FABRICATING a real IRONMAN suit out of STEEL.
- Thread starter mrjbarl1
- Start date
joshvanrad
Master Member
mrjbarl1
Active Member
Amen to that! I use my anvil for damn near everything. I've acquired the nickname "tony" and "ironman" from quite a few people I know because of the line of work that I'm in, as well as my need to try to improve or tinker with everything I get my hands on lol. Before i even saw the first iron man movie, a few buddy's of mine were calling me tony stark; and I kept thinking to myself "who the hell is tony stark?" And then I saw the movie and needless to say I began to understand.. Lol
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mrjbarl1
Active Member
Not all of the suit is going to be that thickness of material. I used 16 gauge for the face plate so it wouldn't bend easy due to the way it is shaped; It would have been a bit flimsy. But the rest of the helmet will be made from 18gauge as well as the majority of the suit. The only areas on the suit that will have thicker material will be the parts that are load bearing or under stress while wearing it.
As for the stainless, I haven't decided yet if I want to make any of the outer shell with it because it is harder to work with and expensive. Not to mention paint doesn't stick well to stainless.
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Murdoch
Sr Member
If it were me who had a metal armour, i would have it plated or powder coated...GM
T
Thecorrupterx
Guest
Here you go! the very FIRST part of my suit! My Iron Man MARK VII face plate, made out of 16 gauge sheet metal with pepakura files!!!
As you can see in the pictures, I slightly modified and printed my ironman MARK VII pepakura files onto card stock for my templates. I then applied layout due to my piece of 16 gauge sheet metal from which my patterns would be cut from.
Next I used a strong magnet to hold the templates in place while in scribed the fold lines, and around the temples. By using a scribe and layout dye, the lines are very sharp and clear to see while cutting the steel. I then Cut the various parts out with a band saw and a cut off wheel and deburred all the parts.
Next, I began hammering and bending the various cut lines together until they touched at the tips and then tack welded them. Once this step was finished, I then peened the seems together on all the pieces To eliminate flat spots and keep a smooth surface. Next I tacked all the seems together on each piece, and then dry fit them to each other for a perfect before I began tacking the pieces together, using my pep helmet for A guide.
Finally, I ground all spots if weld down to a smooth finish and removed the layout dye.
The welding will be finished after the whole helmet is tacked together, to prevent warpage.
I'm very pleased with the outcome of the face plate and really look forward to finishing the rest of the helmet And suit!
***For those of you that doubted me and my abilities to do EXACTLY what I said I could do; here's the proof. I DID IT.
Quote of the day: "Haters make you famous"
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This, looks like it is coming together very well. Let's hope the rest of it goes this quickly, you will be armored up in no time.
The only thing that could make this go faster would be a plasma plotter/laser plotter. something to automate the pattern generation, but going from the same files/print as your test build is a way to be certain of size.
mrjbarl1
Active Member
Thanks man! The band saw is fun when your blades don't break lol. I think I welded my blades back together 5 times doing this because I'm cheap and buy the crappy harbor freight blades lol. Hopefully I can keep getting a lot done with it over the next couple weeks. It's the holidays coming up and I'm slammed with work right now with my business. I'll keep ya posted!
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mrjbarl1
Active Member
Thank you sir! I think it will keep going fairly easy, it's just time consuming with cutting them on the saw. I originally was going to cut them on a laser machine with pre cut scanned temples, but that's a whole other issue in itself with the guy i know. We'll see what I can come up with anyway lol.
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mrjbarl1
Active Member
hey man what you did is awesome.
you didnt just made an actual pretty good looking faceplate, but you've proven to those who did not believed in you that you can make amazing stuff !
hey if you're going to make a mark VII take a look at the pepfiles i made ! they are a little less complicated than darkside's !!!
you didnt just made an actual pretty good looking faceplate, but you've proven to those who did not believed in you that you can make amazing stuff !
hey if you're going to make a mark VII take a look at the pepfiles i made ! they are a little less complicated than darkside's !!!
mrjbarl1
Active Member
Thanks bro, i appreciate it! I only talk a big game when I can actually back it up, but sometimes people should give the benefit of the doubt before knocking them on their ideas. Thanks for the support, I'm about ready to get the rest of the helmet put together and post some more pics. Keep an eye out for more progress and let me know if there's anything I might be able to help you with on anything!
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mrjbarl1
Active Member
Thanks man! Just doin what I love and havin fun!
And I'm glad you told me about your files! I did notice that darkside's were fairly complicated and I've been looking for other designs to try with steel. I'll definitely give yours a look and see what I can come up with! Thanks again bud!
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mrjbarl1
Active Member
Hey man, no worries. I'm used to it by now lol. Mind you I made this faceplate in less than 4 hours and did it more as a test piece to see how the steel reacted to the pep templates; which is also why it was only tacked together and not fully welded. As I stated in earlier posts, steel warps with heat and I will only tack the parts together until I have the entire helmet/ suit parts assembled so they don't warp when they are fully welded. I'm doing as much as I can on my suit at the moment because I'm so busy with my business because of the holidays. I will be making a lot more progress soon, and I also plan on making a new faceplate when I build the helmet.
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