Xometry Helps Scavenger Workshop Members Find the Droid Parts They’re Looking For
Uploading Scavenger Workshop’s open-source designs to the Xometry Instant Quoting Engine® allows hobbyist builders to order parts that cost much less than expensive club parts.
In basements, garages, and workshops across the globe, hobbyist builders are bringing the droids from the Star Wars movies to life. Creating these robots is a labor of love, and can be quite costly. The Scavenger Workshop group aims to make droid building more accessible by offering open-source designs that anyone can download and use. Many members of the group have turned to Xometry to order the parts they need at an affordable price.
The Challenge: Building Droids Could Cost an Arm and a Leg
Precision is essential to droid enthusiasts who want their builds to be not only functional but also accurate to the robots in the Star Wars films. For many builders, this means ordering expensive “club parts” from groups that sell ready-to-use components.
“Back when I was building my droid about eight years ago…all the drive systems I'd seen that were offered by the club were $1,200 or $1,000 just for a pair of drives,” said Mark Hammonds, one of the co-founders of Scavenger Workshop.
Hammonds manually cut his own parts out of an aluminum sheet to create the foot drive for his R2D2 droid, saving almost $1,000 compared to the cost of a club part.
He shared photos of the parts he made, which quickly caught the eye of other builders, including Scavenger Workshop co-founder Andrew Cations. He created a CAD file from Hammonds’ design to share across the group.
“When we did that, it just blew up,” Hammonds said. “Today, this is the number-one used drive system in R2D2.”
Scavenger Workshop member Chad Camp noted that the parts he ordered from Xometry "came in looking clean and well packed to keep them from getting damaged in shipping." (Image credit: Chad Camp)
The Solution: Affordable, Accessible Parts via On-Demand Custom Manufacturing
Once Hammonds and Cations saw the demand for open-source designs, they started releasing more. The Scavenger Workshop website has more than a dozen design files for flatpack aluminum parts, which have been downloaded by thousands of hobbyist builders. Members share pictures of their parts, progress, and finished builds in the Facebook group. The group is also a popular place to share coupon codes and spread the word about ways to keep costs down.
“Generally, if you were to build a droid from all club parts — all aluminum — it would be anywhere from $15,000 to $17,000. We're trying to bring that down to $5,000 to $ 6,000 just by providing a way for members to build their own parts,” Hammonds said.
Xometry’s sheet cutting services are a perfect fit for Scavenger Workshop’s target audience of aluminum builders. The option to choose longer lead times to get a lower price works well for builders who often have tight budgets but not tight schedules.
“The web interface [is] intuitive for getting a quote, making the service easy to use. The parts came in looking clean and well packed to keep them from getting damaged in shipping,” said Chad Camp, a Scavenger Workshop member.
Scavenger Workshop’s participation in charity auctions at DroidCon and Comicpalooza in 2025 helped raise more than $11,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and $3,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, respectively. Members of the group often participate in STEM events at local schools to inspire children to take an interest in robotics. Droids built using Scavenger Workshop designs have rolled down the halls of children’s hospital wards to brighten the days of children and their families. Many Scavenger Workshop members also belong to international Star Wars costuming groups, such as 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, which organize fundraising events and character visits to hospitals, animal shelters, and other community locations
“One hundred percent, our goal in doing this stuff is to give back to the community,” Hammonds said.