Project Logs

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• Almost done but paused for COVID

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 05/22/2020 at 23:13 • 0 comments

  Some progress shots from working on exo gloves and reinforcing various parts of the exoskeleton. Most of this work was done during the winter, and relatively minor work is still left to do. The project is on hold until the work space opens.

• Reinforcing and repair

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 01/20/2020 at 07:39 • 0 comments

  Repairs after NW Wasteland Decompression party. Replaced plastic rod ends with steel ones from McMaster Carr, electrical wiring in the spine with bungee cords. Replacing finger connectors with elastic straps as well to make the suit appropriate for extended wear.

• Completed, working out bugs

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 11/25/2019 at 16:20 • 0 comments

  I got to wear the suit to Wasteland Weekend afterparty (did not make it on time for Weekend itself):

• Assembly happening now!

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 09/25/2019 at 15:56 • 4 comments

• Painting

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 09/20/2019 at 06:36 • 0 comments

  This is the last week of painting, next I have assembly and tuning.

• Done casting parts, onto finishing

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 08/09/2019 at 19:01 • 0 comments

  I finished casting all the required parts mid-July and moving onto finishing & painting. So far it's been a month of finishing all the cast parts by using metal filler and modeling primer to sand over imperfections, as well as using a rotary tool to clean up tiny details. I expect much less effort to be required for machined parts. No idea how much time painting will actually take after all the parts are primed & polished.

  In other news, I presented this project to high school students at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts:

  3D Printing to Metal Casting: Making of Elysium Exoskeleton Prop
  

• Casting chest & shin plates

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 07/01/2019 at 15:03 • 0 comments

  This weekend I made a second attempt at casting chest & shin plates. For the next one I will use thin sprues in addition to thick sprues to prevent parts of the model from breaking off with the sprues.

  Wax parts before dipping to build shells around them:

  First attempt:

  Second attempt:

  Both put together, before cleanup:

  I will make another attempt at casting the chest plate to see if I can get it even cleaner, and then redo one of the shin plates before there wasn't 100% fill.

• Exoskeleton chest plate 2-part mold

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 05/20/2019 at 22:21 • 0 comments

  The last mold required to finish this project! There are some optional parts left to make molds for that I might do if I have time left before the Wasteland Weekend.

• 3D-printed shin guards re-cast out of rubber

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 05/14/2019 at 02:30 • 0 comments

  The past three weeks have been a living hell of trying to cast two large plastic parts with complex geometry and thin edges out of rubber. Today it ends!

  I used SmoothOn Brush-On 40 to make the mold and shore 70 hardness rubber along with a black pigment to cast the parts.
  

• More parts cast, sheet metal order complete

  Valeriy Novytskyy • 04/19/2019 at 23:20 • 0 comments

  In the past 3 weeks I cast the remaining parts for the spine as well as shock plates/armor that will be attached to boots:

  Just before that I cast two extra parts I was missing before, a shoulder connector with some extreme detail and an unsightly hip connector. One of the parts here is repeated above.

  My sheet metal order of bent spine connectors and arm bracelets came in:
  

  I decided I might as well make those in 2mm stainless steel after prototyping with paper and cardboard:

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