How to build a Metal Arm

I´m a fan of armors, weather they come from the middle ages or other epoches. I also like these futuristic ones, belonging to fictional heros from the marvel and dc comics/films. So why not building my own, at least a part of it. In some kind inspired by iron man, the iron fist or the automail from the fullmetal alchemist, i decided to build a wearable arm out of metal. However, this one is not a replica or something similar, design and functional parts came all out of my head.

With a clear vision how it could look like, but not had to look like, i just started the building process, using my right arm as a model. I used no blue prints or other patterns, it was more a trial an error process, where i made some building steps and decided after finishing them, if the result was good enough, considering function and design. If i wasn´t satisfied with the result, i putted it aside and tryed something different, even though it meant i had worked half a day in vain. This also means, that i have no drawings or accurate dimensions of the metal arm, each individual part is simply adapted to my own body dimensions, while attemting to get out a nice optics.

My general intention was to build an arm out of full metal, while maintaining the mobility of all joints as much as possible. Maintaining the mobility is the biggest challenge, if you try to rebuild the human limbs out of stiff materials like metal. To work around this problem and to achive a good result, i used some silver colored leather for some critical parts.

As i have no machines for working with metal, i mostly used some pliers, files and hammers. All together, this metal arm consists out of about 1200-1300 separate parts. Putting all these parts together, took me about 8 weeks, working mostly in the evening hours.

With most parts of the result i´m satisfied, if you think the same, support me in the instructables design contest and vote for me! Thanks ;)

# Note: Safety first! Working with metal plates means, working with sharp edges and sharp tools. Therefore it is always very important to wear gloves! I prefer using the thinnest cut-resistant gloves i can find, with thick gloves, i loose the fine feeling in my fingers.

# Note: As pictures sometimes tell a lot more than words, most instructions for assembling the metal arm can be found in the pictures. In the introducing text passages of the following steps, i only mention the essential basics.

# Note: The red light-effects in some pictures are realized with red led´s, coin cells and magnets which can be fixed easily to nearly every position of this metal arm. Further informatiion about these "throwies" can be found here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/

Some impressions of the building process and the finished metal arm are summed up in the following video:

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Step 1: Tools & Materials

Materials:

For construction parts:

Tin coated steel sheets (thickness: 0.2 mm)
Perforated steel band (12 x 0,8 mm; diameter of boring: 4.5 mm)
Silver colored leather

For connecting:

Rivets 6/6 mm
Eyelets 4 x 3.8 mm
Bolts M3x10
Press fasteners 10mm
Metal glue, also useable for leather and other stuff
Elastic band

Tools:

Basic:

Metal shears
Bind rail for bending (mask the jaws with tape, to avoid scratching the metal surface)
Hammer
Screwdriver
Bind rail for punching holes (for rivets/eyelets)
Bind rail for fixing eyelets
Files for burring sharp edges

+ gloves for your safety!