Members' (War) Stories

From: Keith Henry
Date: Mon Aug 14, 2000 8:52pm
Subject: rub a dub r2 in the tub!

Does this sound like yourself???

Being A Monday (My day away from the office) I was planning on just sitting around sanding some of my parts all day. Well, the Girlfriend and her two boys took off today for the weekly grocery shopping. I usually wet sand all the parts with a 400 grit paper, so naturally it is not uncommon to see me standing in the bathroom running the sink, smiling in the mirror, and sanding R2 parts. Well, today being an exceptionally hot and muggy afternoon, I began to get a little hot (and I don't mean turned on either, hehee) so I stripped off out of my clothes to get into the shower. Hell, there wasn't anybody home so I took the advantage of just running some nice water and sit in there and just sand away. Well all of us in a relationship with somebody else knows that our loving and understanding "Better Half" can get just a little bit burnt out about all the R2 this and R2 that, that seems to be within almost every breathing thought of the day for us devoted droid builders. (my girl is actually pretty kewl about it but she sometimes jokes about how I may end up eloping with the droid and all...sound familiar?)

Anyways...you can only imagine what happened next. Bobbi (my better half) sometimes likes to sneak up on me in the shower, she does it almost every time and today was no exception, only this time she finds me in the tub naked as a jay bird with little squares of sand paper floating all around me. Well, what makes this story funny is the fact that my front was facing the drain and she always sneaks up from the back way...so all she saw when she looked in was me sanding from the back, moving that paper very fast along an r2 ankle piece. (she didn't see the part I was sanding) So, if you know where I am going with this, after she screams "Keith! What are you doing!?!" with this terribly funny look on her face, by catching me by such surprise all I could do was slightly turn around and hold up the ankle piece (I swear all I was doing was sanding!). I don't know where my voice went, it just took me all by surprise, she is going to be teasing me for weeks. The last thing she said on her way out of the bathroom was,"So where are you taking R2 for the Honeymoon Keith...Naboo?" She was only kidding and in good fun and all...she is really a supportive figure in my quest for R2.

Just thought this may be a giggler!

From: Shane de Lumeau
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 13:27:58 -0000
Subject: [r2builders] something bad happened to me- war story

I was outside working lastnight in my garage. I was working on a holo-emitter. I found a peice of PVC which would make a great holoemitter when put inside this other peice. Well the peice had to be cut down so I took the big saw, which spins and you press it down and started to cut it, all of a sudden about 5 tools and wrenches came falling down and landed on my foot. When the wrenches were falling down i took the hand that was holding the PVC in place and tried to block. The saw was on the floor and I had a shelf above me. Since I let go of the PVC the blade wheel was cutting the PVC and also the PVC started to spin. As it picked up speed by spinning the PVC peice came shooting out at me and smashed into my leg. At first I couldn't even feel that I had a leg. I looked down and there was a giant gash in my shin and i think I chipped my shin. It hurts so bad. I went to the doctor last night and the doctor said that I might have chipped my shin. He told me to go home, put antibiotic cream on it and get some rest and try not to put too much weight on it. I have to go back in a week. My parents asked me what I did to my leg when I told em and I said I slipped on the wooden stairs in the barn and smashed my leg on the steps. If I told them that I was working on R2 and this happened, no more R2 but I would fight and be back building him again. Well that is my war story and I hope I can walk better soon. Thanks.

Shane

From: Craig Smith
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 04:18:12 -0000
Subject: [r2builders] War story

Where's Dave Lockwood when you need him?
My typical day starts by getting up, making coffee, and puttering around for a few hours before going to work. This morning I was puttering in the garage, welding a leg rod stabilizer piece, R2 coffee mug at my side.    After my second weld blob, I noticed my flannel jammy bottoms were warm on the left thigh. Puzzlement set in as the warmth went around back and up my oversized flannel shirt. I backed up as I patted my left side/back with my hand. Then I noticed the errie whisping flames round from the back to my right side flannel jammy bottoms.    Realizing I was on fire, I thought "what to do", but an impression of a washing machine with an off-set load is what I actually did.    No serious damage resulted, just an awakening that rivals any java- brew in my R2 mug.       Note to self: Wear heavy denim when welding, you dingus!   

Warning - This next story is not for the squimish

From: Ross Cole
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:08:40 +1200
Subject: RE: [r2builders] Acrylic

Cutting the acrylic is not as easy as I thought it would be. Although the Dremmel has a "hot knife through butter" quality to it, the cutoff disc's are jamming and snapping. It pays to clamp the acrylic in a vice and use both hands. I wont be using both hands for awhile, since my Dremmel kicked out of the acrylic and into my hand. The "hot knife through butter" quality also applies to flesh