#happinessmachine — Public Fediverse posts

That’s on my workbench right now. I have to finish the second drive for Artoo. I need to shorten the chain. Which tends to be a pita. The link separator tool I got is for bicycle chains. Those Inise for Artoo are eSkateboard chains and a bit smaller. So it is more finicky. #wip #happinessMachine #StarWars #droidbuilders #3DPrinting #makershour

Here and there I find a few minutes to work on the #happinessMachine. I glued some of the dome panels, since those will not be servo operated to open. #3DPrinting #StarWars #propMaking #droidbuilders #makersHour #wip

Tonight I will continue some #StarWars related builds. For one I need to finish painting my R2-D2 wooden legs and also do the detail work on my Stormtrooper helmet. So the #airbrush gets some work again. 😄 #3dPrinting #happinessMachine #wip

The other night I also mounted all the body Greeblies to R2-D2. It is so awesome seeing all the parts and colors coming together now. It got me really excited to start working on him again. 😁 #happinessMachine #StarWars #3dPrinting #droidBuilders #wip #makersHour

The other dreaded part was getting the holes in the right spot on the dome. I did screws in the radar eye and painted them with a marker and then pressed it against the dome. That work somewhat. Still one hole was off and I needed to drill another one. Luckily the first is hidden behind the radar eye. 😅 Now R2-D2 can look at me judgingly for not working on him. 😄 #happinessMachine #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidBuilders #wip #makersHour

While looking at photos on my phone I realized that I haven’t done any work on my #happinessMachine Artoo for almost 6 months. So I started the process I kinda dreaded. Drilling the radar eye to use heat insets for attaching it to the dome. Since it is hollow the insets didn’t grip enough and I had to get the 3d printing pen and make some infill to drill into and set the insets. (Finally a good use for the pen I bought years ago and was collecting dust 😅) #3dPrinting #StarWars #wip #droidBuilders #propMaking #makersHour

Still working on the legs of Artoo. The plywood really is not very flat. 😅 So much putty and filler and still no perfect surface. I really underestimated this. But I want them as smooth as possible. So a lot of sanding and filling is still to be done. #woodworking #droidbuilders #StarWars #happinessMachine #MakersHour

More greeblies stuff! 😅 I did finish up the holo projectors. Like with the Mando breach charges, I used the acrylic Christmas ornament orbs and cut a little bit of and sanded it down to use them as the holo projectors lenses. They fit nicely now. I also finished the various vents of R2-D2‘s body and the coin slots. Also started to paint the utility arms. But they gave me quite some grief. I had spots of bad orange peel and after sanding it down and re doing it, I got on one a run of paint right in the front surface. 🤬 Will have to sand again and be more patient with spraying. #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #MakersHour #happinessMachine

And more greeblies in preparation and painting. The utility arms got another coat of filler-primer. The vents and coin slots also, they even got the first paint. The metallic blue for the inner parts of the vents. And I sanded one of the holo projectors again and primed it with Vallejo Mecha primer, like the vent fingers. All those parts will get a coat of silver next. #3dPrinting #droidbuilders #StarWars #happinessMachine #makersHour

The center leg of Artoo is basically finished. It was sanded, filled, sanded, primed, sanded and finally base colored in traffic white like the rest of the body. #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #happinessMachine #MakersHour

And the work goes on and on. I sanded the wooden legs of Artoo and did a lot of putty work on the plywood. After sanding again I called it good enough and started filler-priming those legs. Just after a few coats they totally don’t look wooden anymore. There are still lots of imperfections there and I will have to do some more filling. But yeah it’s on the right track. 😁 #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #MakersHour #happinessMachine

And a batch of more parts were finished. Two octagon ports and one power coupler. The parts were filler-primed, sanded and then airbrushed silver or sprayed metallic blue with a rattle can respectively. After the paint was dryed and a clearcoat was applied the parts were ca glued together. They are now ready to be installed in the body. 😎 #3DPrinting #StarWars #happinessMachine #MakersHour #droidbuilders

I also airbrushed one of the holo projectors and a side vent for Artoo. For the vent, I first sprayed the whole thing with the duplicolor metallic blue rattle can. After that I masked everything except the small indents. Those were sprayed with some thinned Vallejo silver. After that I masked the insides of to paint the outer frame silver too. The holo projector just got the rest of the silver on the airbrush. 😁 #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #happinessMachine #MakersHour

More #happinessMachine work was done on every other night. Right now it is a lot of painting, but it starts to look actually like Artoo! 😁 The body isn’t gray anymore, but „traffic white“, even though I found it hard to see on the body, which was gray before from the primer. The doors look more white to me. Maybe another coat will be necessary on the body. The utility arms were parts I really dreaded. They had a lot of steps from the layers. I gave them a huge amount of putty to smooth it out. #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #makersHour

More progress on the #happinessMachine project. I filler-primed the bottom of the body, the holo projectors and also the two rings for the dome. Also sprayed some more panels blue. #3dPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #makersHour

After sanding down the spot putty R2-D2 got another few coats of filter-primer (now a gray one, since the other brand ran out). He is getting another now. No layer lines and just a few little holes, which I will have to fill again. Probably one more round of sanding and primer and the body should be good to go for painting the base color. I also primed some more parts of Artoo, while I was at it. #3DPrinting #StarWars #happinessMachine #droidbuilders #makersHour

After another round of sanding two nights ago, Artoo was almost stripped again. I putty’d a few spots and let him rest. Until tonight. I sanded the putty down and dusted the body of. He just got the first fresh coat of filler-primer and his drying before I‘ll hit him again. Hopefully starting to look a little less like a 3d print and more like the „real“ thing, at least texture-wise. #3DPrinting #StarWars #droidbuilders #happinessMachine #makersHour

The horror begins. I did a lot of initial sanding on the body of R2-D2 for a couple of nights now. After that I gave him the first sloppy coat of filler-primer. Now after it cured long enough, I will have to again sand everything and give it another coat. Rinse and repeat until he is smooth. #3DPrinting #StarWars #happinessMachine #droidbuilders #makersHour

Ok, after putting it off for a long time, I finally started to work on Artoo‘s body. Since I 3d printed him from PLA+ I couldn’t Acetone weld the pieces and used CA glue. I am a little worried that this might get too brittle and will break when he moves one day. So, I tried what I saw some Cosplayers do with their printed props: Using an soldering iron to weld the seams. I did that to all the inside seams of the body and some on the outside, where the pieces because of warping didn’t quite perfectly fit. The „scars“ will need to be sanded, but that’s a lot less sanding then without the melting. #StarWars #happinessMachine #3Dprinting #droidbuilders

Also since I was doing a lot of painting the last evenings, I also did a bit of sanding and priming of various parts of my #happinessMachine aka R2-D2! It‘s such an on and off project, that some of these parts were printed years ago! 😱 Well, I locked up my inner perfectionist and just did some work on those. They won’t be perfect, but I think they don’t have to! #3DPrinting #droidbuilders #StarWars

@Maker_of_Things @makershour A1: I am Spark, a maker of many things. I am right now making various props and helmets from my favorite franchises. Most of these projects are 3d printed, but I also do woodworking and sometimes I kinda combine both like with my long term project #happinessMachine, a life-sized R2-D2 build. #MakersHour
https://social.makerforums.info/@Spark/112324836204844837

One more set of progress pics from last weekend. I finished painting the done pie panels with the metallic blue and also rubbed a lot of silver wax across #R2D2 ‘s dome. I just show the better looking side of the dome. There are some spots that didn’t get covered with the silver wax really good. I will have to work on those spots again. But so far I am pleased with the look. #happinessMachine #3DPrinting #StarWars

🎶 I see a droid part, and want it painted black… 🎸 And after primer it is again time for some coats of black. The pie panels for the #happinessMachine R2 will get the blue spray paint next. The thermal detonators will be my test subjects for airbrushing chrome paint on. I am excited for the results. #3dPrinting #StarWars #cosplay

Yesterday I had time and energy for two hours to go into my workshop and continue wet sanding various 3d prints. That was the first time in like 3 weeks. 😅 Here is just two pictures the one is the before from 3 weeks ago, the first black coat on #R2D2‘s dome. The other is after wet sanding with 3000grit. #3dprinting #happinessMachine #StarWars

More sanding more priming and filling. I definitely have too many #3DPrinting projects with the need for post processing. But I hope I can now high grit wet sand the dome of the #happinessMachine #R2D2 and then start with the black undercoat. The Stormtrooper will need another round of filler-primer which I didn’t start spraying tonight, since the house already stinks. I need to optimize my fume extractor. Not completely satisfied.

Ok enough for today. I got some spraying done. There are some more preparations for the Stormtrooper #cosplay also a little more on my #happinessMachine ‘s (#R2D2) radar eye done. I really like how it came out in the end. #3DPrinting

That dome is starting to look really nice now. Filling, sanding and priming this thing is my on and off project for a long time now. I want it to be really smooth and it is finally getting there. Hopefully I find more time and motivation to work more on my #happinessMachine. I have so many parts laying around which need to be sanded and primed. #DroidBuilders #R2D2 #StarWars

After the sanding Stream the other day, today I worked offline in the shop. I pretty much cleaned a lot of wood laying around. So I now have more floor space available. After that I put up the spray tent and filler-primed some #3DPrinting stuff still waiting to be processed. A lot of parts are for my #happinessMachine R2-D2. 😄

A little spontaneous stream. I need to work a little bit on the #happinessMachine which means some sanding. Say hello, so it isn’t too boring. 😑 http://twitch.tv/spark_the_fox

Woohoo! R2 is now standing on his own feet. Today I finished one foot and fixed the other. Now they are on the legs and it’s looking good so far. I guess I will have to disassemble them a few more times before it’s final, but it’s a milestone for me. #happinessMachine #3dprinting #woodworking #DroidBuilders