Travis Wheeler’s Droid-Building: FF-7 and BB-66
Hello, my name is Travis and I build Star Wars droids!
I got into the hobby around 2016, shortly after The Force Awakens came out and we were introduced to BB-8. At the time, I had little to no experience with building things, robotics, painting, 3D printing, wiring…. none of it. But I happened to see a video on YouTube about a kid that had designed and built his own home-made BB-8 droid, using a beach ball and a bunch of paper-mache for the body, and various parts made out of wood and some basic robotics on the inside. I was inspired, but unfortunately I didn’t have much success with the beach ball / paper-mache method myself.
But then I soon discovered the BB-8 Builders Club! A group of thousands of awesome, friendly, and helpful guys and gals (the vast majority of whom are much smarter than me), who have dedicated their time and effort into figuring out “the best way to build BB-8”. There have been various methods and tons of different versions invented, and most of them greatly depend on having at least one 3D printer. So far I have two. And 3D printing has become another amazing hobby to get into all on its own. Over the years I have gotten deeper into the droid-building hobby, and now I’m working on my 2nd custom BB-unit. The first one is red and black, and his name is BB-66. My new one will be black and green, and named FF-7. Check out the videos to see more, and hopefully you can meet the droids in person at a Maker Faire in the future!
