The Frame

For the past couple of weekends I have been making progress with the construction of R2-D2's wooden frame. My frame is based off of the Mike Senna plans from the R2Builders Yahoo site. Since an aluminum frame is quite expensive I went for a frame made of wood. I took a thumb drive with the plans on it to Staples and had it printed out at 'no scale' for $5. Then I took sections and cut them up to fit on the pieces of 2'x2' birch plywood. I needed a total of 4 pieces, 2 of them 3/4" thick (top and bottom circles) and 2 of them 1/2" thick (lower ring and 'ribs' and vertical supports). For the 3/4" side pieces, I saved some money by using a scrap piece of regular plywood that I had laying around. I used spray adhesive lightly on the wood and lay the plans on top and smoothed it out.

I used my table saw to rip all of the vertical support pieces. I cut a couple extra, just in case. Then I trimmed the each to the correct length on the table saw. The small notches were knocked out with small cuts from the band saw and finished off with the Dremel sander. Using my band saw I cut close to the edges of the lines of the curved pieces and then finished them smooth to the line with the belt sander. The interior cuts on the lower ring and the opening at the top were cut with an electric hand-held jigsaw. The pockets on the bottom and top were made using a plunge router with both 1/2" and 3/4" straight bits. Since these cuts are not going to be visible they did not have to be absolute. But I payed special attention to the small slots that hold the vertical strips. There are 10 of these slots on the bottom and 5 on the top. Some of these pieces have to line up the cuts on the top in order for the body to be square.

This pocket is for clearance for the octagonal port.
Click on picture to enlarge.



Every piece had to be test-fitted to make sure it was easy to put together but snug enough that it would not fall apart.



Test fitting some of the pieces before gluing.
Click on picture to enlarge.



Any pieces that had trouble fitting were touched up with the sanding bit on the Dremel. When I was happy with the fitting of everything, I got ready to glue it all together using wood glue, pipe clamps and bar clamps. I started by assembling the entire frame and then removed most parts except for the two vertical supports in the rear (parts G) and the two vertical supports in the front (parts C & D) that are directly opposite. (Of course the side vertical supports (H & J) were also left in place and glued in to the bottom and top) The 4 outer vertical supports each were held 'lightly' with the pipe clamps and one by one I removed one, applied the glue and then placed the piece and put back on the pipe clamp 'lightly' When all four supports were in place I applied more tension to each of the pipe clamps and let everything dry.



Initial gluing of the frame.
Sorry about the blurry picture.
Click on picture to enlarge.



Once things were dry enough that inserting the other vertical supports would not loosen anything, I went and added in the rest of the vertical supports (part E, A, & B), using clamps as needed. Then the 3 vertical supports (part F) were glued in with the piece that connects to parts H & J.



Two vertical supports (F) hold the wedge that fits into the slot that was routed into the vertical piece of plywood.
Click on picture to enlarge.



Front view of the frame.
Click on picture to enlarge.

 



Back view of the frame.
Click on picture to enlarge.







 



This is a good start and everything feels sturdy. I might do a little added support and drive some brads into some of the parts with a nail gun. 

Next: I start working on the 'skin' while I wait for dome and some other parts.