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 Another step we need to take to prepare for the assembly is to modify our
ABS fittings.
 These are the black goodies at the bottom of the chest cavity you
will see in one of the next photos.
Once you have the chest perfectly square and lined up, these two fittings will
act as the hinges for our animation. But to get the waist narrow enough to fit
the size of a man's waist that doesn't eat at Mc Donald's every day, we need to
shorten these fittings. In the top left you see where, at the dotted line,
to cut the long nipple off of this fitting. Now when assembled the two ABS
fittings will remain in place between the center and the outside
fittings.
 Our final item to prepare for the assembly of our animatronic's
armature is the 2 3/4" piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe which you will
cut away the front
 and
back of enough to offer you access
to the plunger nut as well as the
plunger enough clearance to work.
Now drill a hole through the wings
approximately 1/4" away from the
edge that will allow for the
connecting rod you see passing
through the lever above and held in
place with hitch pins. The size of
the hole here and the rod you see
drilled out had to be replaced with
a much larger rod once the final
air cylinder was acquired that would actually work in the inverted
position it has to here, as the plunger was 3 times as thick on the
industrial unit than our bike pump! You will find a photo of the final unit in the next shot
below along with the sizes needed for this particular ram.
The massive plunger on this air
cylinder that was mentioned at the start of this
how-to, is
3/8" in diameter! So out of the lever comes the old steel rod, the PVC
lever is drilled out with huge 5/8" holes and a section of 1/2"
electrical conduit is drilled and fitted for the ram's plunger and the hitch
pins. Notice the hole going through the nut on the bottom of the plunger and a
piece of heavy gauge wire slipped through and bent down so the nut can never
loosen on us. You will also clearly see a need to cut out the front and the back
of the lever to clear the cylinder and the attaching nut. At least we know the rod
isn't going to bend anytime soon!
 Using the CAD drawings as a guide along with your cut out list, you should
easily be able to assemble the chest and obviously the extremities. Across the
shoulders you will simply join together three 1 1/2" "T" fittings
using the 2 1/2" sections of pipe so each joint presses tight against each
other. All of your torso area should be assembled using only #8 x 3/4"
screws through each joint to hold it together so you can make changes if needed,
do NOT use any glue until later. The top T should be either straight up or
slightly leaned forward, as the skeleton's head will be positioned as hanging
from a noose. The two top chest Ts as you can see are slightly lower than level
at exactly a 16 1/2 degree angle. Do not worry if you can't determine this
angle, as it will become self apparent. Once this is assembled using a rubber or
dead-blow plastic hammer, finish the shoulder area with 2 more 2 1/2" pipe sections to attach
the 90 degree shoulders that will be angled slightly backward, as his arms will
be tied behind his back.
 Next you will need another 4 pieces of 2 1/2" sections of pipe to
attach four 45 degree 1 1/2" elbows to the front of the chest. The lower of
the two will be slightly angled inward at the bottom, as the lower, 19" sections of
pipe that cover the "stomach" area will be traveling toward each
other somewhat,
 narrowing at the waist. Then we will need to attach our modified
2" black ABS T fittings. Be sure they are perfectly aligned with each
other. I laid the assembly on its back on a flat surface and made sure all the
points were level to each other at the same time so it is square and
plumb. (Once the entire skeleton has been assembled and everything is
square and plumb I set each joint with a couple of #8 X 3/4" screws as
shown on the right above.) Ignore the air
cylinder in this photo for now. We
will come back to that later.
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