The Armour Archive

Gundo

Phrygia is a region of Greece. Famous for hats. Phrygia in that sense is ancient world, and there is no evidence that 'phrygian caps' were made of metal. Even if they were, they don't look a bit like this helm. Frisia is medieval, a region of Normandy, and that cap with the forward point is similar...

Gundo

Color me frustrated and confused. I've no idea why they won't even bite the plywood, a little bit.... just - wrong. A bit, in a drill press, that's not even marking wood ? If what you've typed is what's happening, it's not the bit. I'll bet you've hit the limit of vertical travel for your chuck, an...

Gundo

Mercenary wrote:"Danger: Do not wave an arc welder at work; the light may blind you."

Did I read that right?

Heh. It's "watch", not wave.

Gundo

A blasted finish will be very prone to rust.

Gundo

Torvaldr wrote:But we all pay for them with our taxes.

No, you actually don't. The USPS is the only chunk of the fed [not counting the IRS] that turns a profit.

I have a hard time imagining being sufficiently hard up for boxes as to bother turning them inside out and spray-painting them.

Gundo

I'm going to try the compund thing! Never occurred to me to try that.

I think the brown discs are supposed to be 200 grit. The green ones are 400 grit.

Gundo

Beautiful armor, irritating website.

Gundo

I fully intend on getting one. I also plan on adding a pair of steel straps and a turnbuckle about halfway into the throat. It'll "strengthen" the tool, and there's really no need for that much clearance pretty much anything we're ever going to do. I'd gusset the vertical bits the top wheel is moun...

Gundo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APmSjzBvYd0

Check out the related videos as well. I was almost gratified to see the guy shaking his pinched thumb in the linked video, as he seemed to be asking for the pinch.

Gundo

Anything that will allow you to use a progressively finer series of abrasives will work. I have used a variety, and what has worked best for me is to start with a flap-disc [220 grit] mounted on an angle grinder, then switch to a 3M abrasive disc [600 grit] mounted on a bench grinder, and then a clo...

Gundo

You can put little tack welds at the point where the C of the clamp meets the handle [on the side that doen't need to move] which will make your cheap clamps functional, if not as good as good Irwin clamps. A tack weld to keep the threaded part of the handle from spreading under stress is also helpf...

Gundo

Jacob wrote:That may have been around it's limits, depending on the hole size and sharpness of the punch.

I'd be rather surprised it it was, with a good punch and die. A Whitney #7 will punch a half inch hole through a half inch of mild steel. Yours is much larger than a #7.

Gundo

Maybe I'll try a mallet of wood then, if you think it will have the 'unmarring' effect that rawhide does. I've been using ironwood mallets for nearly ten years now, and I prefer them to rawhide. Ironwood is tough, but it's not nearly dense enough to sink. It's good practice to wrap your wooden mall...

Gundo

raising hammers

Or scroll down to 'raising hammers' on the first link.

The 'opposite hammer' on that first link is also nifty.

Gundo

Well, for my helm making purposes, I use almost exclusively 3/16th inch diameter by 3/8ths inch length rivets whether mild or stainless. Yep, me too. These most closely match the external appearance of the typical medieval round-head rivet. The shafts on the medieval rivets are typically much close...

Gundo

I'd like to strongly second the Kayne and Son recommendation.

Gundo

I used to buy over the counter from jay-cee [zweihammer's link], and the prices back then [mid 90's] were approximately half again to twice what rjleahy charged including the shipping. The fact that it's some sales guy making a quote [and a commission], as opposed to listed price might have had a lo...

Gundo

Stonekeep [and others - see the classifieds board] can hook your group up with inexpensive ready-made cops to combine with splinted pieces you make.

Gundo

Not good for making hammers, but okay for forms. Teeny ball-stakes, or other sorts. We had a thread a little while back about making tools for gauntlets.

Gundo

MacGowan Metals wrote: http://www.geocities.com/utilizer001/be ... ctions.jpg

Corrected link for the front side.

Beverly includes the same sheet on return if you have them sharpen yoru blades.

Gundo

To set rivets deep in the bowl of a helm, I use the pile-driver method: a big [2.5" thick hex] chunk of bar stock, rounded on the end I hit the rivet with. I let gravity do the work; it's a guided drop to strike the rivet.

Support the rivet head with a set to preserve the shape.

Gundo

I think Thomas may actually be thinking of 110V flux-core welding * , rather than actual mig. I'm a fitter-fabricator by profession and I do a lot of mig welding. Bad mig welds look bad . The only good-looking mig welds I've ever had fail were simply too small for the application. It may be that som...

Gundo

Yep, that's the stuff. 6061 T6 is printed right on the metal. Turns out I only have one left. Metal Express sells a 2x4 sheet for about $80 plus shipping. I'll sell it for $75 including UPS Ground to Akron.

Gundo

How much do you want? I've got several 2'x4' pieces I expect never to use.

Gundo

Heh. You can overlap plates without welding or riveting them, or leave a gap between them, and that passes. But if you put a couple rivets too far apart, or weld only one side of an overlap, it fails. To me, this means the rules were written by people who know worse than nothing about welding, and e...

Gundo

I'll chime in to endorse asking about drops. Should run you less than a dollar/pound, and they are a lot easier to handle. Most places charge at least $5 per cut, and at 6'x4', you'll be buying at least one cut. You'd pay less for a full 4x10 or 5x10 sheet [depending on which they stock]. Also, chec...

Gundo

Browin Auld wrote:Would doing all the bending and shaping cold be OK as long as I anneal the high-stress areas frequently?

Yes.

You can also heat the whole piece and only work a small area, of course. That is in fact what generally happens in hot work, except for those of us who use o/a [or o/p] rigs.

Gundo

A scary mushroom!

Very cool, very nicely done.

Gundo

I agree, gorgeous work.

Gundo

If you used stainless filler, and you didn't massively overheat the work, it should be a surface issue. My guess is the root of the problem is the wire wheel. I've never seen one made of stainless, for one, and for another, a wire wheel finish is extremely prone to rust on mild steel. My recommendat...

Gundo

A #5 will work fine, Matt.

Gundo

Blaine de Navarre wrote:OK, I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole. +/-0.001" would be plenty, just not the kind of tolerance I can get with my tinsnips.

Um, you do realize you're talking within one thousandth of an inch?

I hope for your sake you want a lot of these parts.

Gundo

I'm not in the market, but I just wanted to say I really like that kettle helm.

Gundo

Im not saying that everyone in the sca casts spells... No, you're implying that self-importance, bad armor and casting spells are typical SCA traits. The first is no more common among SCA people than the general population, but whatever. The second, unfortunately, is more common than most of us wou...

Gundo

Seconding Jeff, 250g is ample for 18ga stainless, 16ga mild. 400g is more like for 12ga stainless.

Re: Shop frustration