A man chooses, a slave obeys.

And I'm sure you'll all choose to make your own totally awesome Eve Hypos from the Bioshock series. A great gift for the nerd friend for the holidays or just a cool conversation piece for the office.

So every year my nerd friends and I have a holiday party where we do a steal a gift game. Rather than buying something anyone else could get I decided that I would make something different each year. Last year I made a cool replica of Darth Vader's lightsaber, was a huge hit. If you're interested I got the plans from The Big Yellow Box. There's plenty of great instructables for lightsabers here but I like to give credit to the guy who gave me the idea...

Moving on, so this year (after playing through Bioshock 1 & 2 for the 10th time) I decided to make a replica of an Eve Hypo. Now if you just want one you can buy them from Think Geek for about $16 plus shipping. I wanted the challenge of making one myself. I won't lie the one on Think Geek is nicer than mine, lights up and is probably cheaper than the following instructable (unless you have a lot of the parts laying around already). But for me it was the challenge and satisfaction of making this myself. So what are you waiting for, a fist full of lightening is just a few steps away.

Step 1: For This Instructable You Will Need...

What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds. A parasite asks 'Where is my share?' A man creates. A parasite says, 'What will the neighbors think?' A man invents. A parasite says, 'Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of God... ' --Andrew Ryan

Materials
500 ml Fiji Water Bottle. The idea for this partially came about as I walked thought the grocery store and noticed how the Fiji brand water bottle is about the right size and shape for this.

1/2" wide aluminum strip (available at Lowes)
1 hour set time Epoxy
Acetone
2 part fix it stick (it's like an epoxy you mold by hand)
Post-it Craft Paper (beige)
5 or 6 Tea Candles (Maybe)
Assorted 1/4" nuts and bolts
2 Pop Rivets
Super Glue

Tools
Hand Drill
HackSaw
Pop Rivet Gun
Metal Engraving Tool
X-acto Knife
A vise
A sharpie

Step 2: Getting Started

The first step will be to peel the labels off the water bottle and get it ready, this is not hard. Pour (or drink) the water out and let the inside dry thoroughly before starting. In the pictures you see in the intro the Eve Hypo has a milky quality. The reason for this...

The sides of the water bottle were too flimsy for my tastes, I wanted a more sturdy Eve Hypo. To achieve this I decided to use epoxy to bulk up the sidewalls. As epoxy is very thick I decided I'd have to thin it with acetone before starting so it had a more runny consistancy and would be easier to apply to the inside of the bottle. I tested this on a solo cup and the acetone promptly ate through it. I did use more acetone than was necessary but it got me concerned that the same thing would happen with the water bottle. Before I started I melted down several tea candles and poured them inside the water bottle, giving it a coat of wax before applying the epoxy. The wax is why the hypo has that milky look and the blue of the liquid isn't that apparent. I'm trying a second hypo with just the epoxy but I wanted to get started with the instructable.

Anyway I'll give the steps exactly as I prepared the first one and I'll update if the epoxy only one works better...

Melt down several tea candles and pour them inside the water bottle, giving it a coat of wax before applying the epoxy. Be careful when you do this as the wax is hot enough to melt the bottle, let the wax cool a bit before pouring it in.

After you have coated the inside of the bottle with wax, mix up some epoxy and thin it a bit with the acetone till it's a bit more runny. Be careful not to use too much acetone as it can eat through plastic.

Once the epoxy is mixed, pour it into the bottle and coat the inside with the epoxy.

**UPDATE** So I've tried using just the epoxy and if you don't mix too much acetone in it won't eat the bottle, alghout the sides might get a bit tender while the epoxy is still liquid. HOWEVER it takes a LOT of epoxy to give the bottle the rigidity you'll want. It can be done but you'll use up a lot more of your epoxy this way. Just be forwarned.

Step 3: The EVE Label

This parts pretty easy. Take your Post-it paper and cut out a strip 10" long by 3" wide.

From here it's not too difficult to free hand the apple on the Eve Logo. Cut it out with your X-acto knife and you're ready to rock.

Step 4: The Handle Assembly

When you break it down there's really only 2 parts to this particular ible, the bottle and the handle. But there's quite a few steps in the handle. I know by itself it doesn't look like much but all together it's pretty cool.

All the Following measurements are based on you using the same sized 500ml Fiji water bottle that I did. If you use a different size or make of bottle, remeasure before cutting.

Using your hacksaw cut 2 10" strips from the aluminum strip. Set one aside. With the other one lay it against the water bottle half way down one side of the bottle and mark with a sharpie on the strip where it hangs past the bottle. Put the strip in your vice and bend 90 degrees. Put against the water bottle and repeat until you have made a square shape out of the strip.

Once you have your square take a sharpie and write EVE on the side, then take your metal engraver and go over it. Once you've engraved EVE in the side go back over it with a sharpie. I recommend a blue sharpie as that's what color it is in all the still pictures I found online. But if all you have is black that works too.

Fit the square you've just made over your water bottle and line up the second 10" strip against the square with the excess strip pointing past the bottom of the water bottle.

Mark the midpoint of the square and the point at which the strip extends past the bottom of the bottle.

Put the strip in your vise and bend (#1) 90 degrees. Remove the strip, put it back against the bottle and mark again where it extends past the bottom edge of the bottle. Put back in the vise and bend (2) again. Remove from the vise and put the opposite end of the strip in the vise and add the 30 degree bend (#3) a the end of the handle.

Remove the square from the bottle and drill a hole with a 1/8" bit where you marked it. Drill a hole in the end of the strip where you lined it up with the metal square. Mark the top of the handle where the "plunger" of the hypo will be and drill with a 1/4" bit.

Rivet the metal square and the handle together where you drilled the 1/8" hole and insert the bolt with a nut on each side in the top of the handle where you just drilled the 1/4" hole.

The handle is just about done, put it back in your vise and drill the "final hole" where the last 1/4" bolt will go. Drill this one last after everythings together so you can line it up with the metal square.

There ya go, the handle's done.

Step 5: The Hypo Caps

Ok so this part's a bit tricky. Or at least it is if you're bad at molding clay like I am...

Take the cap from your water bottle and using your 1/8" drill bit put a hole directly in the center of the cap. Put a pop rivet in from the inside of the cap and secure with super glue.

Take your fix a stick, tear off a chunk, and kneed it till it's ready to use. Mold it around the cap making sure not to get any below or into the threaded part of the cap. If you can shape it into the same shape as is on the Eve Hypo in Bioshock more power to you. I'm terrible at molding clay so I was happy to just beef up the cap and not have it look like a water bottle cap.

Allow to dry and paint with primer (gray).

Step 6: You're in the Home Streach Now...

So you're almost done.

Carefully fill the bottle with water and add blue food coloring to the desired shade of blue. The dry any water that got on the outside of the bottle.

Affix the label to the bottle which should be pretty rigid by now.

Screw the cap on tightly then take more of the fix a stick and seal the cap around the neck near the threads.

Once the fix a stick is dry, gently fit the handle over the bottle so as not to puncture it. Adjust the bolts to the desired tension and you're set.

Now would you kindly get to work?