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 Now it is a simple matter of attaching the two 90 degree "hip"
elbows to the 5" sections of pipe that go into the center 1 1/2" T
fitting. Your elbows should fit perfectly almost snug to the very inside deepest
point of the two ABS T fittings when fully inserted to both the elbows and the
white T. Once you have determined that your angle of the
 PVC fitting
is going to be ideal, go ahead and mark your fittings, disassemble using your
hammer and re-assemble using a PVC pipe cement so this section which will be
constantly moving when in use will stay together securely. If you lay the
chest and hip assembly on a flat surface you will be able to tell if the
fittings on the hips are parallel with each other before angling the middle
fitting backward. Once glued together it is important to grease the inside of the
ABS fittings well so your animatronic doesn't wear out in the first year of use.
You will find plenty of space to insert your grease nipple into the top cut-out
section of the fittings. Now
attach the arms and legs with screws. In the lousy photo on the right you will see a
shot of the feet of our dead fellow that was not on the CAD drawings. They are
6" long and held to the bottom of the lower leg with one 2" long
mending plate on each side and screwed loosely to the ankle area of the foot so it will move when
the animatronic goes through it's cycle. The reason the lower leg looks so fat
here is this photo came from the bulked-out stage of our prop.
 Next we will need to fit our skeleton with a waist and a back. For this we
will use a chunk of 3/4" plywood cut in a parabolic oval in the general
shape of a man's waist at 8 1/2" X 14". Leave the back of the oval
(directly behind the air ram) flat, as I had to go back after assembling the one shown here and
cut this down to allow the lower portion of the wood I used for the back to
attach to. This flattened off section will also need to be sanded down on a
slight angle as you will see, to accommodate the slight forward pitch of the
back. See photo below.
 Three slots will need to be cut out as you can see for the wood to slip over
the PVC pipe and the plunger from the air ram. The slot for the air cylinder will
need to be much wider than shown here since the plunger is 3/8" wide, so
cut this slot about 5/8" to
 3/4" wide and about 3" deep. The
slots for the pipes will go to the middle of the wood as you can see and need to
be just under 2" wide. Just hold the wood up to the skeleton to make the
marks where the cuts will need to be with the plunger slot dead center and the
wood down almost as low as you can get it and still clear the lever assembly
underneath. As you
 can see I merely held this in place with two 1" X
1" L brackets.
You will need a piece of 1/4" plywood or fiberboard as you see used
here for the back to not only keep our
 skeleton together but to give us
something to attach a large amount of electronics to. Notice how the waist is
angled to meet the back. You can use #8 X 3/4" screws to attach this to the
PVC and waist. The photo on
the left shows the legs elevated
with the lever fully deployed to
show the end will just touch the
back of the pants of our subject
once dressed and in use.
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