Bazza's Iron-Man suit build

[Airconvent]

Looking very good for 10 min of work, Barry !

[Barry]

Thanks mate.

Collar plate, hand plate and hip pod.

[Barry]

Cleaning up the welds a bit more tonight. Getting the edges tidy on the cascading segments at the back of the helmet.





I've tried getting into these corners with a file, a flap disk, a Dremel and sandpaper. It's hard work and very slow going. Can anyone reccomend a good tool to get into this? An electric reciprocating mini-file would be awesome!

[Barry]

Today I got a few hours in the shed finally. I got half way through the job and broke another bloody bandsaw blade. Same as before, cutting beautifully for hours then snaps when I turn it off and it begins to slow down. This is costing me a small fortune in blades at $40 a pop!

Anyway, I grabbed my aviation snips and went manual. I'm going to get very strong hands like this.

[Barry]

I'm so confused by man. At the same time that we are chopping each other's heads off, we have a spacecraft orbiting an incoming comet, about to land on it as it awakens under the sun's increasing influence.

Pretty deep yes?

Well then, here's another. A random internet acquaintance whom I've never met and who wishes to remain anonymous, sent me advice, photographs, technical knowledge, support, encouragement and contacted me to ask if I would like him to build an arc reactor for the centre of Iron Man's chest. Based on a single measurement from me and a handful of photos, he built this in just a few days.

Not only that, he wanted no money, no return favours or even fair recompense for materials or even postage.

While there are some horrible humans out there, there truly are some wonderful ones too.

Best of all, I have the honour to have interacted with him, even if it was from afar.

[Airconvent]

wow Baz...this is what I call a "Celebrate What's Right With the World".

http://www.celebratewhatsright.com

[bornfree]

that is a beautiful arc reactor!!

[Barry]

Thanks guys.

Time to start modifying! My mysterious benefactor has provided me with an excellent bunch of hardware to fit all my lighting and power into.

Using my drill press as a vertical lathe, I used the tip of a spade borer to part the outer ring from the rest of the perspex disk. The inner I might use later but for now it's not needed.



Similarly, the centre of the aluminium disk underneath is not needed, as I need to allow a clear path for lighting to the front from the source in the back. For this, I just used the bench drill to stitch-drill it all out, then hand-filed it clean. I left four tabs to screw it to the bottom of the reactor. The tabs still need tidying up a little to make them neat.



Here's a quick pre-assembly. I need to make some more bits before the lighting and power goes in.

[Barry]

I got one boot all spot-welded up today. Fits good and hinges well in the middle.

[Barry]

My very skilled uncle turned some brass rings to my specs. I got a little time to assemble them today.



Brass rings assembled and fitted into the reactor.