Happy Birthday Astromech.net!

Yesterday marked the 1 year anniversary of the relaunch of the official website of the R2 Builders Club:  Astromech.net.  

Here is a very interesting statistic:  Since the beginning of the year, Astromech.net has outpaced the Yahoo group in both new users and posts. Astromech.net has had 34% more users than the Yahoo group since January and had over 700 more posts in the new forums.

The wiki is ever expanding and there are over 7000 images in the gallery!  

That is a huge reflection of all the great work that Wayne, Chris, and Greg do to keep the site running and continually making it better.  

The R2 Builders Club is unique among the Star Wars fan community in that so many of its resources are found in one place.  No where else can you find such a great repository for knowledge about such an intricate topic.  If you aren't reading and participating at Astromech.net, you are missing more than you are seeing!  

Droid Builders Day - May 2nd in Cincinnati!

or check out Astromech.net to sign up.  

Start of the second droid!

If you've been following the boards at the official club website, you might have noticed that I've begun work on my second droid.  This time, I plan on making an R2-Q2 seen in A New Hope rolling through the halls of the blockade runner.  This droid will be almost entirely made of styrene and resin and will only be a static 2 leg model.  I plan to take this one to conventions to leave at the table while the fully R/C droids roam around.  

I picked this droid because I've always like the way it looks.  He's the second R2 unit you see in Star Wars (behind R2-D2) and is an imperial droid.  I have posted pictures in my gallery.

While I'm posting, I might as well apologize for a lack of posts here.  Now that we have the all new Astromech.net, I really have been trying to post as much information as possible there.  As someone who has built a droid for much of the time without the new club website, I know how difficult it is to track down information to build an R2.  Now that the new Astro is up and running, I see no reason why people should have to track down 30 blogs, 10 websites, 2 yahoo groups and a forum just to keep up.  Droid building should be about building, not about tracking down hundreds of disjointed websites or digging through broken, convoluted yahoo group posts.  I am making a consistent effort to put my energies and knowledge in one centralized place.  Astromech has all the features you need; now all it needs are the people to put as much droid building information there as possible.  

If you are a new builder, I urge you to post your progress on the new Astromech.net.  Post lots of pictures in the gallery, place yourself on the builders map, and be part of the solution that makes this hobby easier and more enjoyable.  Even though I put a lot of time and effort into my blog, the droid building community is better served by a more centralized source for information.  

2 Year Building Anniversary

Today marks the two year anniversary of my R2 building journey. In the two years since I started building, I've completed my first droid, worked to create the plastic R2, R3, and R4 domes, worked on a total of 3 aluminum domes, volunteered in the droid room at Celebration 4, traveled half way across the country with my droid, and much more. Perhaps the best thing building has brought was friends. If you are looking for the most rewarding Star Wars hobby around, please head over to Astromech.net right now and check out all it has to offer.

Working on the R3 dome

Now that the droid is mostly done, I've been working on a third dome. Like the R4 dome I've already made, the clear R3 dome can be installed in seconds to my droid body. The rockler bearing holes are the same, so the dome just slides on and off.

I am using an aluminum base ring on my R3, so I had to do some extra work. The normal base ring has a plate to mount stuff on and holes for the bearing. Since the aluminum ring is empty, I had to make a base plate and include rockler bearing holes.

I've put pictures over on Astromech.net: http://astromech.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1245&page=2

Tiki Con Wrap Up

Screaming Tiki Con was great! I've posted pictures over in the gallery at http://astromech.net/?q=gallery&g2_itemId=19898&g2_page=1 and there is discussion over at Astromech.net.

Screaming Tiki Con 2008

Just a last minute reminder to all those in the midwest or even further east looking for something to do this weekend; many R2 builders will be attending Screaming Tiki Con in Niles Ohio this weekend. Don't let that small town fool you: This event will be huge!

Check out their website at http://www.screamingtikicon.com and be sure to post on Astromech.net to let us know you'll make it!