the recessed circle in the top, about 1/8th" or 3mm.  I'm printing a round shallow dish with BB-8's curvature to fit in there.  The hope is to keep him from rolling too far off the platform.  I'm actually thinking to allow him to roll a little, depending on how the animation goes.  We'd like to be able to make him react a little, like at Celebration London.

When done, this'll go in our remodeled theater room.

Basically we just glued it together as you can see here:

Gluing BB-8 Stand

The middle disc in the middle of that pix was a pain because the routed square in the middle didn't fit.  I think I wanted the round bit to be bigger and scaled up the whole thing, so the inside edge ended up being further apart than the square support pillar.

I ended up routing the rest of the square by hand.  I think it was about 2.5mm / 0.1" too fat.  Not critical since it's hidden inside.

I glued everything to the top and clamped it, kind of hoping that they'd line up on the bottom when I attached the bottom rim piece.  It pretty much worked, though I'll need to clean up the edges a little.

Working on the bottom edge

Lara got little finishing screws to countersink in the MDF.  It was a little tricky to get the heads in, I ended up predrilling them and then twisting a knife in the top before inserting the screw.  It'll work good enough, the glue's holding it anyway.

Screws in the stand

The part that I did get done last week is cutting all of the acrylic windows.  This is clearly something I could use some practice on.  I got pretty frustrated as I seemed to get worse and worse.  (The first cut was pretty clean, so I thought I knew what I was doing).

The edges are rough in spots and a few even weren't usable.  Fortunately, I allowed 1/4" on each side for mounting, so the rough edges will be easy to hide.

Rough Window Covers

I'd been expecting to use flat acrylic, like I had in my old 2x4' fluorescent lights.  But the only stuff we could find was textured.  The assumption was that we'd just put them in backwards, but after experimentation with a flashlight behind it, we've decided that we like the textured side out.  We'll see how it goes, they go in pretty much last, so if we decide it's not working they should be fairly straightforward to swap out.

Steps left in the project:
* Printing the recess thingy
* Filling and sanding the edges
* Paint inside and outside
* Install Panels
* Sanding
* Lights (I confess this might take a while to get to).

[kresty]

Cleaned it up and a coat of primer. It's going to need a little more cleaning of spots the primer revealed.

Priming BB-8 Stand
1st coat of primer after wood putty.

[Dyne]

Looking good.

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

[savagecreature]

that's cool. A good display area is always really nice when you have droids.

With it standing up on its edge like that it almost looks like a tombstone.

[kresty]

that's cool. A good display area is always really nice when you have droids.

With it standing up on its edge like that it almost looks like a tombstone.

Yea, I keep taking pix of it on it's side!!!

[kresty]

Posted plans - click on the image for the .zip- includes DXF, SVG & PDF, though dimensions aren't marked right now.

Looking at adding LEDs today:

BB-8 Stand Before LEDs
BB-8 Stand Before adding the LEDs.

[kresty]

Well, I didn't get the lights installed, but I did figure out how I'm going to do it:




My 5050 LEDs were "outdoor", which makes it hard to turn the corners.  I have "indoor" ones on order, so then I'll be able to run wires between each strip... (I could do that with the outdoor too, but I'd have to remove the protective rubber from the ends of each joint, which'd be a pain.)

Better ones will arrive tomorrow.  Hopefully early enough to do something with.

Oh, I also decided the way I'd tacked in the lenses (spots caulk in the corners and middle of the edges on the back side) wasn't secure enough.  So I ran a bead the rest of the way around the edges.

Caulking the lenses

[kresty]

More pix of the trial lights. (The purple is really white, just camera CCDs don't like LED frequencies)

Trial of the lights
Test lights running up and down between the panels.

Trial of the lights

Trial of the lights

Trial of the lights

Trial of the lights