Iron Man Arc Reactor All Metal cnc

[scharfe]

Hey All,

Im new to joining this forum, I've been fallowing it (mainly iron man related) since this time last year when I just things here for reference to build my first arc reactor for a halloween costume. Ive now made a much more advanced one and figured I would show off the progress so far, any feed back would be great theres still some details I haven't mastered.

A little about the reactor so far, all parts a 100% custom designed and built, most the parts are made on a cnc from billet aluminum. I have a custom designed board that will drive 11 cree xte leds at .5A each (these arnt your average leds), its extremely bright for running off a 9 volt. I work for a company that specializes in leds, so the design of this was made to run the leds properly using the main base as a heat sink for the leds, my first light has been running for almost a year as a desk light, so im trying to make this one even more reliable but also more realistic, this one will be 1/2 inch thick so easy to wear under my shirt.

I still haven't mastered the winding of the wires so any suggestions would be great.

Based off the "auction" version

 

[scharfe]

A few questions I do have about finishing the part if any one has suggestions.

1. How to wind those copper windings, i ordered some dead soft copper hopefully it helps. Ive determined its 24 gauge used in the replica i'm replicating just don't know how to do it properly.

2. Is there a easy way to frost the acrylic, the led domes are yellow to they kinda ruin the look, I want to frost the bottom to hide the leds.

3. How to paint the aluminum, and what color, matte black doesn't look right. I tried used a self etching primer, then some matte black rattle can, then hardened it for 1hr @200 deg celsius in a oven, needless to say, didn't work paint is easy to scratch/remove.

 

[schrodinger555]

The original prop used 30 gauge wire I think. Winding is just time intensive, do it one by one and take your time to get it right. you can glue it at the bottom and then snip the excess to make things fit more snuggly. Also be careful with the aluminum base because you could cause a lot of shorts real fast with that.


-Mili

 

[scharfe]

The original prop used 30 gauge wire I think. Winding is just time intensive, do it one by one and take your time to get it right. you can glue it at the bottom and then snip the excess to make things fit more snuggly. Also be careful with the aluminum base because you could cause a lot of shorts real fast with that.


-Mili

I scaled the photo above and measured the wire diameter on the photo above of the official reactor using a cad software and got 24 gauge 13 wraps. But who knows how accurate the replicas are compared to the real deal used in the movie, 30 gauge is a bit extreme for me dont know if I can handle that. Don't suppose you or anyone else knows where to get good detailed pictures of the real thing.

For the shorting issue, I am having a proper metal core board made so there will be no wires to run and no issues with shorting. See render below.

Heres some pictures of how bright this thing is, this is with a prototype driver so the real deal will be a bit brighter and should run over 5 hours with constant output off a 9 volt. The close up of the reactor on, is actually in a bright room, the camera over compensated for the leds and made the rest look dark.

 

[schrodinger555]

There're a bunch of pictures of the screen used RT, just look up screen used arc reactor. The official licensed replica is in my opinion the worst made replica of almost any movie prop I've seen. I'd model it all after the 'auction' version, which is the high res version you find online relatively easy.

I don't have the picture saved on this partition, but there's a decent pic in post #5 near the end:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/finished-schrodinger555s-mk1-arc-reactor-chest-rt-181930/

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

There're a bunch of pictures of the screen used RT, just look up screen used arc reactor. The official licensed replica is in my opinion the worst made replica of almost any movie prop I've seen. I'd model it all after the 'auction' version, which is the high res version you find online relatively easy.

I don't have the picture saved on this partition, but there's a decent pic in post #5 near the end:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/finished-schrodinger555s-mk1-arc-reactor-chest-rt-181930/

-Mili

Well looks like i chose the wrong one to replicate then, i guess there will be some changes to make. I don't think I can get the depth of the brass rings like you did but unless someone takes calipers to mine i should be ok.

Awesome build by the way, i think my next thing to tackle would be a display one with the back side on it too. Did you have your brass rings 3-d printed or are the real brass, do you by chance know where to to get brass rings?



I guess i better get used to making changes, i realize last night that the 6 center pieces i machined (left one in pic) the ring was too small so i had to redo all the rings already, such a small change but alot of work.

 

[schrodinger555]

Thanks! The brass rings I did are 3D printed then disassembled and painted with gold paint. I have versions of it on shapeways. That's what I wanted to do too, I wanted a display version but without the case and the proof ring on it. I have no idea where to find actual brass rings though, I think you'd have to have them have them water cut out of a sheet of brass.

Those new rings look great though, all cnc'd?

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

Thanks! The brass rings I did are 3D printed then disassembled and painted with gold paint. I have versions of it on shapeways. That's what I wanted to do too, I wanted a display version but without the case and the proof ring on it. I have no idea where to find actual brass rings though, I think you'd have to have them have them water cut out of a sheet of brass.

Those new rings look great though, all cnc'd?

-Mili

Yea everything in the pictures is cnc'c even the plexiglass, i might look into cncing a mold and make a tinted cast sometime too like u did, im still torn on if i want to change the color or leave it led white or bluish.

I can cnc metal rings out of aluminum and paint them but it will be a lot of work, i also though about getting some square wire and bending the loop closed and soldering it like i did with the round rings. Ill have to see how much time i have this weekend tho. I wish i had a water jet

I have a 3d printer also but I was hoping to go all metal with this.

 

[schrodinger555]

The color I've personally liked the most is a kind of greenish tint. I think CNCing the rings is probably the best best at an accurate and metal reproduction then. The molding of the ring would be pretty useful. I've also found that most people end up missing the green tinted ring so it's a nice piece to have multiples of.

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

The color I've personally liked the most is a kind of greenish tint. I think CNCing the rings is probably the best best at an accurate and metal reproduction then. The molding of the ring would be pretty useful. I've also found that most people end up missing the green tinted ring so it's a nice piece to have multiples of.

-Mili

I was looking threw your build, how long did it take to wind you one of those reactors, they look perfect.

Heres some pictures of my first attempt at an arc reactor, it was designed just to output the light pattern not look like the real deal. My wife and I wore these last halloween, in my mind one of the best halloween costumes
1. get to wear normal clothes no bulky costume
2. reactor gets just warm enough to keep you warm.
3. I had a "turbo button" on the reactor that would give a short blast at 100% (11 leds at 1.5A brighter than headlights) to get bartenders attention for drinks
4. didn't have to defend the wife from any guys for the whole night (we are in a college town so get plenty of "friendly" guy) pretty obvious who she's with lol.

 

[schrodinger555]

That's awesome! I'm working on a wearable arc for halloween this year too, it should be finished in a few weeks at the most. I'm sure you'll see pictures of it

What do you mean about time winding the reactor? Do you mean the transformers? Because those took about 3 or 4 minutes each.

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

Yea the transformers, 3-4 minutes?!?!? what? it took me like 4 hours to wind my one reactor and i cheated with 20 gauge wire so i only had 9 wraps per transformer. Maybe the 30 gauge is easier to manage? I spent a lot of time trying the flatten the wires kinks out, but my design makes it so you have to fish the wire threw a hole so its a bit more difficult. Dam my trying to cool the leds!!

 

[schrodinger555]

Hahaha yeah it was like 4 minutes per transformer, but then again they were on their own, not attached to anything else, so that probably had a good bit to do with it. The 30 gauge is super easy to work with btw, and looks pretty accurate because its redish and won't oxidize.

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

Hahaha yeah it was like 4 minutes per transformer, but then again they were on their own, not attached to anything else, so that probably had a good bit to do with it. The 30 gauge is super easy to work with btw, and looks pretty accurate because its redish and won't oxidize.

-Mili

30 gauge magnet wire ordered, unfortunately I don't think I will be able to do it in 4 minutes per.

 

[schrodinger555]

Hey you'll get it done

One of my favorite things about this prop is the sheer number of possibilities that exist with how to execute it.

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

Finally got the the center ring fully machined, all thats left is the 3 center brass rings to machine. Couple of images below to show the progress, the part should be a little less then .5 inches thick total, should be a little thiner than the pic once I get the proper wire diameter (thanks schrodinger555 for the heads up).

 

[schrodinger555]

Glad to be of help! it looks great, man.

-Mili

 

[scharfe]

Decided to give my reactor a polish, i think ill paint the other one to match the real one. Also a little over half done cncing the parts, decided to build 12 of these since designing and writing cnc code is 90% the battle so built one for me and one for a friend, and 10 extras.

 

[scharfe]

Updated dated my cad files to match the real arc reactor closer. Circular brass inserts have flat edges and center defuser went from perforated metal to mesh disc.Also got some 30 gauge magnet wire hopefully I can get at least one reactor wrapped this weekend.



Looks pretty close the the real deal, still need to figure out how to make the wires that go from transformer to transformer.

 

[BananaBlitz]

Just have to have a very low wattage soldering iron tip and go for it. Wrapping also takes a while, I'm told. But as long as you use thing gauge copper it should work just fine. You're also gonna need some very thing gauge rosin core solder. Cheers! Nice work so far!