3d Printing a Mark VI Iron Man

Samohtep

Hi Guys,

So in talking with the guys that run the rapid prototyping department at my company, I am going to be able to run off pieces of my Iron Man suit when they have some downtime or extra space in a print run.

I'm working from robo's files, which I pulled into Maya and made some revisions to. I've printed the helmet as a test of the my edits. I printed the whole helmet the first time around, but there were some problems when they put it in the oven to bake. So I took the file back, bulked it up a bit and gave it another go and the pieces came out great.

Here's a few renders of the rebuild file and a few shots of the helmet.

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Graphic Jordan

Awesome. Can't wait to see more! Subscribed.

Samohtep

The body hasn't yet been correctly scaled, I'm going to be getting some measurements taken, build a quick dummy of myself and then scale it around me to fit as best I can without getting things too out of whack

Finhead

Looks pretty good for up scaling , still a bit blocky on parts. You'll need to round out the chin corners to make it more accurate they are not near that sharp. Here is what I mean.
http://www.therpf.com/f9/definitive-...ml#post2024269

Samohtep

Thanks for that, you are definitely a lot more hardcore than me about this, so I'll work in any crits you have. To be entirely honest, I've got so many other projects going, I can't afford to spend the time to make it movie perfect.

I took the pics just after it had been pulled out of the printer so I haven't yet done any work to them. I left the models all hard edged so I could sand the edges down myself.

G33k

I hate you a little bit right now... that is awesome, and closer to having a Jarvis-Built armor than any of the rest of us wil ever get! Nice stuff!

Badhawk

Very nice, i love it!! Question; what did you use for 3d printing? Thanks

MightyJohn

Love it! Can't wait to see more!

STEALTH

give a fist bump to that machine for me

Samohtep

Machine or file?

The machine is a ZCorp Z510. Kinda the low end of the machines in their shop.

I cut up the model into manageable pieces, pile as many of those pieces into a 14x10x8 inch box and export that as an stl and send that over to them.

Kimosabe

Very cool!

I look forward to seeing more.

I believe this is how they made all the armors in Iron Man 2. Using 3D printers.

DaddyfromNaboo

Just a reminder, if you are using someone else´s files you will have to get his permission to use them for creating a potential run of items. Otherwise it will be seen as "digital recasting".

Michael
RPF staff

Samohtep

Potential run as in producing these for sale? That definitely will not happen, I have no desire to get more involved in this than just to post a few pictures as I go and ask some questions if I hit a roadblock. Also, my access to the 3D printing is predicated solely on the mood of the two guys that have access and training on the machines and whether I am annoying them with my requests.

That said, I will send the creator a message with my intent. Thanks for the notice.

Samohtep

Apologies for the lack of update, there wasn't much to show while chopped up the 3d file and organized it into bin sized chunks. The rest of the suit is off to the guys doing the printing. Hopefully they get some downtime to do a few of my runs. The entire suit broke down into 15 full runs of the machine, so it'll be a while before they finish.

In the meantime, I've started working on the helmet over the weekend, progress will be slow as I'm not at the workshop everyday. I got the two halves of the helmet epoxied together without a problem, there was a bit of distortion in the mask, but I've corrected most of it. My next step is to attach the face mask and the jaw.

I'm going to hinge the mask like this one:
http://www.therpf.com/f9/iron-man-he...tracks-123338/

But I have to connect the jaw as a separate piece, since putting the helmet on is a snug fit with my dumbo ears. I'm going to use 1-2 center release buckles(because of their low profile) on either side to snap the jaw into place.


I'm hoping to start on that tonight.

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HorrorFan

I wish I had access to cool machinery.

Samohtep

Haha, I wish I had physical access to the fancy machinery, then I could have some bit of control over when it was finished.

Just a quick update, I ended up finding the center release buckles I was looking for at Joann Fabrics. I got about 2 hours last night to work on it and temporarily attached the jaw buckles with gorilla glue (To fill in the gaps in the uneven surface)
I'm letting it harden overnight and I thinking I'm going to run and check on them during lunch today.

Metalfire

3D printed Ironman suits.... Now I've "seen" everything! Haha this is awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing this done! Good luck on the build!

Samohtep

Thanks!

I got over to take a look and they set up well, I put a thin layer of fiberglass over the top to reinfornce them.

Next, I'll start working on the mask hinges.

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Samohtep

Another quick update, I have the mask hinges tentatively in place. Still some tweaking of the swing arms to keep them opening even. I'm going to secure the helmet end of the hinge before working ours the mask side.

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Samohtep

Besides the fact that the hinges are sharp and currently pressing into my temples...it's slowly coming along...need to really tighten things up.

Any ideas on how to keep the mask up when open?

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ultron

Do you pay for consumables?

I have access to a 3D printer here on campus, but at 40 cents/cm^3, it's pretty expensive. A 1kg helmet would cost 300 dollars to print, assuming it was done right the first time.

Samohtep

For the 3D printing work, I so far have not had to pay anything. When I originally sent the model over to that dept and explained what I was looking to do, I had asked for an estimate, and was told to pass the files along to the co-op working with them.
When I insisted that I really wanted to pay and skip any problems that might come up in future, the exact quote was, "from the accounting people, it's not worth it to try to charge."
I think that because the co-op is doing the work, and it's running during off hours, it's easier to chalk the prints up to training.

Samohtep

Just talked to one of the guys doing the work printing the other pieces and it looks like I'm on hold for a bit, big project coming down to them. In the meantime, I'll work out the kinks in my process and cleanup the helmet, I have to pad it a bit for a correct seat, but I need the collar and shoulders to see how high it should sit

Kevin Gossett

To have the faceplate stay up when open, you can use magnets. Place one inside the crown where you want it to sit, and a corresponding magnet in the faceplate that lines up with the other

Samohtep

Cool, so I was on the right path! My thought had been to extend a "tooth" of some sort into the grooves in the top of the helmet, and place small Rare Earth magnets at the end of the groove and the corresponding spot on the tooth. Now to find something that will play the roll of the tooth.