Now we are ready to assemble the
armature of your monster. Let's
start by making the chest. As you
can tell from the pics above, the
chest not only angles outward, but
it angles from narrower at the hips
to wider at the shoulders. This is
due to our trimming 1/2" off each
side of all three Ts that are
between the 90 degree angle hips,
but not trimming anything off of
the fittings of the shoulders.
Using a dead blow rubber hammer is
best, but use what you have to
hammer 1 of your 2" sections into
each side of the 4-way fitting
(#4). Then hammer 1 T (#1)
 to each,
then use another 2" section to
attach the 90 degree (#2)
shoulders. When you are done the
shoulders should be 20 1/2" wide
(You do not want any space between
any of these fittings). Now slide a
5" section of pipe into the two
chest Ts for the top section of the
chest (A). Next hammer on a 45
degree angle (#3) to the top pipes
of the chest. Now slide in another
5" pipe (B) into that angle and
another 45 degree fitting to
complete the front section of
chest. Now hammer in the final
portion of the chest, the lower
pipe section (C) using the 10"
sections.
Now, between the three Ts (#5) that
make up the center portion of the
hips (one pointing to the back for
the air cylinder to rest on, two angled
slightly forward and up for the
chest) slip in the 1 1/2" pipe
sections to attach these all flush
together. (Remember to cut 1/2" off
of each side of each of these three
Ts so each one is a total of 1"
narrower so the hips of the dummy
is 3" less than the width of the
shoulders.) Then slip in each end
of the hip section the 2" pipes to
attach the 90 degree hips (#2).
Your finished width to the hips
section should be 17 1/2". There
should be no space between any of
these fittings.
You will now insert the 8" pipe
sections (E) into the shoulder
elbows (#2) and then to this you
need another 90 degree elbow (#2).
To the other end of the elbow
insert the 11" pipes (F) for the
forearms.
You now need to give your guy some
legs. To make him an imposing
height I suggest about 36" pipes
(G) for this. At the end of the
pipes you will hammer on the
threaded end caps (#6) and then
spin on the cast iron flanges (#17)
for mounting to the platform. I
gave my platform a shape so that
once painted black it would blend
in to the floor easier. I just
stood on the 14" x 20" board and
traced an outline around my feet
and cut out the figure with a jig
saw giving it some room for the
shoes of the monster to rest on.
Attach your flanges exactly where
you want the instep of his shoes to
be.
In the photos here you will see
that the air line going to the arms
of our project travels through the
bend in the 90 degree angles at his
elbow. (The elbow on the right
happens to be a T that I cut off
and shaped because I ran out of 90
degree bends here. But the easiest
thing is to use a 90 degree.) Drill
a 1/2" hole in the bend of the
elbows for the line to travel
through.
Finally we will install the air cylinder
perch or "tailbone". Insert the
remaining 5" section of pipe (D)
into the center T fitting of his
waist (#5). Then fit the last T
fitting (#1) on the end of the
tailbone.
This completes our skeleton and now
you should be able to slide an 8",
1 1/4" pipe section over the top
section of your bicycle pump and
then insert both of these up
through the "neck", or the 4-way
fitting (#4) and then adjust up the
tailbone under the bottom of the
pump until the top of the pump is
3" above the top of the fitting. To
keep your 1 1/4" shim from sliding
down the pump, simply drive one of
your 3/8" screws through the neck
of the 4-way fitting and into the
shim. You need to make sure that
the screw does not pierce the
cylinder of the ram.
|
