James Bruton of XRobots.co.uk has been revisiting his Iron Man Cosplay project to rethink the boots and legs now that he has a 3D printer:
…I started by removing the cages from the front of the shins so I can make something more comfortable which also fits more snugly. I’ve used a pair of football shin pads and Velcro straps so I can adjust the fittings and brace the load across the whole shin.
The front and back shells will not attach directly to each other using some 3D printed parts. The hooks have been designed with some length to them so they can slide inwards and avoid the tricky contours of the boot. The fronts are held downwards with a bungee in a hook at the front of the boot, provided the front shells cannot lift, they also cannot pull away from the backs.
After some experimentation, it appears that the best way to mount the thighs is onto straps attached to the torso. I would have preferred to support these from the boots, but it appears that the hinge points in the original Pepakura files are not at the same height, or actually where my knee bends, so this is problematic. I’ve used webbing strapping/buckles to mount them….
I’ve designed and 3D printed flexible knee section in Ninjaflex, using my Lulzbot TAZ printer….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!