Building The Terminator - a better way?

The fabricated skull I completed recently is quite detailed and light enough to be used in a working robot, but not completely accurate. I'm not going for 100% screen accuracy, but I think I can get a little closer. Also I want to develop a way of making parts that's faster than hand fabricating every little detail. The rest of the robot will be built using a combination of methods, many of the remaining parts are simple geometric shapes that can be easily machined manually, other parts I will cast using this new method.

[@Garfieldchr]

I have nothing but respect for your work. Consider me subscribed! Excellent work!

[@lazguevara151]

this is super cool i love how you are combining the manual way with the computer way this will give you so many possibilities now

[@herobot12handpie92]

This is a masterpiece i hope somedays you'll make a moving terminator

[@AndysMachines]

That's the plan, check out my other videos in this playlist. This is just the start!

[@BarkingSpyda]

Now that's commitment! Thanks for a great overview ... it'd be great to see more detail of each process you employ, both the failures and successes!

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! In part 2 I'll go into more detail on how I fixed some of the failures. I'm learning this as I go along!

[@jazcreations]

Shows great promise... I lieu of a vacuum you can add volume/weight by adding a funnel top to the mold also having the mold hot can help a lot as well

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I found out the hard way I need to increase the height of the larger moulds! The largest one you see me use at the end actually has a detachable tube screwed into the top, it wouldn't fit in the burnout kiln with this on so I had to screw it on the hot flask afterwards. When I cast the jaw it's flask didn't have any extra height, which caused a void at the top. Most of the flasks were cooled to around 300°C before pouring as I was using a silicone sheet on the vacuum plate and didn't want to melt it. Without vacuum I was able to pour with the flasks at a higher temperature, but I learnt the hard way that the metal takes a lot longer to solidify! (The plaster is much more insulating than sand). Still a lot to learn with the new method!

[@jazcreations]

@@AndysMachines You've got a pretty good setup there now, given how good it looks already I'm sure you'll crack it,

[@BarackBananabama]

You'll have to resurrect Dr. Miles Dyson and let him build the Terminator for you.

[@isanayashiro2376]

Thanks for your hard work.

[@lazguevara151]

thats awesome man love this new method

[@Smartzenegger]

Makes me wonder, how did Stan Winston do it back in 1984?

[@TheNITRO68]

5:16 So the T-1000 makes the T-800 who would have thought lol Great work and keep up the awesome content your sub from down under :)

[@AndysMachines]

Polymimetic alloy! (Actually just molten aluminium)

[@maciekm7953]

Great stuff 👍I think you will get expected results with some practice. I guess to make it easier, it's to sand the plastics smooth or use ABS and acetone vapor to smooth it. However ABS is harder to print and it will lose some of the finest details while smoothing.

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! I actually find it easier to leave the plastic as printed and file/sand/finish the aluminium afterwards, as I would do this anyway, and sanding the plastic doesn't seem to work well, it melts or leaves furry edges and takes a long time to get a good result.

[@TheSnowwraith]

@@AndysMachines Most 3D printers have varying levels of detail that they can print to. With the commonly installed 0.4mm print nozzle you should be able to get to a 0.12mm layer height, which will greatly increase your fidelity of your mold pieces and reduce the finishing time of your aluminium pieces. Granted the finer layer height takes considerably longer to print, so it's a tradeoff to decide whether you want to put that time into printing or finishing. Lovely work and I will enjoy watching your progress!

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I did experiment down to 0.1mm layer height, but found with my particular printer (cheap 2nd hand Anycubic Kossel) it worked best at around 0.15mm. The biggest problem was prints failing half way through, I had to adjust a lot of settings just to get it to work properly.

[@raymondzhao9557]

cooooooool

[@smaqdaddy]

I think they have specific filament for lost wax printing too.

[@wahabfiles6260]

So the new series on PLA to Aluminium casting? That shall be awsome if it is

[@AndysMachines]

I'll be using this new method for some parts, and hand machining/welding/fabricating for others. The skull probably has the most parts which are best suited for lost PLA casting, but I think I'll also make the neck vertebrae this way. The rest of the skeleton is probably best for machining and/or welding together.

[@wahabfiles6260]

@@AndysMachines looks like more eye candies for us ;)

[@drbelli]

either with a 3D high res model and a resin printer(to cast from a positive piece) or the hard way(by screen capture images, carving aluminium with a dremel and stuff like that...

[@ender_slayer3]

If I were to ever lose an arm or a leg I would totally make myself (or more likely have someone else make with my input) an actual terminator replacement limb

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, that would be pretty cool, but I think I'd rather keep my own limbs!

[@ender_slayer3]

@@AndysMachines As would I, but in the unlikely event that I were to lose one, I know what I would do.

[@flexmcpee]

Just get yourself an Elegoo Saturn which will print the head in amazing detail and cast Mold then pewter. FDM printing with PLA is ok but resin SLA printing is the way to go. I’ll never go back to FDM after resin printing...

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I know resin printers have much better resolution and the Saturn is probably just big enough to print some of the larger pieces I cast for the skull (could always break them down further). But actually I don't need that level of detail as I'm welding/fitting/finishing/polishing all the parts anyway and the finish I get from FDM prints is good enough. There are also much better filament printers than the one I have, which was just a cheap 2nd hand one I got to experiment with (I'm a beginner with 3D printing). But if you want to do really small detailed work such as jewellery then I think a resin printer + vacuum investment casting is the way to go.

[@herobot12handpie92]

IM SO MAD *THAT YOU DONT GET THAT MUCH ATTENTION*

[@AndysMachines]

😆

[@lazguevara151]

more terminator!

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, there will be more!...

[@Smartzenegger]

Termorenator?

[@robertoguerra5375]

The only thing I don’t understand about investment moulding: does the wax or plastic get dissolved and infused in the aluminum or does it get out off the mold?

[@AndysMachines]

Most of the plastic/wax melts and runs out at the beginning of the cycle, anything left gets completely vaporised later at the higher temperature, leaving the mould cavity completely empty. With PLA you can get some residue or ash left behind, this can usually just be blown out of the mould before pouring.

[@Atlantismonkey40]

And so the story begins!

[@sweetboss2662]

You can use acetone vapouring on 3d printings to be smoother and then not sending it down, but but but on PLA it doesn't work

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I've heard of this method, though I don't think ABS works as well for the investment casting (doesn't burn out as cleanly). My approach has been to do minimal finishing on the 3D printed part and do it instead on the final cast metal part, that way if the casting fails I haven't wasted any time.

[@bsthecoldone106]

I know you probably get this all the time but would you build a working T-800 skull again? with the eyes and lower jaw and pistons? Im really intrigued!

[@AndysMachines]

Well, I've built 3 skulls so far but I'm currently working on the rest of the T-800.

[@smaqdaddy]

Andy, do you have plans or STLs for sale on your T800 work?

[@AndysMachines]

Unfortunaltely no, the only .stl I used was one of the skull which I bought on Turbosquid. The rest has mostly been done by eye referring to original photos and stills.

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

1:33 - Khyber Pass Terminator

[@AndysMachines]

I don't get it? Can someone explain?

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

@@AndysMachines Reminds me of the Khyber Pass gunsmiths who hand-build firearms from scratch. Thoroughly enjoying your progress videos, BTW.

[@AndysMachines]

That was one of the things that came up when I Googled it, thanks for explaining, and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@albertp205]

Z Boston Dynamics powinni Cię zatrudnić. Powstałby prawdziwy T-800

[@votethebulliesout2956]

I think the better way is to build it out of paper mache

[@AndysMachines]

People have done that, even folded and glued it out of paper sheets, search for 'papercraft terminator'.

[@marc-antoinethebeautiful7714]

you could do the canadian technique for your investment casting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5DaZIKQZ8djaKM

[@AndysMachines]

John Campbell! Excellent! That's a great video with a lot of useful information and explanation. When you hear people on KZbin talking about tapered sprues, pouring basins, swirl traps etc... This is the man who came up with it all. Though these techniques are more relevant to sand casting, investment casting is a little different.