The Tin Man Project Part 2

It's been kind of a hectic week with all that has been going on here at the workshop and also at a new makerspace I have gotten involved in.  More about the makerspace in another post soon.  But for right now I want to show you the progress that I have made today on my Tin Man project. 

Here once again is how this project should look once I have it completed.  Also the image above is a good way to show you what parts of the Tin Man go where when I show them in various stages of construction.

Here are all of the 3D printed parts that I've put together for this project so far.  70 hours of 3D printing make a lot of parts as you can tell.  From left to right in the back of this image is the hips assembly, PVC tubing for the arms, the head with hat already attached, and more PVC for the legs.  Again starting on the left and moving right are the feet with the ankles attached, joints for the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, teeth for the face of the Tin Man, and knew joints for the legs.  Lastly also starting on the left is the head mounting plate, the hands (without fingers), the hip mounting plate, and the leg and arm PVC drill guides and supports.  Lots to figure out on this project.

To start the assembly I put together the hips first pictured above.  This consists of a blue mounting plate that was 3D printed.  Inserted into this plate are two 1 1/2" long PVC 1 3/4" outside diameter tubes that are press fit into the plate.  Then inserted and bolted into these tubes are two 3D printed joints for the hips along with the mounting hardware to hold everything in place. 

Next another mounting plate for the body of the Tin Man is bolted to the blue mounting plate using 1/4-20 bolts, nuts, and washers. This white plate was also 3D printed and is 1/4" thick and 5.75" in diameter.  The PVC mounting tubes for the hip joints slide easily into the holes designed for them.

The next step in this portion of the assembly was to cut the PVC piping to the required lengths for the arms and legs as well as drill all of the mounting holes for the project. I cut all of the tubing using my miter saw and it turned out to be a quick and easy task.  To ensure that the joints for the legs and arms would go together smoothly into the PVC tubing I 3D printed a drill guide for both sizes of tubing that are used for the arms and legs.  I then could slide the tubing into the guide (shown on the right) and also have a matching tube support (shown upper left) to hold the tubing correctly while I drilled the 1/4" holes using my drill press.

Here is the setup on my drill press ready to drill the first hole.  The piece of wood underneath the drill guide helped me hold everything easily in place while I drilled straight through the center of the tubing and also mark a spot on the wood at the same time. 

With the wood marked I drilled an additional hole completely through the plywood support so that I could slide a bolt down through the first hole that I drilled into the tube.  This kept the tube from spinning as I wanted both holes to be in the center of the tubing as well as be aligned with one another in the final assembly of the legs and arms.

I was very pleased to be able to put the leg assembly together first time out.  The drill guides really worked out perfectly.  The assembly of the legs that you see pictured above was very quick and easy. 

With the joints all mounted correctly I can even pose the Tin Man if I like once it is complete.  But he would be limited in his movement so to have him stand up is the plan of action at this point.  To make him more posable would take a bit more design work to have the joints have more movement.  But for now this will do nicely.

The arms also went together smoothly as shown above.  I have all of the components for his hands but when this photo was taken I did not have enough bolts and nuts to put the fingers on the hands yet.  I will have to make another trip to the hardware store to get this covered. 

The next step in the assembly will be the fiber glassing of the body for the Tin Man.  This will be a simple task but not a fast one.  I have the Styrofoam already set up to use as a plug for the fiberglass work so hopefully I can get at this in the next day or so.  Once this main part is completed it will just be a matter of drilling some holes to mount the hip plate to the base of the body and drill holes for the head mount and shoulder joints.  So I've still  got a lot of work to get at yet before I can move on to disassembly of the figure and paint all of the parts  and then put them all back together again.  

I also still have to 3D print his heart and work on his axe.  Lastly I plan on making a old style oil can that he can hold on to when he is displayed. It will be another nice touch for the finished figure.  I'll keep you posted when I get further along.  Have a productive day in your workshop.  Today has been a good one for me.