Wow....and wow!

The past two weeks have been especially productive for the droid build.  And when I say productive, I don't mean in the way of actual building production, but instead in information, parts, and networking.
      I have received a load of parts these past two weeks.  March 24th I received my new RC controller and an R2-M5 banner.

      The building of this R2 unit is a bunch of small life-long dreams wrapped into one project.  When I was a kid I remember going to a hobby show or an airshow or something where guys were flying around RC planes.  I remember the huge RC controllers that they used and falling in love with the buttons and switches and the enormity of the device, yes, I was a techno-nerd even back then.  I have always wanted my own gigantic controller and now I have it.  When I started looking into the possible controller for the droid this was the better one that people had and I jumped on it.  It is really cool and can do so much that I will probably not utilize everything on it, but I have the money and I have to spend a certain amount of it anyway.        The second item that I got on that day was my R2-M5 banner.  as you can see in the picture above it is perfect for my droid.  that is the color and designation for the droid that I am making.  I am not making the regular R2-D2, blue and white, instead I am making the red and white R2-M5.  The Midwest R2 Builders Club has four banners for sale for events or your building space.  One happened to be the droid that I am building.  I was so excited to hang that in my classroom for now, but it will be making its way home to be put up in the Droid Construction Hanger (my third car garage).
        Speaking of the Droid Construction Hanger (DCH), today was also a great day for getting prepared for building.  The kids and I cleaned out the third car stall and I cleaned off half of my work bench.  It truly is a spring break miracle.  Here is a picture of the glorious cleanliness, the next miracle is to see how long I can keep it this way.

        The big item of this two week haul is the COM8 frame that came during spring break while we were gone.  Our neighbor was checking in to feed and care for our cat during the week and she sent us a text while we were gone that a flat heavy package arrived for me from Texas.  I was so excited because I knew it was my frame.  Probably the number one most important part and starting point for any build is the frame.  This frame is made of aluminum and will house the electronics, hold up the dome, contain the batteries and is the command center for the whole droid.  I am so glad that I was able to get one while the part run was still active.

        It was funny too, both my neighbor and my wife both looked at this flat 20" square box that was only an inch thick and wondered how the heck it could be an R2-D2 frame.  I opened it for both of them to see that all of the parts are flat aluminum, but there are three "rings" that are the base, the top and the kinda middle sections held together with the poles that stand upright.  Wait until I start building it and you will believe too if you can't see it.
        I was very privileged to be invited to a Midwest R2 Builders Event yesterday as well.  It happened to be in Goshen, where I went to high school.  The guys there were so informative and wanted to give me pointers on everything.  They were very excited to show off pieces that they had created or figured out how best to build.  I got instructions on the control board electronics, the leg pieces and how to construct them out of wood, and a lot about the dome fixtures.  They had a 2/3 completed R2 driving around when I got there, so I got to see it in operation.

      I also purchased my own pair of foot drives for my unit from one of the guys in the club.  He builds these foot drives for the national R2 builders club and he happens to live in Fort Wayne.  He was the one that had invited me up for the event and had built me a set of drives as well.  One of the other guys asked me if I wanted a set of legs because he could use the money for a trip he was taking the following week.  I guess I'm getting my legs this week as well.  I just can't believe how well all of this is coming together so far.  The other two big "pieces" or "purchases" are the dome and the resin detail parts (all of the little vents and cosmetic details).  The dome is purchased, just not delivered yet and the resin parts have been emailed about.  Time to start building I guess.