Gonk Droid Build from Wood, Too!

After reading (and maybe coveting) @cornbread and @spacebob's power Gonk droid builds, I decided to tackle the prop for my own collection. I figured I'd move this to a new thread rather than hijack his thread anymore than I already have. Thank you both for sharing your knowledge!

I plan on building the Gonk from MDF, PVC and found parts. Additionally, I'm going to add in lights/sound that are Arduino powered and turn on/off by removing or installing a restraining bolt that has a magnet embedded in its core.

Since I don't have a truck or car large enough to handle full size sheets of MDF, I've designed my plans in 24x48" sheets, which I'll have printed up full-size as blueprints which I can temporarily affix to the sheets of wood for ease of cutting. Hopefully the guys at Home Depot will cut down a few sheets of MDF for me so that I don't have to buy the overpriced 24x48" sheets they sell for nearly $10 each (the 48x96" sheet of MDF sell for $25).

Based on a few RPF members notes & some illustrations I've found online, here's what my blueprint looks like:


I found, via the astromech forums, a .STL file for the restraining bolt, which I'm having 3D printed up as we speak. All non-structural parts will be either cut from 1/4" wood or will be a found part. Thankfully I have Apex parts here in L.A. which is a huge resource for random parts of all shapes and sizes. I don't think I'll have any problem finding a variety of greeblies for my Gonk droid.

And that's where I'm at. It's raining here in Los Angeles and I make it a point to keep my power tools turned off when it's raining as hard as it has been here the past few days.

A few new parts. Two 2"-1 1/2" PVC reducers and a heatsink that I scavenged from an old subwoofer that I had found. And I had the restraining bolt 3D printed. I've given it two coats of filler primer, but it still needs quite a bit more to hide all those print lines.

Also, a bit of inspiration for this project:

The restraining bolt is finally sanded, primed, sanded, primed and sanded. LOL. Final paint and weathering won't be for awhile but I figured now would be a good time to start working on the electronics portion of the build.

My idea was to use the restraining bolt to trigger a series of sounds/lights when it's removed. A magnet affixed to the base of the restraining bolt will trigger the on/off programming on an Arduino. Thankfully I have friends who are skilled at this kind of stuff, otherwise I'd be sunk.

I hope to have some more regular progress on this build, but I just started a new job and I've been a zombie by the time the weekend rolls around. Fingers crossed!

I look forward to seeing your progress.

that is pretty cool