[Barry]

Collar plate, hand plate and hip pod.

[Barry]

Cleaning up the welds a bit more tonight. Getting the edges tidy on the cascading segments at the back of the helmet.





I've tried getting into these corners with a file, a flap disk, a Dremel and sandpaper. It's hard work and very slow going. Can anyone reccomend a good tool to get into this? An electric reciprocating mini-file would be awesome!

[kevinj]

You could try one of those electric engraving tools,they come with a selection of different grinding bits,pick them up from Bunnings for about $50.

[Barry]

You could try one of those electric engraving tools,they come with a selection of different grinding bits,pick them up from Bunnings for about $50.

Thanks Kevin. I have a powerful Dremel, but the rotary bits are not up to it. I'm looking at a couple of other power tools that might do it.

[Barry]

Today I got a few hours in the shed finally. I got half way through the job and broke another bloody bandsaw blade. Same as before, cutting beautifully for hours then snaps when I turn it off and it begins to slow down. This is costing me a small fortune in blades at $40 a pop!

Anyway, I grabbed my aviation snips and went manual. I'm going to get very strong hands like this.

[Barry]

I'm so confused by man. At the same time that we are chopping each other's heads off, we have a spacecraft orbiting an incoming comet, about to land on it as it awakens under the sun's increasing influence.

Pretty deep yes?

Well then, here's another. A random internet acquaintance whom I've never met and who wishes to remain anonymous, sent me advice, photographs, technical knowledge, support, encouragement and contacted me to ask if I would like him to build an arc reactor for the centre of Iron Man's chest. Based on a single measurement from me and a handful of photos, he built this in just a few days.

Not only that, he wanted no money, no return favours or even fair recompense for materials or even postage.

While there are some horrible humans out there, there truly are some wonderful ones too.

Best of all, I have the honour to have interacted with him, even if it was from afar.

[Phoenix]

There are some crazy dudes out there...sort of people who do random stuff like...I don't know..build their own observatory.make Iron Man suits as well as those who find it a daunting pleasure to watch them. I'd actually be quite honoured it I had the skills to do what that kind stranger did.

[Barry]

Time to start modifying! My mysterious benefactor has provided me with an excellent bunch of hardware to fit all my lighting and power into.

Using my drill press as a vertical lathe, I used the tip of a spade borer to part the outer ring from the rest of the perspex disk. The inner I might use later but for now it's not needed.



Similarly, the centre of the aluminium disk underneath is not needed, as I need to allow a clear path for lighting to the front from the source in the back. For this, I just used the bench drill to stitch-drill it all out, then hand-filed it clean. I left four tabs to screw it to the bottom of the reactor. The tabs still need tidying up a little to make them neat.



Here's a quick pre-assembly. I need to make some more bits before the lighting and power goes in.

[P Plates]

Yes there are still lots of really good people out there. Unfortunately our media mostly focuses on the bad so following the news you would think there was no hope for humanity.

[Barry]

I'm hearin' ya.


I got one boot all spot-welded up today. Fits good and hinges well in the middle.

[Barry]

My very skilled uncle turned some brass rings to my specs. I got a little time to assemble them today.



Brass rings assembled and fitted into the reactor.

[ScottH]

How long did it take Tony to build his first suit in a dark cave with not electricity??

Loving your documentary.
Fascinating stuff Barry.

[Barry]

How long did it take Tony to build his first suit in a dark cave with not electricity??

Loving your documentary.
Fascinating stuff Barry.

They would have beheaded me long ago...

[Barry]

Today I cut the guts out of the front plate and fabricated my own from a piece of pipe and some flat steel strips welded and bent.



Tonight, drawing up a paper template to mark holes to be drilled around the circumference of the front ring. The movie accurate one has elongated slots, but I only have a drill, not a mill so my holes will simply be round.

[Barry]

Arc reactor front ring punched and ready for drilling. Sometimes I wish I had some decent machinery to do all this, but it's kind of cool to see how well I can do with hand tools and hand-held power tools.



Holes drilled. A bit of polishing and some socket heads and it's ready to go on the front of the reactor.



Trying to remain constructive at work after everyone else has gone home. Lots of waiting for the public to leave the park before locking up. Sure beats wasting time watching the idiot box. Got another hand plate, the second boot and part of a collar plate cut out. Using aviation snips buckles the sheet steel no end, but I'll planish it back out on the anvil.



Assembly nearly complete. Still to go: drill out the bottom of the reactor and install power and lighting. I think I'm going to re-do the little square transformers around the outside before I wrap them in copper wire.

[Barry]

Making progress on the second boot.



Cut the bottom out of the body to allow for the bight and power going in later, then lined the inside of the reactor with a metal tape specially designed to reflect spectrum in laboratories. Good to know people in the game. You can see already what the tape is doing to the sunlight hitting it. Once I have lighting in there, it should bounce around like a bastard.



Making the little transformers for the particle accelerator on the front of the arc reactor.



Starting to fit transformers on the reactor.