I have wanted to built a life-sized, screen-accurate, R2-D2 for years. However, I had no idea where to begin with such a monumental build. I've seen so many incredible examples online of droids that people have built and I convinced myself that whatever I attempted to make wouldn't come close. My reasoning was mainly due to a lack of a workshop and tools. An R2-D2 could take years to build, and since we rented the house we were living in, I did not have a garage that I could use as a workshop, or a good staging area for parts in-process. The computer room was just too small to be tripping over R2 parts for a year.
Fast-forward a few years and we ended up buying our own house. I now have a garage that I use as my workshop and a huge basement that I set up as a pretty sweet gaming area for the kids. They have their computer desks down there, along with a TV and all the game consoles that you could ever want. I think it would be the perfect place to house an R2-D2.
The Star Wars maker community has spent decades figuring out all of the the details of how to replicate an R2-D2. If you do any kind of research online you'll quickly discover that the Astromech.net forum is pretty much the go-to place for anyone who is interested in building a Star Wars droid of any kind. Once you join the forum, you have access to all the blueprints and 3D models that are available.
I joined the forums 2.5 years ago with the plan of getting started right away. However, once I decided to get serious about the project I immediately became overwhelmed with the amount of information that was available, while at the same time being completely disappointed with the lack of 3D models that were available. I thought I would be able to completely 3D print an entire R2-D2 from the ground up. It looked like there was a 3D model available for the body as well as all the greeblies, but I could not find a lot of information on building the dome. One of the more popular methods is to buy a laser-cut metal dome and some vinyl wraps for the body. They are available for sale on the Astromech forum from fellow builders. You can download all the plans and CNC a frame for the body and then cover it with the wraps. I do not have a CNC machine, and trying to redo all the plans so that I could cut them on my Glowforge seemed like a daunting task. Since the dome and the wraps cost about $1000 together, that option seemed completely out of reach for me. It was a similar story with the legs. Although plans were available to CNC them, I did not find any of information on printable 3D models. A lot of it looked like it had to be built from scratch. Without a CNC machine, I basically gave up before I started.
A few months ago I happened upon a YouTube video of a
completely 3D printed R2-D2. It was exactly what I was looking for. I did a little research into the model that was being printed and discovered that an astromech builder had created an entire 3D-printable R2-D2 that matches all the specs available at the Astromech forums. This changes everything! I immediately signed up for
Mr. Baddeley's Patreon page and downloaded all the files.
Also available from Mr. Baddeley is a spreadsheet detailing all of the files that need to be printed for the dome, the body, and the legs along with recommended print settings for all the parts. Instructions are also available for how parts should be orientated for printing as well as assembly. They are by no means a step-by-step guild so I think there will be a fair amount of "figuring it out" as I go. However, since I last attempted this, there now seems to be a lot of build logs available on Astrmech.net for Mr. Baddeley's droids.
The droid was originally designed to be printed on a 500mm x 500mm printer. I wanted the Creality CR-6 when it came out because it had a 500mm x 500mm bed. However, it was too expensive, so I opted for the
Creality CR-10S with a 300mm x 300mm bed. I regret that decision now since that printer is no longer available. Being able to print the dome in once piece sounds like it would make my life so much easier. Mr. Baddeley also has files for the dome and the body cut down into smaller pieces that can be printed on a 300mm x 300mm bed.
I got to work on printing the dome. It is cut into 6 pieces that took 15-22 hours each to print. For the most part, all the files for the dome and the body will be printed at 0.2mm layer height with 20% infill. Structural parts will have an increased infill density between 40 and 50%.
The two top pieces took another 8.5 hours.
All together it took about 120 hours to print!
Next up was to print the two rings that sit under the dome. Again, I wish I had a larger printer so that I could print these in one piece. Having to sand and hide all these seams is going to be a lot of work!
I forgot to start with a fresh roll when I started this print. About an hour or so in I realized that the roll was running out. I managed to swap the roller mid-print.
While the dome and the ring parts were printing, I stared printing all the greeblies on the resin printer. Since a lot of these parts are very detailed, I thought printing them in resin would make the finishing work that much easier.
I couldn't resist dry-fitting all the parts to the dome just to see what it looked like. That is so cool!
I think most people build the dome from start to finish, including all the painting and electronics before moving on to the body and then the legs. I do not want to build it like that. I'd rather get the bulk of the printing done first, then do all the filling, sanding, and painting, then the assembly.
See this project from start to finish:
3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part I - Dome
3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part II - Body 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part III - Skirt 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part IV - Body Assembly 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part V - Body and Dome Finishing 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part VI - Body and Dome Greeblies 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part VII - Final Dome Assembly 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part VIII - Legs and Feet 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part IX - Foot Drives 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part X - Center Foot, Ankles, and Battery Boxes 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part XI - Legs 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part XII - Foot Shells and Final Assembly 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part XIII - Doors and Charging Bay Indicator and Data Port Logic Lights 3D-Printed R2-D2 - Part XIV - Interface and Gripper Arms
