I didn't come from another planet. I wasn't bitten by a radioactive bug.
I'm not a rich genius. My parents weren't mutants. I don't have a special ring and
I can't travel through time and space. I didn't choose the life of a hero.
It chose me.
You're a very lucky man. We were able to save your arm. We just had to make a few...
changes.
This is gonna be good.
Hi my name is Chris and I like to make things.
Today: Steampunk robotic mechanical arm
Because you know you want one. I just need to say
one thing before we get started is on the video I make an arm for the right arm of
your body however the actual pattern is for the left arm because I figured
actually people will probably want to have their left arm more incapacitated
than their right arm when they're doing stuff. However if you
want to make a right arm just print the patterns and flip them over and that'll
be the right arm. I just don't want it too confusing in the video. Let's go.
So start by printing out the pattern, making sure that you're printing it actual size.
Line up the alignment marks on any of the overlapping pieces and tape them
together. Today I'm using my computer with its nice bright screen instead of a
window so I can see through the paper and match up the marks. Use the print
guides and a ruler to verify that you've printed the pattern at the correct size.
Now you're all ready to cut out your pattern pieces and trace them onto the
foam. Make sure to mark all the alignment marks and extend the line in so it stays
on the piece when you cut it out. Use a pen to mark a dot in the center of each
circle so you know where to punch the holes when the time comes. The dotted
lines are just there to give you an indication of where other pieces will
overlap, except for here on piece number 9 where you're actually going to cut on
the dotted line to create a second piece out of thinner foam with all the swirly
bits cut out. There's another piece with a swirly design that we just need to
transfer onto the foam so I'm going to use my pen to create indentations by
tracing over the design on the paper then I can lift my paper up and retrace
following the indentations on the foam. This isn't the most accurate technique
for transferring a pattern but it can give you a pretty good idea where the
lines need to go. Once you have the lines drawn go over and over them with your
pen until you create nice deep indentations in the foam.
Once everything is traced you can start cutting! Grab your super sharp knife and
cut directly on the pen lines. Make a big fancy stack with all the pieces you just
cut out then grab your glue gun. Start by gluing piece two to piece one, gluing the
circle that points outward into the circle that points inward. Glue the rest
of that edge, matching the ends of both pieces and the alignment points. Whenever
I glue a section I like to glue the far end first to make sure that it's going
to line up with the other piece then I can go back and glue the alignment
points in the middle, stretching or compressing the foam to match if I need
to. Uh oh! Looks like I got too excited about gluing and forgot to punch the
holes! So you can either go back in time and punch them or punch them right now.
There are eight millimeter holes and twelve millimeter holes and the pattern
will tell you which is which. Now you can finish gluing the forearm piece together
to create a tube-like structure. Glue piece 5 to piece 4, lining up points
I, J, and K. Give it a little curve with your hands and fix up any gaps where it
isn't quite perfectly glued. Now take that piece 4 and 5 combo and glue
it to piece number 3, lining up points P, F, G and H. Not sure how the P got
in there. And make it into an arm tube by matching points L, M and N. Okay before
you go any further make sure to try on these pieces and make sure they actually
fit on your arm. If it makes you feel way stronger than you used to feel, you've
got it right. Obviously the last thing we would want is our elbow sticking out so
let's make a sweet cover for it by gluing together pieces 6 and 7.
Flip it right side out and form it a little bit with your hands to make it an
elbow-ish kind of shape.
Glue piece 49 and 50 together to make one long piece. This piece will follow the
top edge of the arm. Try it out first to see if it will fit. It will likely be
just a little bit too short, in which case you can just give it a little
stretch and the foam will magically lengthen. And glue it down. Boom.
Magic. Stretch the foam on the inside of the arm joint so it doesn't pinch your
skin when you close your arm you'll do this on the curved edge of piece 5
and piece 1. Cut a strip of foam five millimeters wide by 16 centimeters long
and then make a whole bunch of equally spaced slits that go halfway through the
foam. I space these out about every five millimeters. Cut out every second piece
and you've got a strip of gear teeth. Just remember you need a really sharp
knife for this otherwise you're just going to end up with a messy, messy thing.
Glue that strip around one of the half circles on the forearm piece, cutting off
the excess and using it for the other side. Take your two piece 51s and
glue them around the outside edges of your elbow protector. You might need to
stretch your foam just a tiny little bit so the ends meet up at the center
alignment point. Now for the hinges we're going to use 7/16 inches outside
diameter vinyl tubing I won't go too much into the technique right now
because you can learn all about it in my "How to Make Pivoting Hinges" tutorial
video. Push the tubing through from the inside of the upper arm piece, going
through the lower arm piece and then through the elbow protector. Glue one
piece number 12 on the forearm section, lining up the holes and keeping the
cutout slot parallel with the seam on the arm. Glue piece 36, lining up the hole
with the upper arm hole. Glue the other piece 12 on top of that, keeping the
cutout line parallel to the seam. Now we want the gears and gizmos and thingies
to look like they're coming out from beneath pieces 9 and 10, so we're going
to cut away half the thickness along the front curve of piece number 10 and the
back curve of piece number 9. Make your first cut 5 millimeters deep and then
make a perpendicular cut meeting up with the first cut to create a step in the
foam. Repeat the same process on the cutout in piece number 10. It's a little
bit tricky so just take your time. Do it slowly and carefully. Be sure when you're
doing this not to cut your fingers off. And now you can glue piece number 10
into place on the forearm. Glue piece 38, 40 and 47 on
top of piece 37. Piece 42 on top of 41 and then slide those into place under
the undercut of piece number 10. You'll definitely want to test the placement of
these parts before you commit to gluing them down, including piece number 9. You
might find that you want to trim a little off the back of piece 42
depending how deep your undercut goes. Once you're super happy with how it's
going to look go ahead and glue it all down.
Now we want gears 44 and 45 to mesh
together so they look like actual gears that could actually do something so you
might need to trim a little bit extra off them so that once they're stuck
underneath the cutaway they don't overlap each other. Once you've got the
gears glued down you can glue piece 46 and 43 on top of them. Glue pieces 28, 27,
26 and 25 in place and don't forget a little dot to make it pretty. Now we'll
make some fancy rivet-y things by pressing and twisting vigorously with
our pen in various spots and poking some holes with our pen in various other
spots. Add two 12 millimeter circles to fill in some space and half of a circle
to be the center of the gear and if you really like poking holes in things now's
your chance because you get to do some more. Now just add your connecting rod so
everything is connected and that's all the gadgets all done. Cut an 8 millimeter
wide by 20 millimeter long strip of foam and glue it along the curve on the front
edge of piece number 10 trimming off the ends to match the piece underneath. Okay
we need to make another thing. Let's call it the "acid core unit." Glue piece 30 over
top of piece 11, bend it around into a curved shape and glue the end caps on,
which happened to be piece number 20. This gets glued in the standard acid
core unit placement which is on the underside of the arm as shown here. Okay
now grab the swirly piece number 9 that you cut and it's going to go over
top of the regular piece number 9. The only thing about the swirly one is
it's going to seem a little bit short because it has to go around the other
one which is curved outwards so what we're going to do is we're going to just
stretch it a little bit until it matches up with the one underneath. Once you're
happy with the fit you can glue it down. Cut one more strip of foam and glue it
over the inside edge of the swirly piece. If there are some holes you forgot to
punch while you were doing your punching and it's too hard to punch now that it's
made into an arm shape you can get by with cutting them out afterwards with
your scalpel. Alright you made it through the first half. Well done! If you want to
see the second half that will be coming in about a week and I'll put the link to
that at the end of this video. Obviously the link won't be there until a
week from today so you might want to subscribe so that you know when it comes
out. And of course if you want to buy the pattern the link is here and in the
description below. Thanks for watching! Have a great day. See ya.
It's hard to be
looking at a fidget spinner and know where you're going!
Okay this is scarier than I thought it was gonna be.