Well I sat down for a bit and recreated the piston that Andrew made in the modo subdivision modeling video in maya.
As it turns out it was not as hard as I thought it would be.
I am going to try to recreate the ankle part. It was more complex as far as merging all the components into a single object.
Here is my cut at the piston assembly
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675