Chopper Droid Replica WIP - Aluminium and 3D Printed

[Studio 49]

All this spare time in isolation is dangerous because I've start to build and produce parts for my lifesize Chopper

So I’ve been making the most of my spare time by detailing the structural components like the internal frame which will be aluminium. The other thing I'm really pleased with is I’ve also designed it so the 3D printed skins can be removable.

3D printing has begun on the body and the aluminium frame is almost ready to be prepared for the water jet cutter.

 

[Jaffa007]

Amazing work [emoji41][emoji1417]

 

[Halliwax]

Incredible

 

[Studio 49]

Well it's full steam ahead now! Printing has well and truly begun so I'm going to get my WIP thread updated.
First up was the skirt which I printed in 3 sections and then glued together with the aid of some clamps.
For context this is the same spot that his centre leg and rocket are housed.

I also started printing the utility arm around this time which you can see the initial parts for next to the skirt below:

And then this is the giant Radar dish that sits on top of the dome getting printed.

After the radar dish components had been printed, I moved onto starting the biggest part of the build with printing the skins.

I've been printing in ABS and have dialled the settings to a 0.19mm thick layers. I could go lower, but it would take forever to print. At this layer height I was able to get really nice crisp details on the skins while reducing the number hours needed in sanding down the line. Only catch is it was 1.5 to 2 days to print each of the 8 section that make up the main body. A small price to pay for saving my sanity down the line!

 

[Studio 49]

The other aspect that I'm enjoyed with this build is spending a bunch of time detailing the actual assembly and structural integrity of the parts. For instance, I designed the front greeble below to in 2 sections to make sanding easier and I also designed it to incorporate threaded nuts. This way I can simply mount it to the skins with a bolt and it will be in precisely the correct spot. It also means I can disassemble it easily if need be.

And then with the Utility arm I had a similar approach. I have a female cabinetry bolts that act as an axle of sorts for the main pivot in the centre. These can be loosened or tightened depending on if I want to tweak the angle. I also have designed these longer thinner parts to accommodate metal tubing/pins that allow me to make sure that it won't be as fragile as your typical 3D print would be.

 

[canister]

Wow this is really cool! Lovely Cad work. Once I'm home I will watch the 12min cad work. Loving your build!

 

[colinjreed]

Daaaaang! Is he going to be able to throw rocks at people? I am very impressed, looks like it will be a great build!

 

[Halliwax]

Freaking amazing!!! What printer is doing all the hard work?

 

[Studio 49]

Wow this is really cool! Lovely Cad work. Once I'm home I will watch the 12min cad work. Loving your build!

Thanks so much for the kind words man!
Hopefully the video isn't too boring for you haha

Daaaaang! Is he going to be able to throw rocks at people? I am very impressed, looks like it will be a great build!

I wish! But I am going to be designing up some static posable arms that I can attach and detach from the dome whenever I like

Freaking amazing!!! What printer is doing all the hard work?

Thanks mate!
The printer in question is my favourite piece of kit ever, my Zortrax M300.
The thing is built like a tank and has a build volume of 300x300x300mm! It's a deadset workhorse for printing ABS, since it's enclosed I can do giant prints with minimal to zero warping. Here's a couple pics for those that are curious

And then here's my hand for a size comparison on the build plate

And then of course, this gives you a good idea of the build volume! The helmet isn't printed, but it is a 1:1 scale helmet, so you can see the size that can be printed.

 

[Halliwax]

Holy crap that’s a big machine!

 

[Studio 49]

Some huge progress on printing the skins for the main body section!
With my printer having a build volume of 300x300x300mm I was able to split the entire thing up into just 8 parts.

With that in mind I decided to design the parts to all be connected with some dowel joins. I purchased some aluminium rod from Bunnings which I chopped to the right length for the dowel join. These new dowels were around 80mm-90mm in length depending on where they were being used.

The holes on the prints for dowels were designed so it would be a really nice friction fit, which meant I've been able to do all my temporary assembly without any glue! Naturally glue will be needed, but I can hold off until I have everything ready to go which is handy. The ends of the dowels were also chamfered so they didn't catch when being inserted into the mounting holes.

In addition to the dowel joins, I also designed the parts to accommodate countersunk rare earth magnets that I could mount with a screw.

I've designed my Chopper so that the skins can be removable, so these magnets are mounted on the faces where the front and back skins join, and they will help that bit more in pulling them together when installed on the frame.

 

[Halliwax]

Dude this is freak’n amazing

 

[NakedMoleRat]

One of my favorite droids.

 

[Halliwax]

One of my favorite droids.

Mine too

I’m so excited for this

 

[Studio 49]

While waiting for the printer I've been working on Choppers eyes. I was going to go with an acrylic disc for the lens, but decided I wanted to go for something with some cool glowing effects and details to add some extra character.

After some digging around for items that would suit the eyes diameter, I found some arcade style buttons at the local electronics shop (Jaycar). I ended up gutting two of these blue ‘arcade’ buttons from Jaycar so I could mount my own LEDs inside. After that I cut a circle out of some baking paper that I could insert between the led and inside of the top of the switch to diffuse the light emitted from the LED. With the centre being diffused it helped light up edges of the edges of the plastic switch to give some cool extra depth.

And then his third eye is a recessed one that just looks like a camera lens. I know it doesn't really light up, but I wanted to be able to build it so I have the option

However it to still needed to have the darker/black centre like in the show. From some research though this third eye has a silver ring around its outer diameter, which was the perfect spot for my light source! From that I got the clear version of the arcade button, took it totally apart and then cut up some Smokey translucent visor material and popped that in! That way you get a mostly black/grey centre with a silver/lit up rim.

 

[Halliwax]

This is intense

 

[Studio 49]

I've been making a lot of good progress on Chopper these past couple weeks.
The biggest leap is the body is now totally printed along with the first quarter of the dome!
I've also got the LED's inserted into his dome for his eyes. Very pleased with the look of those.

While I'm at it... No one asked for it, but here it is any way, part of Choppers partially printed dome on top of R2
“Your designers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

 

[Halliwax]

Dude this is freak’n insane

 

[NathanM]

What a project!

 

[NakedMoleRat]

More, more, more.....