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Once you have all the pieces in
place and he is standing very
balanced and the pieces all are
very tight in their fittings, you
will insert one 3/4" screw into
each joint. This will insure
nothing will come apart while in
use or being moved. The forearms
should be level before placing the
set screws in the shoulders. I
chose to use screws for securing
the joints in my skeleton rather
than using PVC cement so I would
have the ability to adjust him at
any time. Cement is rather
unforgivingly permanent.
 We need to install the forearm air rams at this time. First you will slip
your 3/8" rubber air line over the end of the brake bleeder and then push
it up over the hex teeth you use to tighten the fitting with. Once you clamp the
airline to this it will become very tight, so don't worry that the section you
are tightening to isn't round. Leave a pigtail of about 30" of the air line
to each ram. Next you will cut your 10 1/2", 1" PVC pipe lengthwise so
you can slide your cylinder inside. I used a table saw for this, but I must warn you
that it can be a very dangerous proposition. You may want to use a hand saw or
jig saw with a short blade or even tin snips to make this cut. Once you do, you
will want to pry the end of the piece open and force your screen door rams up
through. If you need some help with this you can heat the pipe with a heat gun
as shown to make it more pliable. Flush the front of the air ram's cylinder to
the pipe and let the excess pipe cover the air fitting section. We cut our pipe
this length to protect the air fitting from sustaining any concussion from it's
use.
Now insert the air cylinder and the PVC shim into the forearm, air line first
threaded through the 1/2" hole you have drilled into the center of the
elbow. You should have no problem tapping this into place until the front of the
ram, shim and forearm are all flush. The piston doesn't necessarily need to be
vertical while sliding the assembly in place, as you can turn it to the correct
position at any time.
Now that we have installed the rams
for the hands, it would be a good
time to make some hands for your
beast. For this we need two 9"
section of 2" ABS pipe. PVC pipe
may also work, but I didn't have
access to 2" size. The photo here shows a section that I have cut in half and one side I
have heated with a heat gun to flatten out. I later found that I needed more
material for the hand than just half of the pipe, so you will need to split your
pipes like you did with the arm air cylinder shims. Then you will heat them up and
using a piece of wood to press down
on the pipe to get it to start to separate, keep the heat on
till it is pliable enough to fully open up and flatten out. I used a stick of
wood to help me hold it flat to the workbench while it was hot until it had
cooled. Once it cools, it will remain flat indefinitely. This is a great way to
get sturdy, flat plastic stock for making any of a hundred things you may need
to craft yourself.
 You will need to use your hand to get a good pattern to trace for the hands
that you will be cutting out of your plastic stock. I used a felt marker and
traced around my thumb and index finger and then back to the wrist. We only need
these digits to shape the latex monster hands that we will be slipping over the
hands, and also the latex will not accept hands that are bigger than this
anyway. In the photo above you see the finished product. Once I had cut out the
shapes I sanded the edges and used machine screws to attach them to the air
rams. I also wound up drilling another hole in the air cylinder piston so I would
have a solid 2-screw mount for mine. Once I had them mounted I used the heat gun
again to shape the hands somewhat so the latex hands would sort of pose in a
grabbing position.
 If you fit your executioner with a chopping ax then you will
need to leave the right hand totally flat so the ax will have full mobility and
not run into the edges of this plastic. More on that later.
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