The Armour Archive

schreiber

Mike F wrote:Wouldn't the shrinking leather crush the form?

Not if it's a solid block of the stuff.
There was a pic here years ago where someone just kept wrapping up aluminum foil until he got himself a dishing block.

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Honestly, I would cut new bars that pass all the way through the center, instead of rewelding the old bars in place. A solid bar is going to be a hell of a lot stronger than any weld you put there. There's quick fixes, then there is doing it the way it should have been done in the first place. I ag...

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Ok, I'll ask.... I thought that the point of punching holes in a center bar like that is so that you can pass the bars all the way through, and not have to weld in the middle.
I'd love to know what that dude was thinking.
Wait, change "what" to "if".

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This is one of my favorite articles about lamellar, and it discusses a byzantine example which was "fluted". m The lames in this find came in several different sizes, and it says that about half of each size had the center ridge. Why it was only half is still a mystery, but I would assume ...

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Ditto on moving the rivet positions. General things I apply to all articulations: -Always punch one of the holes at least 1/32" bigger than the rivet shank size. In this case I'd punch the inside hole bigger, and pien it on the outside. Then there's always one plate that always turns freely, pr...

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Just out of curiosity, what do you use to heat the flare in the link you posted? Ha! I totally missed that this was introducing a chicken-or-the-egg problem. I think you'd do best just to get a small length of larger pipe, and run the torch on that, and use that "flare" to heat up the rea...

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This is a DIY Venturi burner tutorial I want to try out, I don't know if it would work for raising, but with a backing of a few fire bricks it might work. m It'll work for raising if you have two things going on at the same time. If you can just put a piece down and let go of it, so that this burne...

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What think ye of that? I think if you have a center drilling jig, it'll only cost you what, a buck or two to try out the Oliver burner. One of my "when I get to it" projects is to take a piece of milled steel I have and turn it into a drilling jig so I can do just that.... I suspect the O...

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Soldering and riveting are not a problem, I'm learning to cast this summer, but the eching will be the real chalenge. Painting on resist and dunking it in a tub full of acid is hardly the most difficult thing you're trying to do. And for all you Negative Nancys, I like time consuming, repetitive, t...

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How is the radius on that grinder blade any different from the radius on the end of a chainsaw bar?

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Yes, thank you Jackie Well, it's just fair warning... it's a dangerous road, and a lot of us have seen ten times as many armories go down it and not come back. What you will see in this thread is peanuts compared to what will be said if you default. And there won't be any defense then, either. I'm ...

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Great Caesar's Ghost, who is the dude behind you wearing the Tokyo crotch rocket street racer getup?
Airbrushed flames? REALLY?

The Maciejowski Bible is a little early, but it clearly shows kettle hats and spangens as well as the classic MC Escher-angled early greathelm.

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Dude, why? I'm kind of surprised you'd go with foam. I think your work (even if it's just leather and brass in this case) is upscale enough to warrant natural padding. But, if you're determined, I think I'd be real tempted to just cut out a donut of thicker foam (3/4" or so) so that when kneeli...

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So, I'm thinking of getting one soon, because I'm transitioning over to carbon steel in much thinner gauges (like 22) and I want to keep the gap on my B2 for when I want to cut 14-18 gauge.... I just don't want to keep resetting the blades. How much tighter a curve can you cut with the HF shear, as ...

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My Roper Whitney punch I think only cost about $50.00. Not sure what they are now but it's hardly worth getting a knock off. They're usually closer to $80 new. For $80 I can get four HF knockoffs, and not have to swap tooling - I can have everything from 1/8" to 7/32" loaded up and ready ...

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The tool is usually good, but the punches and dies wear out faster than the real Roper-Whitney dies.
Unfortunately they are not the same size as the Roper-Whitney dies. It would be nice if you could put RW dies in the cheap punch tools, but you cannot do that.

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Well, if you're going to have one built, start with the book on how to do it... m The only problem with this one is that everything would need to be scaled up - better sprockets (as in, gears), jobbing out the end plates to get them plasma cut instead of leaving an entry cut, beefing up the set scre...

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Hmm... I wonder if UHMW works, it makes a great riveting block, kinda the same thing. I've got a couple baggies of it I picked up. Cal- I don't know, I don't really like UHMW as much as I thought I would. It's got too much give for my tastes. Perhaps if you were using it like Duco is, where you exp...

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Once you get up past 16g you might want to look for a "plate roll" as well. Seems like there are industrial machines designed to work with 1/8" steel which go by that moniker. Of course, they won't be 24", either. I think that for armoring, you're looking at a dingus. I was thoro...

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What's the third piece?
I do them pretty regularly out of two pieces.

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I never use a grinder. Between Beverly, Whitney, and the files, I get crisp, clean edges with a proper bevel on them. With Bev it's a matter of how much of the blades you're using. If you're cutting straight edges, you can use the whole length of the blades. If you're doing slight outside cuts, you ...

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I keep hoping some right-thinking individual will post the pictures here. Two points. First, this is the site that gets traffic. If there's a reason to go somewhere else, that points to a problem with this site, which may be solvable. Second, if you think I'm putting my real name on a forum... um, h...

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The harbor freight weed burner plugs into an LP directly.

The Henrob torch will "work" on propane, but it doesn't heat as well as it sucks. It's just not meant to use propane.
Besides, in order to do that you need a regulator, at which point you can use any old o/a torch.

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If I had to choose just one, get a good wire feeder that can burn flux core wire, with a gas solinoid, so that you can upgrade for stainless later if you desire. You know, there's one HUGE thing I forgot to mention about gas, along the lines of "if I had to get just one".... ...if you get...

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I started with a stick welder. Stick is really convenient sometimes, for things that are not armor. Seriously, don't try to make armor with a stick welder. If you're looking to put tools together, stick works great, you can get the welders cheap (you can actually make one from junked microwaves if y...

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Now the first thing I'd do is heat up a spot on the square stock about 4" back from the head to orange, and put a 45 degree bend there. Life's too short not to use doglegs. Sean, last time I was in the UK (2005) I got to drive - filled up in litres, kept it under a certain MPH, road signs told ...

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Edit: I think it's definitely a smashed rivet. I would go ahead and remove that rivet, and reset it with a nut & bolt to see if it'll articulate properly when it's not binding there. If it's ok when it has some space, then move on to getting a rivet and setting it properly. I don't think a butte...

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Title was changed from "how to pretend you're the Unknown Comic when your grocer only bags in plastic".

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Nope, there's really nothing I'd say about it. I'm sure that you realize the stuff that isn't perfect, like the middle of the roll. But stuff like that is all over extant pieces. I think it's great. The only thing I'd have done differently is I would have torch blackened it, and then hot waxed it. I...

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I would say great helm or other riveted construction helm. Things you'll learn on a great helm: -Dividers! I love my dividers. -flaring an edge to meet another edge -lots of file work (esp. on the breaths) -Turning a deep flare & mating it to another piece (top cap) -Putting plates together exac...

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I bet if you put the armor in your (clean!) oven after dinner at max temp for 1 hour and let it slow cool that by morning you would have an adequately tempered piece. I think 400F is too low. Wood/Paper won't even burn at that temperature. It's only a straw-yello and not into the blues yet! Only te...

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Well there needs to be some give in the padding to allow the the helmet to take the force and NOT your jaw. Too soft and it will bottom out and hurt you, too firm and your jaw will absorb too much force I use wool exclusively for padding anymore. For my chin padding, I took really thick 100% wool f...

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I like the Corcoran jump boots myself. I like the lack of tread. I don't think the tread does much of anything for me except trap mud, and once they're full of mud you don't have traction anyway, and all it did for you was make you clean it out. If I'm going up a muddy hill I tend to try to use the ...

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Jacob: sent you an email. How much cleanup do you do after 14tpi? I assume that's to get it cutting in a reasonable amount of time, but how much longer does 18 take? Between Ms. Beverly and Ms. Whitney, cuts usually only need a light single-cut bastard pass on top, and one on each side. At least for...

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[quote="Marshalls Handbook"] 8. All parts of the helm that might cause injurious contact with the wearerâ€™s head shall be padded with a minimum of Â½ inch (12.7mm) of closed-cell foam or equivalent padding, or shall be suspended in such a way as to prevent contact with the wearer during c...

Re: Lesson of the day....