FPV Buggy update

I made a new short video with my FPV Buggy.

I mounted a HD camera behind the driver, I still have the FPV camera for the videogoggles in the drivers head. I also changed to a brushless setup for some extra power! 

Skinny laminated leg x return of building the robot

I have returned to my robot build. My latest build update was when I made a new try at curved laminated legs. Now almost a year later I have finally found new motivation to finish my build. I have sanded the legs to the correct shape and have started with the leg mechanism that will be connected to the body.

FPV Baja Buggy Video

I put together a short video of my FPV Baja Buggy

Robots at display

My robots are on display in kvarnen in Söderbärke, Dalarna but I'm not there.

I'm no big fan of exhibitions and in this case I just delivered the robots and left, and that's enough for me. It's not that I have a problem meeting people, but I don't see the point in talking about my stuff, I only feel narcissistic. And If I have to stay around it's lost time where I could have been building stuff. 

The two big wood robots

 Gundam and Zaku made of wood sticks and transparent plastic

Optimus Prime made of Wood sticks and transparent plastic. Pink Puzzle Makke made of styrofoam.

Skinny laminated legs Part:3

I decided that I want another shape on my skinny laminated legs, and that means a new jig.

Skinny laminated legs Part:2

I have done some more work on my skinny legs, but when doing the first dry fit I realized that i'm not happy with the shape/bend of the legs... I've had that feeling for a while but hoped that it change when I did the dry fit. I have decided that I have to make another try on a different shape.

Konst i Påsk

I have been preparing my robots for the Konst i Påsk exhibition in Söderbärke.

I have been building small boxes with lights and fixing minor things with the robots.

You might wonder whats up with the new paint job? I had an idea that I wanted the robot to have a slight greyish look. I went to the store and they mixed a formula that they said would give the wood a slight grey"drift wood" feel to it. I went home and painted the robot and got a awful dark bluish grey that I didn't like one bit. I started sanding to get rid of the paint, but after hours of sanding I realized that I would have to live with my mistake. It would take too much time to get rid of all the paint. I'm going to leave it in "shabby chic" state that it's in now and I just have to learn to live with the fact that I hate it!

Gun sight

I realized that the robot needs a good gun sight! I have always loved the look of the reflective gun sights that WWII era airplanes had. I figured out how to make one with a LED, a small piece of a CD and some transparent plastic (and some cosmetic wood). The pictures below only shows a blurred gun sight cross, but it's pretty sharp in real life. I'm very happy with the result!

DIY Ping Pong Camera Slider

I took a day of building robots to try a project I have been thinking of for a while.
I built a DIY Camera slider last summer when I was filming on a BMX racing documentry.
It worked very good but I always wanted it to be motorized. It's not that hard to ad a motor and a belt, but I wanted it to have a "Ping Pong" mode so that it doesn't burn a motor if you don't stop it in time.
I bought a geared 5RPM motor, a timing belt, a few small bearings, a terminal block and two switches on Ebay and made a try. I had no idea what speed I should have on the motor and when I made the first test I realised that it's a bit slow (as can be seen in the video clip below). next step is to buy a faster motor and a motor controller.

Slider with timing belt

A geared 5rpm motor, end switch a terminal block and  lot of cables.

I need to clean up the installation now that I know that it works.

A short video demo

Sculpting and painting

I'm waiting for some more wood from Hobbyträ, and in the mean time I work with some sculpting and urethane plastic casting. I did a Rut head sculpt and a  Angrybird (or pingeböng as my daughter call them) co-pilot. I did the sculpts with Sculpey III and casts in Smooth-on 310 Urethane plastic. I prefer Super sculpey but I bought some Sculpey III as a test to know the difference. 

Painted the Angrybird cast and here it is with the original!

I have to start working on some more cockpit details and of course some clothes for the Rut doll. 

Mind game

Both seats are now finished. At least this far, I might ad some things later but that is another update.

I have started building the lower part of the robot. Things are moving quite slow at the moment because I don't have a clear picture of how I want it to look like. I'm trying out different ideas as I go right now, I think I'm on the right track but I can only decide that when I get the whole picture.

Planking of the first top half is almost finished. This is where the mind game goes in on full effect. One part of you doubt every step of the build and the other half is care free and sure that everything is going to be great! Should I continue planking the other side or should I start with the shape of underside to make sure it turn out as I want it?

First seat

The first seat is finished! I'm still working on the other interior details: dashboard and sidepanels.

  

This weekend I'm planing to start working on some of the parts for the underside of the body and the lower body. But first I need to visit materialbutiken for some more supersculpey and wood.

Cockpit

I have begun working with the cockpit. I did the floor and the walls i the same manner as the rest of the body. This time I used 10x1mm pinewood. I used a 1.5x1.5mm strip around the edge (inside and outside) to make a rounded edge. I'm still working on some different designs for the instrument panel.

Next up was the seats! I had a hard time choosing the design but in the end I went for a Hot Rod style seat. I made it in aluminium and wood, the wood parts are just a frame for the seat foam.

First test with the latex fabric as leather imitation.

A build update

I have been planking the underside of the body. Compared to top, this i pretty easy and straightforward. I used 1.5mm pinewood in the middle for extra strength. This is where the bottom part of the robot will be attached. the outer planking is 1mm pinewood, but 15mm wide instead of the 10mm that I used on top. 

 Planking is almost finished!

I cut a hole for the cockpit. I'm doing some measuring with the doll body to figure out what the cockpit will look like. I have been looking forward to designing the cockpit, and I have a few ideas that I would like to realise.

I also have to start thinking about how I want the lower body to look like and of course the legs and arms. 

To hell, back and forth

A update from the weekend. Since I run out of wood I made a short stop at Materialbutiken on Folkungagatan on Friday afterwork. they didn't have 3mm balsa sheets so I got the 5mm instead.

Now I wish that I had used 5mm for all the formers, it's not as fragile and flimsy as the 3mm. But I don't think it's worth the extra work and money, and it wont show when it's finished anyway.

After finishing the formers I started with my personal hell. the doubt you feel when you put the first few strips in place and realise how much work there is ahead. It's much easier to strip plank if the wood is square and can be bent i two directions, but I chose to work with a thin 1mm x10mm pinewood. Since the wood strip only can be bent in one direction I have to cut the inbetweeners to the right shape. Time consuming and patience trying...

When you get this far you can almost feel the light in the end of the tunnel, but in the same time the "why?" always present.

Strip planking is more or less done!
There are a number of ways I could have constructed this shape that probably would have been much easier. For me it's the hard part that makes it worth it, and I also like the not super perfect look that the wood strips create. For me it's almost like the brush strokes on a painting.

First day of building

The new build has started! I had plans on buying small band saw to be able to work in harder wood, but decided against it for the moment. The main reason I only work with "silent" hand tools is that my work bench is located in my living room and my wife and daughter is not happy if they can't hear the television... I'm planning on doing more of my work outside, but since it's snowing at the moment I decided to build the frame out of  balsa wood.     

First small step on the new Robot

I have began drawing some plans for my next Wood Robot! The other one is not finished, but most of the work left is sanding but since I have my workspace in my living room, I prefer to leave that to when I can work outside.  The new robot will have a child pilot in an open cockpitt, the size of the robot will bee a little smaller but the height will be similar to the old robots (110cm).

All of the robots in this projects have heritage from classic sci-fi robots and this one have War of the worlds as inspiration. But instead of a alien craft like the original, I want to build a "destroyer of worlds" robot as if it was a classic sports car that a 1/6 scale action figure of my daughter will pilot.
When I became a father I felt like some parts of my old life had to end and in the process my new life was created. This robot will represent that change

progress on the actionfigures

I have finished the short-arm cardigan and have turned my attention to the head sculpts.
I'm trying to find a good skin color (and hair color for the Björn doll).

 Still have to find some black shoe laces for the all black Converse shoe on the Björn doll.

Here I have a different Björn head, different hair color and black eyes.

I have not decided which one I like the most...

Preparing fabric

I have prepared more fabrics with sugar water and I'm leaving them to dry over night.

I tried 1:1 sugar and water mixture this time, It's more sugar than last time and I think I need it because the fabric for the cardigan is super stretchy and I want it as stiff as possible. 

Moore clothes

I have been working on some more clothes for my action figures. I finished a tank top for the "Johanna" doll but I still have to make a cardigan.. I tried to paint the head sculpt, but I haven't found the correct skin tone yet.   

My first experiment with sugar water proved to be successful. It proved very useful when working on the V-neck pullover. I found that it was possible to sew with higher precision when the fabrics were treated with the sugar water solution. When I had all the pieces in place I used hot tap water to rinse the sugar out of the fabric. And it worked perfectly! when the fabric dried there was no trace of the sugar.

I was not happy with the collar on my last shirt, so I decided to make another try.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it better and ended up with a different result.
This time I managed to make better looking collar, but I'ts not perfect and I haven't decided if it's worth the extra time to perfect the shirt collar. I have to give it a rest for a few days, if it still annoys me I will give it a new try.

If I make another try I might have time to cast some super small shirt buttons, even if they wont be seen in the end...