[Edit:]  Ok, Hot Copy have actually moved and are now working from a residential address, so all is good.  This is a good thing, as I had a quote from another printer that was about three times the price to print the plans up.

First, I cut out the rear inner, which was simplicity, given that I have none of the optional openings.

Then I started work on the Front outer skin.  Going to have the be ultra careful with this one, as this is what is going to confront onlookers as soon as they take their eyes off the dome.  I’d rather spend a week making sure every cut is perfect than rush ahead and naff it all up.

A tip worth using, though, is to always put your steel guide rule on the line with the body of the rule covering the droid body, that way if you slip off the line, you are only cutting up the plastic waste material anyway, not scoring the finished body pieces.

Cutter in use

I spent about 40 minutes finishing cutting out the panels and sections from the inner skin I have chosen.  It still needs a little tlc to get it in shape, removing plastic artifacts from the corners, etc, but is effectively finished.

Mostly finished skin

Next stage the rear inner skin.

All I have to do is find the central point of the circle, and voila, the blade should be able to score the Styrene pretty easily, and this should hopefully allow me to either cut through fully, or enough that it should be able to be snapped off.  Tomorrow will tell.
These are available on ebay fairly cheaply, simply search for Creative Memories Circle Cutter

Firstly, I fitted the shoulder mounting plates to finish off the frame:

Due to my rubbish cutting skills, the edges didn’t meet up perfectly, and I think that there may be a slight twist in the frame…I will know better once I have the skins cut out, but it shouldn’t be fatal in any case; I can always add bracing internally to square it up again, as I don’t have any opening panels to accomodate.  That is the problem with being a quarter of a mill out on every piece (for example), as by the time you are on the third tier, the incremental stuffups have added to give a moderate stuffup

Anyway, I laid the skin plans out on the 1mm styrene and adhered them as per normal.  They are, thankfully, really easy to cut, and you can, with two moderate pressure passes, cut right through, should you so choose.

Who says you can't teach an old buffoon new tricks - leather glove.

extending the side bits to allow for gluing

Not enough alcohol for me to try the circular hub openings yet

The side bits where the shoulder hubs will fit are going to be a pain..the straight line stuff is relatively straightforward, but the curved sections…  boooooo!

So, not a huge amount achieved in the two hours I fiddled around today, but at least there is some progress

You have to make sure that they are as square as possible.  It is not critical that they are exactly perpendicular at this stage, as it can be corrected later, but if you can get a solid bond without any stress being put on the part when you try and bend it into shape later, the better it is.  It is, however, critical that you make sure it lines up withe the edge, as any mistake there will cause the skin to look a bit odd when you try and put it on.

Curve of the ankle cut-out

This pic shows the curve of the ankle insert, once I glued the offcut from the base section..it is in line with the curve from the rest of the base plate – important if the skinsd are to curve correctly.

So after about 6 hours of work, I now have all of the pieces cut out for the body.  Now all I have to do is give them a light wash to remove the residue of the paper adhesive (easy) and start assembling them.  I tried to adhere two scrap pieces together, to see how long it would take to catch and hold itself in place, etc, but found out that the needle applicator I bought is evidently blocked, as nothing is coming out, not even air.  Sigh, I’ll have to return it and get another one tomorrow.

About a third of the way through the body frame parts.

Oh, and a HUGE warning, which seems bleeding obvious, but must be said for completeness.  When you are starting to wind down, getting to the end of the cutting for the day, that is the time you are most at risk of making a mistake and hurting yourself (or your droid).  The final cut of several hundred I had made today, the LAST BLOODY ONE, I managed to slip off my steel rule guide and slice open my finger.  I think the fact that my blade was a little dulled from running along the ruler is all that saved me from a pretty nasty cut…as it is, I ended up with a 2mm deep 10mm long one, that bled LIKE HELL.  A useful object lesson, but please be careful, folks, as the tools we are using can seriously screw you up if used incorrectly.

Utter utter utter-utter-utter bastard.

First, I roughly cut out the plan sections in preparation for sticking them on the plastic, then rough cut the plastic to the correct size…I’m glad I got the supplier to cut the sheets in half as trying to maneuver a 2.4m x 1.2m piece of plastic would have been a nightmare.  Then I sprayed the back of the paper plan sections with the Bostik spray, and waited the two minutes or so for it to dry.  Once it is dry, you simply place it on the surface to be stuck to, and smooth it down so there are no air bubbles between the paper and the surface.  I find a cloth rag works fine for this.

One word of note when working with the plans.  I looked at the base section, the one with three holes in parallel in the middle, and couldn’t marry up the stated cutting distances with the holes that I was thinking of using…use the middle hole, folks  The others are to connect it to the other base plates below.

Then came the fun of using the routing table.  I drilled a hole in the appropriate place on the plan/plastic sandwich, and then used a 3mm bolt to attach it to the pre-drilled hole in the table.

Then it is simply a matter of turning on the router and spinning the piece of plastic around the central pivot bolt.

The outer cuts take two steps, a rough step and a final step which smoothes out the rough cut.  You will generate a STUPID amount of plastic shrapnel, so be warned…a vacuum cleaner sucking it up as you cut it would be a good idea (and as it is one that I have just had, I will have to use in the next session).

I went to Bunnings and bought an Olfa Auto load PL-1 cutter for $31.90 and a 4mm router bit for $26.10.

With that lot, I am now ready to go with the initial stage of adhering the plans to the plastic, rough cutting them off then using the Router table I have made to cut the curves correctly.  Hopefully the next post will be of me actually getting going