Why BB-8?
Since late 2014 when the builders saw their first glimpse of BB8 and then in 2015 watched him roll out onto the stage as an actual working model... I wanted to build him following a particular design. similar to what I did when building version 2 of R2 following Frank Pirz design.
The catch... There was no design!
Everyone had their ideas of dimension, size and function but no one actually knew. All guess work.
By mid 2015, the R2 builders club started a group in Facebook to track and release models for BB8 using 3D printing technologies to achieve the delivery. Founded by a handful of current members of the R2-D2 Builders Club, the BB-8 Builders began forming just after Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in April 2015. Ever since that seminal event (in which a working, practical BB-8 rolled out onstage during a special presentation for The Force Awakens) the Club has gathered detailed information & photos and has done painstaking analysis from everything available in order to generate and share official sets of Club plans that will assist members in the construction of their own BB-8
I downloaded the BB8 designs for the dome and body functions from the site as the group released the files...
You can visit their old location from facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BB8BuildersClub/
I needed a 3D printer :)
Set off to build 1 and not only build a 3D printer but build THE 3D printer.... large scale and able to perform CNC functions besides just printing. I found MPCNC the perfect solution - howbeit a road that was traveled on with pot holes and lots of bumps...
You can see its progress here: http://jimmyzcnc.blogspot.com/
After building 1 of these things I set off to printing out BB8's dome parts and such... struggling all the while with the learning curve of 3D printing as well as dealing with new hardware.
I started printing the dome in 1/4 pieces... then moved quickly to the 1/3 pieces
You too can download and view these files from here:http://www.bb8builders.club/
