Feb 2012
A long time in the making but I'm finally pleased to announce that this arc has be superseded by a newer design which I'm calling the MkII. The MkII features laser cut parts from a metallic coloured acrylic and avoid copious hours of bending and cutting small pieces of wire. These are available as kits of full arcs from my website.
http://sites.google.com/site/msraynsford/ironmanarcreactors
May 2010
I've updated this arc reactor design based on the recently released sequel. This newer instructable features better tips on how to make the fiddly parts and an easier to build design.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Iron-Man-MkV-Arc-Reactor/
The Mk1 arc reactor is now available in kit format. So if you ever wanted to make your own but couldn't make the parts yourself, now you can buy a kit containing all the parts, instructions and shaped polymorph.
http://sites.google.com/site/msraynsford/ironmanarcreactors
Iron Man Arc Reactor
This instructable is one of two parts detailing how to build an arc reactor and an iron man mask. Both work together but are written as seperate instructables for clarity. This part is for the Arc Reactor the Iron Man Mask can be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-Iron-Man-Mask/
My costume was built for a fancy dress party but it is so cool I'm thinking about wearing it else where.
First I needed something to copy, I work best when I'm copying someone elses ideas so I used the following screen shot of Tony Stark in Iron man as a basis for my arc reactor. As you can see it has 10 well defined sections and a glowing centre. I'm also going to use the sleeveless T-shirt and I attempted to grow my own facial hair in time for the party.
I'm rather pleased at my attempt to make the arc reactor and very happy with the segments of light that eminate from it. I'd also like to pay respects to the other arc light reactor on instructables, imagine my horror as the weekly round up arrives in my inbox only find out that I had been beaten to the write up for the same project.
Update - September 2010
Halloween is coming rounnd again and yes I'm still making them so order now in time for halloween.
"Will you make me one of these?"
I finally got round to making myself a webpage about these and all of my other projects, it's still a work in progress but I think it covers the basics for now.
http://msraynsford.googlepages.com/start
"I live in X where can I buy Polymorph From?"
I get this question a lot, sadly I don't live in x so my insight is never very helpful. Google is your friend as always but if that fails or you don't feel you can create a mould to shape the polymorph contact me and I will happily sell you some polymorph and/or a shaped disk.
A long time in the making but I'm finally pleased to announce that this arc has be superseded by a newer design which I'm calling the MkII. The MkII features laser cut parts from a metallic coloured acrylic and avoid copious hours of bending and cutting small pieces of wire. These are available as kits of full arcs from my website.
http://sites.google.com/site/msraynsford/ironmanarcreactors
May 2010
I've updated this arc reactor design based on the recently released sequel. This newer instructable features better tips on how to make the fiddly parts and an easier to build design.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Iron-Man-MkV-Arc-Reactor/
The Mk1 arc reactor is now available in kit format. So if you ever wanted to make your own but couldn't make the parts yourself, now you can buy a kit containing all the parts, instructions and shaped polymorph.
http://sites.google.com/site/msraynsford/ironmanarcreactors
Iron Man Arc Reactor
This instructable is one of two parts detailing how to build an arc reactor and an iron man mask. Both work together but are written as seperate instructables for clarity. This part is for the Arc Reactor the Iron Man Mask can be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-Iron-Man-Mask/
My costume was built for a fancy dress party but it is so cool I'm thinking about wearing it else where.
First I needed something to copy, I work best when I'm copying someone elses ideas so I used the following screen shot of Tony Stark in Iron man as a basis for my arc reactor. As you can see it has 10 well defined sections and a glowing centre. I'm also going to use the sleeveless T-shirt and I attempted to grow my own facial hair in time for the party.
I'm rather pleased at my attempt to make the arc reactor and very happy with the segments of light that eminate from it. I'd also like to pay respects to the other arc light reactor on instructables, imagine my horror as the weekly round up arrives in my inbox only find out that I had been beaten to the write up for the same project.
Update - September 2010
Halloween is coming rounnd again and yes I'm still making them so order now in time for halloween.
"Will you make me one of these?"
I finally got round to making myself a webpage about these and all of my other projects, it's still a work in progress but I think it covers the basics for now.
http://msraynsford.googlepages.com/start
"I live in X where can I buy Polymorph From?"
I get this question a lot, sadly I don't live in x so my insight is never very helpful. Google is your friend as always but if that fails or you don't feel you can create a mould to shape the polymorph contact me and I will happily sell you some polymorph and/or a shaped disk.
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Signing UpStep 1: The materials
I wanted to make something a bit more substantial for this project and I remembered I had some suitable plastic in my cupboard. This is the key compenent for the project. This stuff is called polymorph and can be bought from places such as Ebay. It's a thermal plastic that melts around 60 degrees C and it becomes something resembling plastacine. From there it is simple to mold it into the desired shapes.
The next thing we will need is a light source. I wanted the whole thing to be quite thin when it was finished and sat on my chest so I opted for some surface mount white LEDs. Surface mount LED's have a very wide viewing angle and being white they produce quite a lot of light so they are perfect for this application. I bought mine from Rapid Electronics, I would plug them with a link but they charged me more for P&P on the LED's than the LED's cost, so I'm not going to. These LED's are in a PLCC 2 package which means they are still large enough to be soldered by hand.
You may also want some surface mount resistors to go with those LEDs. I used the amazing program at http://LEDCalc.com/ to work out exactly which values I need. As I am running these LED's from a 9V battery and wanted 20mA of current to flow throw them. They suggested how exactly they should be wired and what values I needed (incidently I have stolen the circuit diagram from them too). For my LED's I required 5x 180 Ohm resistors and 1x 330Ohm resistor.
I mounted the LED's on a peice of plywood, anything will do as you are glueing the surface mount components down for ease of soldering. A 9V battery and battery clip are providing the power for the system. These can be bought from any electrical store as required.
Finally you'll need some wire for the detailed decoration. Wire coathangers could be used but I used tin copper wire of 22 AWG gauge. There is nothin special about the wire, it's just hard finding something chunky enough for the job.
The next thing we will need is a light source. I wanted the whole thing to be quite thin when it was finished and sat on my chest so I opted for some surface mount white LEDs. Surface mount LED's have a very wide viewing angle and being white they produce quite a lot of light so they are perfect for this application. I bought mine from Rapid Electronics, I would plug them with a link but they charged me more for P&P on the LED's than the LED's cost, so I'm not going to. These LED's are in a PLCC 2 package which means they are still large enough to be soldered by hand.
You may also want some surface mount resistors to go with those LEDs. I used the amazing program at http://LEDCalc.com/ to work out exactly which values I need. As I am running these LED's from a 9V battery and wanted 20mA of current to flow throw them. They suggested how exactly they should be wired and what values I needed (incidently I have stolen the circuit diagram from them too). For my LED's I required 5x 180 Ohm resistors and 1x 330Ohm resistor.
I mounted the LED's on a peice of plywood, anything will do as you are glueing the surface mount components down for ease of soldering. A 9V battery and battery clip are providing the power for the system. These can be bought from any electrical store as required.
Finally you'll need some wire for the detailed decoration. Wire coathangers could be used but I used tin copper wire of 22 AWG gauge. There is nothin special about the wire, it's just hard finding something chunky enough for the job.
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This power can be used to power up his suit for a long time for his enhanced reactor, not the first one.
To make this extremely efficient power supply, I believe we can. And I believe it is possible. But I think that it can be done only in a few hundred years.
The movie is purely fictional and I believe that the writer are just fantasizing about the perfect energy source. (Dreams mostly become true eventually). If we are living in 19th century, people won't believe you if you can send sound wave and pictures accross the globe. Now, it's possible. So what makes an arc reactor impossible?
It can be done. But not in recent time.
I've made a fair few now but I did post this several years ago so it's a slow and steady trickle.
i had half a course in high school on it and i was probably not there often before i dropped out.
easy stuff
Which symbols are the resistors and which the lights and how do the outer wires follow the ring?
Bah! Wish I had taken electronics classes!
shouldve just bought the complete thing. there went 30 bucks. haha my suggestion? buy the complete and leave it to the professional. :S
http://www.instructables.com/id/Iron-Man-Arc-Reactor-prop/ (this isn't his but it's really useful)