Just a completely normal Hayabusa build

[Coreforge]

So, while there was homeschooling going on, I decided to start a new build, despite not having finished my first (surprise).
Another reason why I started this build is because I got a new welder that could weld thinner steel. As you might be able to guess, I built it out of steel.
I've only made the helmet so far, and I don't think I'll make everything out of steel as it's not the cheapest, it's pretty heavy (the helmet should be about 3.5kg) and I hate grinding. The assembling is fine for the most part, except when oyu burn through the steel and have to make a giant blob to fix it, but the grinding is pretty annoying.
I don't really have any WIP photos, so here is the current state of the helmet. I still have to grind the seams more, but it shouldn't be too much work anymore.

I also just want to say that this is just 0.75mm steel, so it's not too strong and I don't intent to use it as any kind of protective gear, I just made it out of steel because I thought it'd be cool.

 

[ButterBacon3000]

It looks amazing!

 

[Coreforge]

So I did some more grinding yesterday. First, I ground down all of the welds I could reach as much as possible without grinding into the sheet metal too much. This is the result of that.

It looks kinda worse than before now because of more ground spots making it all look very non-uniform, but next I sanded it with an 80-grit flap disk to make it somewhat shiny all around. I can't reach every place with the grinder and I haven't done any hand sanding yet, but it looks a lot better.

I'm actually quite happpy with how it turned out, although some weld marks are still quite visible, and they are from the not so nice ones for the most part. I also started padding it by basically making a template of my head and making a headform out of foam with the template on the inside. The dome part on the top fits well in the helmet, the sides are a bit too tight and also cause some issues with my hair always being infront of my eyes, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix that. The helmet is also lighter than I expected at 2.5kg. That's still heavy, but not too bad (my other helmet is 2kg, motorcycle helmet seem to be around 1.5kg). I'm currently rebuilding my other helmet because I made that one way to big, but after that I might make the chest piece as I still have another 1000x600mm sheet left.

 

[Supre_]

That's amazing! Did you weld as you went or were you able keep everything in place and go back? Never seen a steel build before so very interested in the process.

 

[SpecOpsSpartan]

Wow that's awesome, did you weld the pieces yourself?

 

[Coreforge]

That's amazing! Did you weld as you went or were you able keep everything in place and go back? Never seen a steel build before so very interested in the process.

I tack welded pieces together so I could still adjust the angles or smooth rounded pieces and then welded them completely. Steel is also very interesting because it's kinda a mix of pep and foam. It doesn't necessarly have much thickness like paper, but you can strech it like foam, although not as easily.

Wow that's awesome, did you weld the pieces yourself?

This was my first time Mig welding, and I haven't done too much stickwelding before. I'll get a picture of the inside later where you can see the welding.

 

[SpecOpsSpartan]

Cool.

 

[booyaalex]

Wicked, man!

Btw how comfortable is it? 3.5kgs sounds like a lot to have on your head

 

[Coreforge]

The 3.5kg were just a guess based on the amount of sheet metal and welding wire I used. After grinding, it came out to 2.5kg, which still isn't light, but it's not too bad. I haven't had it on for too long though because I haven't finished the padding yet.

 

[Supre_]

I could not imagine the weight of a full set of armour made out of steel. Wearing a set made of plastic or foam during a convention must be sweaty as hell but steel will take it to a whole other level. Will need some big muscles to carry it around!

 

[Coreforge]

I probably won't make everything out of steel, but the chest piece shouldn't be too heavy. Heat should also be ok inside, but in the sun, it'll probably get hot pretty quickly.

 

[Pjork]

Awesome! You got hair like me lol

 

[Coreforge]

So I did some more work on the helmet. In the last update, I got it to 80 grit with a flap disk. I now sanded the normally white parts up to 1000 grit using an electric sander (wetsanding from 240 grit and upwards) and then polished them. There are still scratches from the 80 grit disk which I could probably have sanded out, but I didn't want to go back when I noticed them and they're not too deep. So anyways, here it is sanded before polishing.

And now after. Not as shiny as I'd hoped for, but I don't want to sand this thing again. It also doesn't show up too well on the images.

The only thing left on this helmet now is building something to hold the back piece on properly with magnets (It has to be removable so I can fit my head through) and to paint it. I have an idea on how to attach that piece, and I'll paint it once I have more of the suit finished. On that note, I've already started unfolding the chest piece, and I still have one sheet of steel, so I might start on that soon, but I'm also rebuilding my other helmet currently as it was too big.

 

[Coreforge]

I finished unfolding the chest piece now, and I'll probably start building it soon. Since there are quite a few raised or lowered details, I'd like to try doing them like you would with foam, so instead of making it all out of thin sheet metal, I'd make those parts out of thicker metal so I don't have to weld a bunch of 2mm wide pieces together, as those just melt. The downside of this is that I'll be a bit heavier (but not much) and I'll have to weld 0.75mm steel to 4mm steel, which I also have to gut with an angle grinder, so I'm kinda limited in what shapes I can make out of that, but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. I'm mainly planning on doing that for the lowered details (1.5mm in hight, so the surrounding area will have to be 1.5mm thick) and the raised details on the back (3-5mm high). For the rest, I'll basically do it like I did the helmet, but I'm trying to do it in a better order so the grinding will be easier and hopefully less.

The selected parts are what I'm currently planning on making out of thicker material, plus those details on the front.

 

[Coreforge]

I haven't updated this thread in a while!
I've been working on the chest piece for about 5 weeks now (although I didn't really do much last week), and got part of the back plate finished.

This is all still 0.75mm steel, but I got a sheet of 3-4mm steel that I'm planning to use for some details like I said in my last post. Cutting that stuff is a bit of an issue though, as the angle grinder is a bit limited in the shapes I can cut with it, and I don't have a plasma cutter or access to one, so I'll probably only use the thick steel for simple shapes. I might be able to build a plasma cutter though, the issue is just igniting the high current arc, as the high voltage arc isn't very hot, and the low voltage can't jump the gap. The flame coming out of the torch also isn't nearly as bright as it is in the picture, most of what you're seeing here is probably IR, and it's about 1cm in length total, with only a few mm being the purple arc, the rest just has a slight warmwhite glow, and that part doesn't seem to be conductive for 20V from a capacitor. If I can get a low voltage arc ignited, it shouldn't be too difficult to use this as a CNC plasma cutter with a 3D printer.

Also, mustache part.

 

[Meritorious]

dude nice, as someone who has welded thin sheet and rod I feel the pain of grinding. good job on pushing through and finishing the grind tho

 

[Pjork]

You can make a suit of armor cleaner than my foamwork.

 

[TheTAB01]

Dude this work is absolutely incredible! One freaking awesome thing I would imagine about building out of metal, is that any scratch damage to the armor would expose some of the metal under the paint that you choose to use, giving it a much more authentic battle damaged and worn look. Absolutely badass mate, keep up the work! I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

 

[KragAxe]

Nice! Good to see other steel workers here!

I was originally doing my helmet in aluminum, but am now switching to steel. I'll be mostly using 16 ga thickness (~1.2 mm) and will come in around 7 or 8 lbs. Pretty similar to medieval helms I have, actually a little lighter since I use 14 and 12 ga on some parts of those. I have a lot of 0.032" (~ 0.8 mm), but I find the thicker stuff easier to form complex curves without buckling/wrinkling of the steel.

 

[Meritorious]

it is easier to weld steel than aluminum by a long shot