The Armour Archive

Mad Matt

Hey just thought I'd let all you guys saying no because of wives know that if you buy this helmet you'll get to buy as many helmets as you like afterward.......Since you won't have a pesky wife to worry about anymore.

Mad Matt

Nails rivets same thing. Put your rivet through however you like. A nail you have to hammer through a pilot hole will avoid splitting the handle and get a secure fit at the same time. Trim the end off so you've got about the thickness of your rivet sticking out on the side you're going to peen. Peen...

Mad Matt

Thought this might be an interesting discussion. A lot of people tell me what a great artist I am when they see my armour. I don't consider it art and tell them that. More craftsmanship or arts and crafts type thing. For me art should be something that is used to express or invoke emotion or somethi...

Mad Matt

Actually the rules state it must be made from .0625" thick aka 1.6mm not finished thickness. It is also very rare to find 16ga steel that is actually .0625" thick as in north america we typically get steel made to manufacturers standard gauge which puts 16ga at less then that and has a dec...

Mad Matt

I would probably consider it. I've been making a lot of gauntlets lately.

Mad Matt

If you're going on pictures of originals and effigies Draw lines in red on the edges of the spaulder images and you'll notice the overall shape that everyone seems to miss. Pattern for a spaulder is a football shape for the cop and if you put a proper taper into them instead of going straight down o...

Mad Matt

Now that I think of it the AA12 would be pretty awesome too.

Mad Matt

You know I've been to texas. And stayed with the people who had more cats then chupa brought bullets. (halberds knows what I mean). And I set off the explosives detector at the airport when I left. Hal if you told me you have a cannon you'd shoot one with I'd make a point of figuring out how to get ...

Mad Matt

How many should I make up for destruction.

I've got one that ripped that I'll send and will skip finishing the flange on them probably.

Mad Matt

Sure that'd be great. Haven't read anything.

Mad Matt

You're the man for this job I think. But if you don't want to I want to find someone to do it. If I sent you a few shield bosses. Being a Texan as you are I'm assuming either you've got a bunch of different firearms or access to them. I want someone to shoot some bosses up and see what they'll take....

Mad Matt

I don't think they're thinning much if at all. A 9" square blank goes into the form and I get a 7-3/4" finished boss. Looses about 1/4" in trimming so it's sucking in 1" from the diameter. I don't have anything to measure the thickness inside it though. After that I run them thro...

Mad Matt

I think that knees and elbows would take a lot less then the bosses. But I'd like to be able to do them and helmet halves and stuff. Or basically just anything with it besides bosses. I hate making bosses I've sold around 3,000 of them. But they're good money.

Mad Matt

That's a lot more info then you normally get. It's usually gonna be item received at the post office and item delivered. Canada post and USPS do work together quite a bit. Which means it's possible the package has been routed through canada. Canadian customs gets along with AU customs better then US...

Mad Matt

Something like this?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/UHMW-repro-black-she ... 230a6c327a

Yeah one day I'll put legs on my press. Need to go see if there's any scrap around my dad's place I can use.

General tips work perfectly in this situation.

Mad Matt

I've contemplated trying 45 degree pipe elbows that fit into each other with the bottom one's top cut open to get the sweep at the bottom. Think it would compress and stretch at the same time getting a fairly even result and the rough shape that can be touched up. Haven't got around to getting the e...

Mad Matt

So with the UHMW do you make a form that matches the hard male part or is it squishy enough that you just push into a block of it? My camera needs batteries but I'll post my metacarpal form when i get batteries I promise. I have a pair of finger gauntlets to do I'm gonna try pressing the knuckles in...

Mad Matt

Well the one I use for gauntlet metacarpal knuckles is basically a male and female version of the knuckles with a hinge on the back welded up from a bunch of pieces of 1" round and square stock. I can take a pic of that. That's all I've got though.

Mad Matt

No the frame is made from 4"x4"x1/2" I beams. Top and bottom is a double layer 24" wide side ones are 48". The bottom also has some heavy angle iron welded in between the I at the edges to give a larger surface and to keep the I from bending at the sides. I do a shield boss ...

Mad Matt

Here's an old pic of it with the jack that I exploded.

There's been a few mods to it since then too but nothing much.

The frame weighs 350 pounds.

The blue part was canabalized from the 30 ton press I destroyed.

Mad Matt

Mine's air over hydraulic too. I made it for shield bosses. In 14ga stainless it takes the full pressure to push one out. That form is top secret though. The fact that it presses them with the flange basically there already probably makes it need more force. I originally bought a 30 ton press and I ...

Mad Matt

I think mine's a #7 don't remember for sure. can do 1/4 through 1/4.

Never owned a #5 but have had a lot of the knockoffs. One of these days I'm gonna round up all the ones I wore out and take them back to princess auto because powerfist hand tools have a lifetime warrantee.

Mad Matt

Couple people have mentioned using a press for stuff lately. I have a 100 ton press I built but haven't come up with any cost effective ideas for forms for pressing out helmet halves or cops with it.

Mad Matt

To be completely honest everyone works differently and hits differently. The only way you're going to learn is by doing it. So the real key is to just hit a piece of metal with a hammer until it looks like what it's supposed to. That's really all there is to it at the end of the day.

Mad Matt

So far I like the portfolio idea the best. But keep em coming. I don't think this is something we've ever talked about on here.

Mad Matt

Talk to Halberds. He can set you up. He's got a full newbie armouring tool set too that's pretty awesome. Not only is the stuff awesome but halberds is too. As far as weights and types etc. The answer is yes. You want all of them. I've only got 75 hammers which isn't even close to being enough becau...

Mad Matt

Looking for tips on this. I have a lot of patterns and they sit in a big pile. Just spent 20 minutes going through the pile to find what I needed and came up one lame short on the sabaton pattern. Needs to be something cheap. And needs to be able to store things that are large format because folding...

Mad Matt

T stake looks just like the letter. Most used stake in my shop.

Mild is fine it'll deform but then you just clean it up with a grinder once in a while. And has the bonus of the fact that since it's a little softer you'll be less likely to split or tear the things you're working on.

Mad Matt

Go with the makita js3200 if you look around online you can find it for $350 new.

Mad Matt

So currently this has been filled up pending confirmation on discussions with people I'm already talking with about stuff. That includes the PM's the e-mails and the posts here. Will post again when I'm available for more. Unless someone has a roughly $15K working budget for a really really good spr...

Mad Matt

Hey Blackened I can do for $500 extra $170 if you want a klapvisor shaped removable grill as well. Could do it in stainless for $575 but I don't have any stainless helmet halves except for one front point one so it would be a while before I'd be willing to do a stainless one. I've been sorta wanting...

Mad Matt

Please post pics when you're done I want to see how it works out from barrel plastic.

Mad Matt

Thanks for posting the question. Can you share what was going on? Be good to know in case someone has the same confusion. I'm guessing it might have been a print setting but not sure. The measurements that are on there are partially to allow people to make sure you have printed it basically the righ...

Mad Matt

I'll add another construction tip.

Shape the metacarpal and the thumb part of the metacarpal as one piece then cut the thumb part off with a cutting disk. Much easier to get the plates to match up.

Mad Matt

Knuckle rider plate also allows you to flatten your hand without the knuckles of the metacarpal digging in. Nice gauntlets. The question about stainless gauge. Go with 16 on the metacarpal plates. 18 is good on the fingers. The cuff splints if they're 1" wide or less go with 14. At least that's...

Re: I would like to sell this helmet

Re: Attaching Langets

Is armour art?

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Re: WTB Wisby #3 finger gauntlets

Re: Study on spaulders

Re: Hey Halberds. Wanna shoot up some shield bosses?

Re: Hey Halberds. Wanna shoot up some shield bosses?

Re: Hey Halberds. Wanna shoot up some shield bosses?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Hey Halberds. Wanna shoot up some shield bosses?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: USPS international delivery

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

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Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: Hand punch for all round use?

Anyone want to show their press forms?

Re: To dish or to raise, that is the question ;)

Re: How do you store and organize your patterns?

Re: Buying hammers?

How do you store and organize your patterns?

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Re: Open comission slot.

Re: Mad Matt COP instruction question

Re: Mad Matt COP instruction question

Re: Current project - Wisby gauntlets - Finished (4/6/11)

Re: Current project - Wisby gauntlets - Finished (4/6/11)