Arc Reactor WIP (Totally Not-Really-Screen-Accurate)

Hey guys!

So, I decided it was time to start contributing a little more to this site, and so this is my little post about an arc reactor I've been building!
It's not meant to be screen accurate by any stretch - just a nice little display piece that may lead to more SA designs down the track.

It's inspired in part by the MK I reactor, as well as a prop built for a YouTube video (using it as a reference for guesstimating and potential materials).

So here goes!

This project is near enough done, however I need to do a bit of refinement, such as possibly cleaning up the edges of the Perspex disks I have sawn, and you'll see in a photo that the copper wrapping is pretty dodgy, so I'll redo that with a thinner gauge of wire.

I started with some Perspex disks of various thicknesses that would stack together - three 'main' ones, plus another that would have the copper wiring, and hold the LED lights for the face.

I intended to take plenty of in-progress pics of this, but...never really got around to doing those pics, so these are sort of in-progress-yet-almost-finished pics. Much like 'lead up' work for design projects. It's always follow-up!

So, this is a photo of the reactor as it's put together at the moment. The dodgy copper is pretty obvious. I'll also be doing something to blacken the area behind the wire just incase there are any gaps, so light won't come through.

I've skipped all of the hoopla regarding the lights, as they're just a number of small, white LEDs (from ebay - heck yes!) powered by 2xAAA batteries, wired as one would wire. But if you've got any specific questions, I'm happy to answer them.

As I'm soon going to have access to a laser cutter for free, I'll be having some plastic and metal parts cut to put together a few other things, so hopefully I can do that and make a post.

Feel free to give some input on this - whether you like it or not, any tips for anything, questions, critique etc etc etc.

Hopefully some/most/all approve of it haha

For the copper wire, go with either 20 or 22 gauge, its think enough to make look neat and tight and strong enough where it doesnt instantly break. The rings look real good man, I got some acrylic to test out myself for when I start on my second one

IROCthisZ28 said:

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For the copper wire, go with either 20 or 22 gauge, its think enough to make look neat and tight and strong enough where it doesnt instantly break. The rings look real good man, I got some acrylic to test out myself for when I start on my second one

Thanks! I'll have a look at what wire is easily available.
The rings could definitely do with some sanding/filing on the edges because of the rough cutting - but thanks