The Armour Archive

Sean Powell

Drill press aka the poor mans laythe. If you buy your rivets long you can chuck the shank (not the head) in the jaws and use a file while it is spining. Be sure to keep the file moving and wear safety glasses just in case. I had to do some in stainless once and found that I could rough in the step w...

Sean Powell

I copied and pasted the URL and got:

RESULT=49 - TCookie invalid
VERSION=2.5

...looking forward to the armorcake very much.

Sean

Sean Powell

You might find a way to cast the mating shape in a steel ring with plaster. or you might also try casting it with pewter which is how I think Hal builds his newbie dish. If you rough shape it into a block of wood you could burn in a matching dome by heating a steel piece up to cherry and setting it ...

Sean Powell

I grabed 3 trunk sections when they were clearing trees for new construction near me. One is nicly shaped and mounted to a set of legs to bring it to a convenient hammering height. The other 2 are outside my back door getting rained on and turned into a mushroom and fungus science project. Unless lo...

Sean Powell

For a good source on semi-modern techniques for producing actual metal armor borrow a copy of "Techniques of medieval armor reproduction" by Brian Price. The techniques demonstrated are very applicible to a mix of hand and power tools making armor from commercially available steel. For a decent sour...

Sean Powell

While I like the idea of a 1.5" I see it going over like a lead balloon. Policys are harder to change than pulling excaliber from the stone. The only way it would fly in SCA is if it meet the rules. While it would be neat to have I couldn't justify buying polewapon parts if I can't use them in SCA ...

Sean Powell

Wood cutting saws have plastic bodies and plastic shield. metal abrasive disks throw LOTS of sparks. There could be serious damage to the plastic housing. I recently helped a friend re-do his basement. We use this "new" plastic & foam composite molding. The plastic melted and sprayed the inside of m...

Sean Powell

Let me see if I can find the photo's and someplace to host them. Once a year members of my household hold a goofy weapons tourney. Some are quite absurd. This past year I took a 5 gal colapseable water bag, wrapped it in plaid cloth, built a blowing tube and a one way valve from siloflex, installed ...

Sean Powell

For K9 armour you could look at the German Panzer Hound, they have a sort of padded coat, my frined wants to make some for his war poodles(try not to laugh). Wulfgar Standard or toy poodles? It makes a difference ya know... My wifes tapestry books show (from the met 3-4 years ago) show several suit...

Sean Powell

Period helm suspensions absorb shock much more efficiently than closed cell foam, which is [just not the smart way to go]*. *replaces an enormous string of expletives James, I'm not doubting your statement (although I'm not sure what it has to do with 4130 steel) but is it a statement based on pers...

Sean Powell

Tarquin, how was it hardened, was it tempered, and if so, at what temps? I can see that the fluting would add some stress, if it wasn't annealed, hardened and then tempered at a pretty high heat I could see the cracks being a problem. My plan was to do all that, and then temper to just a hair past ...

Sean Powell

Not a problem. material properties interest me and since I had previously done some leg work on the matter it was easy to provide. Does anyone know what ASTM or AISI spec is supposed to cover commercially available "Cold-rolled Mild Steel"? is it A36? or 1008? of 1015? or something else? I could use...

Sean Powell

Okay, if I have some 0.050" (18g) 4130 annealed, cold worked, or properly treated, how does it compare to mild or stainless? What would 18g 4130 be equal to? IE 16g MS ~= 18gSS Sorry that I couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t reply earlier but I needed to access certain books that I keep at work. For starters I only h...

Sean Powell

call me cheap but i need some inexpensive armor that can still be SCA regulated......plz help some one Greetings Bashnak and welcome to this message board. We'll do what we can to help but it would be more productive if you could calm down and state clearly what it is you need and why. Not everyone...

Sean Powell

I got my buddy bringing over his gauge later to check it out, it's cut through the numbers which is why all there is the Ti-MilSpec part.... he's curious as fuck about it and why it wound up in the podunk scrap yard....... Never thought of having it cut with a waterjet...... question, if a waterjet...

Sean Powell

I prefer to use Kydex for a Corizina because of its ability to stretch to shape. If treated properly during heating I have had no issues with cracking in very cold temperatures. Even when it cracks it dosn't have sharp edges. I have heard about PC breastplates before. I think one of the tricks is to...

Sean Powell

A) How thick?

B) Post us the Mil-Spec and/or look it up on the internet. Depending on the alloy and its hardness state it may be impossible to form into anything useful. Even in its maximum hard state you could have it water jet into lamelar pieces. 4x4 should be sufficient for a body.

Sean

Sean Powell

One option for getting 2 plates to line up is to soft connect them, usually with only one rivet of a soft material and planish or bouge them simultaneously. You may also be able to 'mush' them together with a raw-hide mallet over a large diameter planishing stake. The curves should be reasonably clo...

Sean Powell

1.5mm is about 16ga. A sawz-all is pretty much an over-powered jig-saw or saber-saw. I imagine it was loud and jerky and the handle shape made it difficult to do as a single person without clamping the helm to a work surface. Also the depth of the blade is usually too great to make decent curves. I'...

Sean Powell

OK. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m not a metallurgist but I dug through the attached link to compare with Marks standard handbook for mechanical engineers and the information below is as accurate as I can figure. I had also given thought to using tempered metals previously and have a nice spreadsheet for comparing the ...

Sean Powell

Okay, how do you bend plywood so it stays in a curved shape? I bend two pieces half as thick as the finished sheet and glue them together while curved. If you have some ratchet tie-down straps for pressure it is really easy to create a jig to do this... or you could just use a 55gal drum or a large...

Sean Powell

I prefer slightly smaller than the offending hole with a washer under the head and a piece of scrap wood on the far side.

Its also nice for attaching temporary levers if you want to nudge the metal without a hammer blow.

Sean

Sean Powell

Torque = Force Ãƒâ€” Distance to fulcrum Ãƒâ€” sin (q) He's have to find K, the spring constant, of the torsion skein. Which will depend on the rope material, loops in skein, lenghth of skein, and degrees of twist. The rope will strech with each use, so more twist will be needed to maintain power. ...

Sean Powell

As for similar materials: Kydex is a derivative of Lexan and I believe manufactured by GE Plastics. Please do even the most cursory search before posting Ooof, ya got me. I was posting from memory which is a very faulty source to trust. As the internet station at work is A) shared by many people an...

Sean Powell

A 4'x8' sheet of kydex should cost between $35.00 and $50.00 it comes in a variety of surface Grains and Colors find the manufacturers site and it will give you local distributors/fabricators. Where are you buying this? For me a 1/8" thick 4x8 of Kydex can cost close to $100. By looking around and ...

Sean Powell

Hi! I made this out of 16 g aluminium: m Lord Vanguard (for vague approximations of "=") 16ga = .060" = 1.5mm My SCA shield thickness = .1" = 2.5mm Typical US Roadsign alluminum = .125" = 3mm I would think that 2mm alluminum (.080") would be fine for a boffer style helmet. 2.5mm dents but survives ...

Sean Powell

I like the alluminum flashing idea, Better than taping would be to simply fold the edges 180 degrees before shaping. Obviously fold to the inside where they can't be seen. If you have access to a sheet metal brake this is a perfet tool for folding metal. If not there is a tool used by roofers who wo...

Sean Powell

I've done it in 3/16" ABS for a newbie suit of armor. It works, it is atleast functional in a period way even if it isn't a period material. The standard paterns will work but unless the plastic is fairly thin you will need to tweek the horizontal bands so they are slightly conical so they fit withi...

Sean Powell

We have a new fighter in the shire. For persona and other reasons he wantes to fight with a kite shield. I'm primarily a heater shield fighter but I did volunteer to help him build one. What is a good size kite to start with? The plan is a wooden kite, 2 layers or 1/4" luan in the shield press with ...

Sean Powell

I did mine with a circular saw as well. multiple cuts in a * pattern and then a chisel. I found that if you take SHALLOW cuts you can use a circular saw sideways to remove the last bits sticking up between the cuts and for a final smoothing I used a coarse flap wheel on a hand drill. Good luck, Sean

Sean Powell

If you don't mind my critiques, and remember that I have never made a half gauntlet of this type, I'll start with not bad but could use a few small adjustments. On the Pro side the blackening is very nice and consistand and the metacarpal shaping looks nice. The riveting looks clean and consistant w...

Sean Powell

My favorite basket is a custom job by Sir Herian Ironsmiter (Before he was knighted) Its a custom stainless basket patterned after a shiavona. You can vaguly see it here: m . I need to get a better photo of it. The lower loop is an ovel that I press fit or lock with a wedge. The upper loop is an int...

Sean Powell

O.K. Sean, Stop right there, put down the lead. I have worked in Radiology for over 20yrs and have had more bioradiation physics than any human should have to suffer through. I can tell you without a doubt that the boys are quite safe. (shameless plug) DANG! and I thought I finally had a excuse to ...

Sean Powell

Thanks for the advice so far. The surgical x-ray aprons we wear are knee length so technicly the boys are shielded but... x-rays bounce, especially on dense material like bone or worse yet metal implants. This creates for a full room of radiation but at a very low yield. Luckily we use the fleroscop...

Sean Powell

I was in a surgical lab yesterday and was wearing the full lead apron and thyroid protector because we were using a portable X-ray machine. We use them regularly while developing surgical implants. The wife and I are also trying to get pregnant (well, we're trying to get her pregnant. I have no desi...

Bagpipes as a weapon?

Re: 4130

Re: 4130 compares to...

Re: Need some armor!!!!!!!!!

Size of a Kite shield?

Armoring in Lead?