This post will be reserved for a base camp of sorts for my 1:1 R2 build.
The most common question to builders is, “How much does it cost?” That my friends is a million dollar question. There are several ways to build a droid and every way has it’s own nuances and “engineering techniques”. Costs can range from $3,000 to build a very basic droid out of styrene, to up and over $10,000 for an aluminum bamf of an astromech. Don’t ask how much it costs.. don’t think about how much it costs.. you’ll be much happier that way.
The second most common question is, “How do I build a droid? / Where do I start?/Why can’t I buy a finished driod?”. First off… you cannot buy a fully finished 1:1 droid because Lucas Arts has copyright. But why can we build one? Because Lucas Arts has graciously allowed it. Your starting point will be to sign up at astromech.net, then get to reading! There is no full step-by-step guide to building a droid, but there are several step-by-step guides to building certain components. Look at the build logs to get an idea of what build you’d like to do and then go from there.
My build specs..
Build: Frank Pirz’s Styrene CS:R
Start: March 15, 2017
Finish: lol
**EDITS**
2/9/22 – This project was put on the back burner whilst I saved up to buy a house. House bought… maybe I’ll start this projects back up… maybe I won’t… who knows.
5/9/17 – Ordered my dome from Granite Earth!
4/13/17 – I’ve procured all of the parts to build the Teeces V3 dome lighting system. I know nothing about working on electronics so I figured I’d build this system myself to learn instead of buying a kit. More info can be found on the forum’s Wiki page, or on JoyMonkey’s page.
3/30/17 – Picked up my styrene from a local supplier, Farco Plastics in Fort Lauderdale. Below are the sizes they carry (I was told that 0.22″ and 0.25″ are the same thing, which made me chuckle as I’ve read similar on the forum) and prices, they were even nice enough to cut the 4’x8′ sheets in half so I could fit them in my truck bed.
0.25 (4′ x 8′) (1/4″) = $101.80
0.1875 (4′ x 8′) (3/16″) = $83.50
0.125 (4′ x 8′) (1/8″) = $49.10
0.040 (4′ x 8′) = $18.07
3/20/17 – After tons of reading I decided on a styrene CS:R build. I initially planned on buying one of Frank’s kits, then a friend offered to CNC the styrene for me. Thank you, Frank, a million times over for all the work you do, being patient with me, and for making your files public.
Comments are closed.