Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I have not been able to get a crit while making armor.. Everything my companion makes comes out the same. Any advice??

the affection your companion has for you effects the outcome and so does their stats.

 

If say they have a +2 critical rating on a crewskill odds are better they can crit on it.

 

Also it is gonna take stacks of reverse engineering to get 1 crit but once you have made a purple level of a item you can probably crit on the more simple green version and make an exceptional version..

 

Basically it will take time and resources but buy the later part of the 2nd planet you can access plenty of gathering nodes to fuel reverse engineering to open new recipe tiers without going broke on gathering missions.