Elysium Max Exoskeleton

Your Freud phrase mimics exactly what I thought about creation/design of objects/props/art in general. :cool It's always a learning curve and the things you discover about yourself in the process is more valuable than any money in the world. You certainly got my attention with this build and I have to praise your patience and your skills to have arrived at that level of intensity and details!

This is the coolest costume build I've ever seen. Seriously.

Impressive stuff. It is really coming together nicely.

Amazing! It is fascinating to follow your process. (And I am having a bit of work-bench-envy now).

Thanks everyone, appreciate it! Pistons are done, waiting for O-rings to come in. Then they are off to get powdercoated and anodized. Also waiting for metal casting stuff to come in, more on that later.

Meanwhile... Vibroknuckles! They bring a katana to a melee fight, you give'em this.









I looked for suitable motors to drive them, but going to defer functionality till later date. Going cosmetic as with the rest of the suit.

Man! The amount of work and details on this project are unbelievable:eek Keep up the effort and the great work; it's going to pay at the end for sure:cool

Crazy good.

Doing piston pre-assembly this week. I came up with something that should work with the help of an engineer here at the hackerspace. Two 16mm grooves on 18mm shaft (1mm deep cut on a lathe with an equilateral triangle cutter), slip O-rings in both, add a bit of oil, and push inside the piston body. One cable to restrict max. extent, fixed by hex nuts on both ends:



13mm I.D. O-rings, 16mm O.D., 1.5mm wide. Got these from Ace, bulk ordering from Amazon who stock larger quantities (although with 2 week lead time).



This makes it so the shaft is not too lose and not too tight, motion is smooth, and shaft doesn't easily go off-center. In addition it reduces the noise from shaft hitting the inside of the body when running so you don't jingle like a Christmas tree. The metal cable is springy but doesn't allow going past max. extent, which actually makes the pistons feel like they are real, with hydraulic fluid inside. The same engineer suggested experimenting with drilling holes in the cap to get the holy grail whistling noise like when C-3PO moves

Had to order more alum stock and more bearings for the second exosuit:





After the two Elysium exosuits (although not directly after), going to be working on a custom exosuit concept with bigger bones (diamond tread-plate chestpiece) and similar pistons:



This is for my industrial band, where members will wear Slipknot-like leather masks with zippers (resembling various animals), and burlap eye-blinds through which a Matrix Sentinel-like sensor eye-array is poking through). All that in addition to the exoskeletons - should make a good show.

Also, since I'm taking it easy this weekend, I started pre-production on another one of my "next" projects, a Sci-Fi car conversion. It will have all-holographic instrument cluster/infotainment center, doors that open upwards, and an AI that you can ask questions that it will Google or Google-map for you and display on the holo screen. Optical combiner windshield with micro-structures to eliminate extra reflections from the projector, you get the picture.







I acquired a used Ford Taurus to tear it apart and replace the body & insides. This will be just like that Ghostbusters Ecto-conversion thread, but to a custom concept.

Wow, quite the project with that car conversion. Eager to see that coming to life! As for the Exoskeleton, those pistons are getting better by the update! Are you planning on building the ChemRail gun?

This thread just keeps on giving. Nice one, guitarpirate.

First experiments in casting. I am grateful for another one of my friends here who suggested using Machinable Wax as the intermediate positive because it is harder and less likely to break or deform on de-mold. Next time I will mask all the thin areas, use less silicone for cost efficiency, use machinable wax from the get-go, and research vacuum de-gassing process to see if I can get a silicone mold with no surface bubbles. Overall though, I am starting to see why people here use this stuff so much. "Good" quality requires basically no effort and "Great" quality does not require a several orders of magnitude greater effort.





(Top to bottom: Original, Wax, Machinable Wax)





Cooking machinable wax (above you see the wax go from white to brown to pinkish color as the plastic bags are dissolved):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Machinable-Wax/step2/Melting-Bags/

Got pistons back from powder coating and clear anodize, and it's a mixed bag as usual.



Fig 1. Demonic shimmer



The clear-coat anodize looks great on the shafts. I polished them to chrome-mirror finish and the anodize coat diffused it by 15%, which is pretty close to what you see in the movie. Also they no longer scratch when they fall on concrete, and break the light into rays like the other side of CDs.



The powder destroyed all chamfer detail (hard edges) and overhangs over the bevels on either end. I will have to sand the end bevels off, mask everything but the ends, and spray that with black enamel. So much additional work when I thought I was done.

It's the little details that make or break any project...and you're not sparing any and it shows:cool

Had a presentation today as part of my friend's CAD workshop, will try to post more pics and a video later.



















From another source:

Getting past the middle of the 6 months of sanding/priming to remove laser sintering striations and get the plastic master ready for mold-making. Sitting at about 70 hrs/week since June, with 30/week on this project and the rest on my day job.

Some of the "done" parts (the rest are stored at the hackerspace):


The video I promised to upload:

As usual, unforseen situations keep eating up time. The shoulder connector I designed and printed earlier has too much detail that's almost the same size as printing striations, so sanding would destroy important features. I split the part into two parts - one low detail that can be laser sintered for strenth and heavily polished, and high detail one that will be factory-polished using bead blast.



Expensive for such a small part (there are a couple of extra "back connectors" included in the order for spares), but if you are going to do something, why not do it right. I will toss the old one-piece parts unless someone wants them.

this is absolutely amazing, the attention to detail is breath taking

Amazing once again...Man, I cannot wait to see the whole costume together!

This is just too much awesome for me to handle. I'm in love. Looking great!

Hi ! How are you ? Iam from Turkmenistan, my name is Slawik. Iam need you help. Can you send 3d model exoskeleton to my email? Best regards, Slawik

Swalik, as a first time poster on this board, it's not good etiquette/protocol to ask a guitarpirate to send you his hard work, many hours of research/design and thousands of dollars with the push of a button. The right question should be: is it for sale? My thoughts?...probably not.