New Republic Flight Trainer

[yaksplat]

I'm not sure that, "Want to go for a ride on my speeder?" is the best pickup line.

If it does work, well....good luck.

[Le Chuck]

I'm not sure that, "Want to go for a ride on my speeder?" is the best pickup line.

If it does work, well....good luck.

Beats the hell out of moped 

[yaksplat]

Beats the hell out of moped 

Mopeds are like fat chicks.  They're fun to ride until your friends find out. 

[jmike]

Mopeds are like fat chicks.  They're fun to ride until your friends find out. 
[/quote]



       

[drventure]

I dunno, some of the GameCon cosplay girls would probably love to take a ride on his speeder (literally, metaphorically, and possibly euphemistically) 

[yotsuya]

Beats the hell out of moped 

Mopeds are like fat chicks.  They're fun to ride until your friends find out. 

Quote of the ---smurfing--- year!

[yaksplat]

I dunno, some of the GameCon cosplay girls would probably love to take a ride on his speeder (literally, metaphorically, and possibly euphemistically) 

True, but then again I'm sure it wouldn't exactly be the one you'd want on your 'speeder'.

the lines are blurring.....

[Le Chuck]

Cut sheet is done.  There will likely be one more before all is said and done but this should get things rolling nicely.  It'll be a few weeks to get it all back from the machinist but it should be worth the wait.

[Santoro]

Wow... subscribe indeed....

[rockyrocket]

I dunno, some of the GameCon cosplay girls would probably love to take a ride on his speeder (literally, metaphorically, and possibly euphemistically) 

True, but then again I'm sure it wouldn't exactly be the one you'd want on your 'speeder'.

the lines are blurring.....

Best not to think of it as you lowering your own standards, and more that you are raising theirs!.

[Le Chuck]

First batch of rough cuts is back from the machinist and I'm exhausted  .  The R&D staff would like to point out that I am in now way a machinist but that I did a fair job turning a large chunk of metal into several smaller chunks.  Our welder is still out with real life issues but we have high hopes that we'll get him into the shop eventually. 

I'd like to take a moment and go over my technique for cutting metal.  I lot of folks are put off by doing their own metal work because they think it takes a lot of special tools, and it kind of does, but they're cheap.  All the metal cut thus far is 1/4" aluminum.  Here are the special tools:



Duct tape, packing tape, a rag, WD-40, metal cutting blades with a TPI count of 14 or higher, 4.5a jigsaw. The duct tape is to make a no-scratch coating on the bottom of the jigsaw base plate.  Packing tape is to cover your lines or tape down your paper template to the metal.  WD-40 is to lube the blade.  Rag is to clean up the mess.



Aluminum will gum onto a hot blade quickly making the back of the blade thicker than the front.  This will case binds and blade failure long before the teeth have dulled.  You can easily cut over 1/4" aluminum or 1/8" steel with a jigsaw.  Anything thicker you start running to the need of either more power or specialty tools.  I used a cheap-o base model jigsaw and did all this except the black c/s seat plate:



With just two blades.

I still have edge cleanup to do, smoothing, rounding that kind of stuff.  Hopefully the foil bars will be finished up soon (welder's special project) and I'll be able to get the foil assy mocked up so I can make sure the interior mount placements are correct.  I was going to do the handlebars myself but I may sub those out.  I need to do some test routing on the aluminum and see how brave (stupid) I decide I am.  Seat plate is almost done and is ready for springs and brackets.  We're not breaking any land speed build records here but things are progressing nicely and a fair amount of feature creep has officially set in     

[alfonzotan]

Beats the hell out of moped 

Mopeds are like fat chicks.  They're fun to ride until your friends find out. 

Quote of the ---smurfing--- year!

Yeah, but that year was like, 1984 (especially if you lived in Florida)...

[selfie]

Another trick when cutting alloy with a jigsaw is to put tallow or lard on the blade to stop the chips from gumming up the blade.

[Le Chuck]

Foil is progressing nicely.  I took it to the stage needed to build the frame support but was having such a good time I decided I'd continue to flesh it out.  I plan on finishing the foil before moving on, that way I can break up the build into several small sculptural components so I'm not spending months and months sorting through piles of half finished parts. 

Still a lot to do

• Add one additional cross member
• Add inner and outer pole support struts
• Add support struts to upper fins (will correct minor fin adjustment issues at that time)
• Sculpt greeblies on several pieces
• New hardware
• Complete prep on poles for paint
• Surface and brush aluminum

Aluminum will be selectively detailed for final paint scheme which will be done en masse before top coating

[Nephasth]

 

Coming along nicely!

[drventure]

Nice indeed! 

I'd hate to stub my toe on that, though!

[Le Chuck]

I'd hate to stub my toe on that, though!

Don't worry, it's at crotch level 

[DaOld Man]

Great work Le Chuck!
Good tutorial on how to cut aluminum.

Wait a minute..... I see in the future someone making a regular arcade cab completely out of aluminum sheet! (No MDF).
Now I wonder who makes 1/8" wide T-Molding? 

[PL1]

Now I wonder who makes 1/8" wide T-Molding? 

How about something like GRE34076A?




Scott

[DaOld Man]

Oh yeah.

[PL1]

Wait a minute..... I see in the future someone making a regular arcade cab completely out of aluminum sheet! (No MDF).

Did this concept remind anyone else of the quote at 40 seconds in this clip?



Great name for that cab.


Scott

[DaOld Man]

Did this concept remind anyone else of the quote at 40 seconds in this clip?

Scott

LOL.. loved that show.

[rockyrocket]

Looks like weyland corp has the same idea, hurry up and beat them to production!.
PS, this is from the extra`s from the prometheus disc.

[Gaaargh]

This is an exciting project.

[Le Chuck]

It has been a while since a good update and if you're looking for pics and progress it will be a while longer.  Here in the R&D shoppe we've been stagnated by back ordered parts.  Things have started to trickle in and a few things are now being machined from scratch to meet special needs.  In addition I started the Army Maneuver Captain's Career Course this week and am already buckling under workload.  This project will continue to progress but at a slower rate.  I will be off the net more as I focus on passing this important milestone in my career.  Once I have some time to breathe and all my parts in I'll be out in the shop making it all happen.  In the mean time please consider me on lurker status and I'll try to pop up as often as I can with my colorful off-beat potpourri of wit and conventional pseudo-wisdom.  If you need me please shoot me a PM as I will still respond to all of those in a timely fashion.  I will for certain be around to enjoy facilitating the BYOAC UCAs in a few months... and hopefully have something half decent completed by that time. 

[mcseforsale]

My next door neighbor's a captain (I think)...want me to go over and steal his?  Then you can work on the flight trainer instead.   

Good luck on your test and thanks for your service.

AJ

It has been a while since a good update and if you're looking for pics and progress it will be a while longer.  Here in the R&D shoppe we've been stagnated by back ordered parts.  Things have started to trickle in and a few things are now being machined from scratch to meet special needs.  In addition I started the Army Maneuver Captain's Career Course this week and am already buckling under workload.  This project will continue to progress but at a slower rate.  I will be off the net more as I focus on passing this important milestone in my career.  Once I have some time to breathe and all my parts in I'll be out in the shop making it all happen.  In the mean time please consider me on lurker status and I'll try to pop up as often as I can with my colorful off-beat potpourri of wit and conventional pseudo-wisdom.  If you need me please shoot me a PM as I will still respond to all of those in a timely fashion.  I will for certain be around to enjoy facilitating the BYOAC UCAs in a few months... and hopefully have something half decent completed by that time.

[Woodshop Flunky]

This is an exciting project.

+1  This a VERY impressive undertaking.  Can't wait to see how this develops.

[BuschWolff]

Great idea! cannot wait to see the end product

[griffindodd]

Excellent!!! Here's my opportunity to pull ahead and beat Le Chuck to the punch with my full size Ton-ton build 

[Le Chuck]

Okay, things have reached an equilibrium so I can start devoting time in the R&D wing of the house again  . No pics (again I know) but I am doing a bit of a redesign.  I've run into playability issues with the handles moving.  Combined with how the speeder tilts it's just awkward to control so I'll be going with fixed handle bars (more film accurate anyway) and making the pivot under the seat.  In this manner the side to side will come from the feet and the fore and aft from the core.  I'll have to do some center of balance counterbalancing later but right now I need to figure out what parts I need to make the pivot controllable. 

I've a good plan for the tilt mechanism itself, I'll be having about 30^o of travel and with the uhid that shouldn't be an issue to translate into full onscreen range of motion.  I played with 60^o but it's far too severe a tilt.  I'm looking at using hobby shocks to dampen the movement, I figure that one either direction should work but can use two on each side.  Problem is that I've never used these things and don't know if it will work.  I'm looking at ones like this.

I'm pretty sure these are too small, I'm pretty sure bicycle ones are too stout.  Any way to empirically determine the resistance and how much resistance one needs so that a 100lb person and still have full range of motion and a 200lb person won't be flopping around as if the shocks aren't there?

Is there a better solution than shocks (think teeter totter that needs to balance in the middle when not in use and provide slight resistance both directions)?  Plan is to mount shocks at a roughly 45^o angle from teeter totter base to plank.  Range of motion is 15 degrees off center either way so they total travel required isn't more than a few inches depending on length of shock.  Any advice is welcome! 

[TopJimmyCooks]

gas struts from a car hood/liftgate application?  screen door closers?

[yaksplat]

Maybe if you create some type of lever that preloads the spring. In my head I'm thinking of a lever similar to what's used on rolling ladders like at Lowe's or home depot. Push one lever with your foot and it loads the spring, push another one and it unloads it, giving you a variable spring constant. F=.5*k*x^2 if I remember right....

[griffindodd]

I'm also thinking of a spring, but one who's tension is adjusted by the weight of the rider. Weight on the seat pulls back on the tension spring, the more weight the more tension which means a stiffer side to side movement for heavier riders.

I haven't had any coffee yet so I can't fully draw it out in my head but it seems feasable.

[Le Chuck]

In every project one reaches a point where a decision must be made.  A fork in the road so to speak, where one can either stay the course or spiral off into obscene feature creep and start pushing the limits.  This build started pretty far down the creeping fork already, so let's not wimp out now.  Let's see what level or ridiculous we can achieve. 

Here in RD we've had to slow down a bit due to the aforementioned redesign.  I've decided to let the design simmer a bit so I can look at it thought a slightly longer lens to help me see clearly.  In the mean time we shall not rest on our laurels.  We shall get busy!  We shall have a harebrained idea needing to see the light!

+ + a bunch of = R2Emu the stand alone companion unit to the NRFT!

Every New Republic Flight Trainer will be shipped with an Astromech R-series droid to handle display, power, sound, and many other features.

We'll be producing a 1:1 scale R2 to hold the computer, projector, and sound system but this little rust-bucket will also sport a custom CP similar to the drink stations popular in such locals as Jabba's Barge and any black tie event lucky enough to feature an R2 unit. 

That's a lot of talk, a lot of chat, it'd be nice if there was something in this thread besides big ideas...

Cue the pics!



The dome is an Ikea Brasa shade.  The powder coat was stripped with two cans of Jasco from Lowes.  The dome is mounted on lazy susan and has a central port for wiring.  The dome panels have been roughed in using some blue prints from Astromech.net and were done with a laser level and some patience.  None of the ports and panels have been cut yet either.  The body is hard-board around MDF discs.  Most builders will do a frame and then an aluminum or styrene wrap.  I'm looking for this not to be a bank breaker so I went cheap but needed something that could withstand some heat - hence the hardboard.  It was bent using hot water and ratchet straps.  The outer skin will be styrene over the hardboard for all the typical body panels.  The skirt is MDF and styrene. 



Radar eye is styrene, PVC, and a display ball from Micheal's that's been ground down to the needed size.  Unit has been rough sanded but needs some mud to clean everything up.  I need to crank up the projector and make sure that the lens isn't going to interfere with the display - if it does I'll toss the lens. 



Utility arms were cut from four pieces of .75" MDF and then worked into the proper shape.  I was counseled by a really awesome R2 builder, Joymonkey, that radar arms in 3D really help make a build so I went ahead and knocked them out.  Some other resin pieces are enroute to help flush out the build - holoprojectors mainly. 

I need to cut the access panel in the body, reinforce and mount hinges, and then dry fit the computer, sound system, and projector.  Once that's done I can start doing clean up work like making the skins, mudding, sanding, prepping, and all that glorious work that goes into a thing like this. 

Legs haven't been started yet but aren't necessary to get me through these first few stages. 

[wp34]

Wow.   

This just gets better.

Sent from my Atari 800 mobile device using Tapatalk

[griffindodd]

Damn dude, you sure like to have something to do in the hopper, this should keep you busy for 5 years or so.

[mcseforsale]

Gotta tell ya...when I open up my updated threads and this one is on the list, I check it first!  And this didn't disappoint!  I'm about to turn this thread loose on the SW nerds here at work, they're gonna love it.

Awesome work!   

AJ

[griffindodd]

I can see this thread being responsible for me getting caught up in a 1:1 R2-D2 build myself, I mean come on, who didn't want their very own actual R2-D2???

[yotsuya]

We'll be producing a 1:1 scale R2 to hold the computer, projector, and sound system but this little rust-bucket will also sport a custom CP similar to the drink stations popular in such locals as Jabba's Barge and any black tie event lucky enough to feature an R2 unit. 

My protocol droid translated this as meaning you're going to put cup holders on this thing. Can you confirm? 

[Le Chuck]

We'll be producing a 1:1 scale R2 to hold the computer, projector, and sound system but this little rust-bucket will also sport a custom CP similar to the drink stations popular in such locals as Jabba's Barge and any black tie event lucky enough to feature an R2 unit. 

My protocol droid translated this as meaning you're going to put cup holders on this thing. Can you confirm? 

Well I sure as hell can't deny!