Re: Just What This Forum Needs: Another Ironman Build
I'd say that's one hell of an excuse for not updating.
I think so. It was the first actual vacation trip I've taken since I was seventeen. Unless you count my fun-filled trip to Afghanistan a while back:
Still, even the best things must come to an end. After three great weeks, I had to leave my leggy blonde behind, fly back to the workshop, roll up my sleeves, and start making garden gnomes again.
Somewhere in there I also started tinkering with the armor again. First, I've solved the hinge problem. Here's how:
First, I got the pieces together:
These are the pieces for one side of one elbow. The strips are 22ga. stainless steel with a 9/64" hole drilled in one end. The rivet is 1/8" and the pieces of paper will make sense soon.
Here they are all put together:
I put a piece of paper in between each of the pieces in order to act as a spacer and prevent me from riveting the whole thing into one immovable part. Then I made three more sets:
Once I figured out how to center them inside the elbow pivot, I went ahead and marked the tabs in order to make sure I had them lined up correctly:
After a lot of bending, dry-fitting, and re-bending, I used a 5-minute epoxy to glue the first strip inside the upper arm piece:
Then I glued the forearm onto the second tab:
In this case I used another bit of paper as a shim in order to be sure that the forearm would clear the pivot without binding up or scratching the paint.
The last step was attaching the elbow to the third tab:
Success!
They still pinch a bit, but with such a snug fit that's to be expected. The key thing is, no bleeding.
In other news, Jarvis was sitting idle so I had him make this:
Because I needed that.
More updates coming faster now. Stay tuned...
