Batarang from "Arkham Asylum" Game

Step 2 Cutting the Plexiglass to Shape

The Lexan sheet was too thin, so the first thing I did was cut it in half across the long axis and glue both pieces together, resulting in a sheet 11” x 7” x 0.186” thick. A word on the glue: I used three types of glue in the project, Liquid Nails silicone adhesive, two part epoxy resin, and cyanoacrylate superglue. There’s a lot of prying stress put on the various pieces of the batarang while it is being filed into shape, and the Liquid Nails quits after a while. This doesn’t matter, as I had to pull it apart several times to correct mistakes. When everything was ready to be finally glued, I used cyanoacrylate which is notoriously unforgiving of mistakes. For gluing these two sheets together, the superglue is preferable.

I found an image of the batarang on the internet, and printed it out as a template at the size I wanted. Because I was going to have a hinged batarang, I only used one wing as the template for both halves, which helps with symmetry. It also helps that friendly Instructables user, InfiniTTTy, then drew up my template as a nifty .png file, which you can find at the bottom of this page. I then cut out the three pieces of the ‘rang with a coping saw. If you are going to do the cutting with a bandsaw, make sure you have good dust extraction – unlike sawdust, plexiglass dust can get hot enough to catch fire.

I call the three pieces ‘the fixed wing,’ the ‘pivoting wing,’ and ‘the back piece.’ The fixed wing and the back piece will join together to make the 'back assembly,' the half of the batarang you hold in your hand. This is a right-handed batarang, but you can easily reverse the pieces for a left-handed one. The fixed wing is just the pivoting wing with the circular axis removed, and the back piece is just the center of the batarang with a bit of overlap where the magnets will be placed.

Comments

[cprich22]

Do you have any rough dimensions for it? such as the height and length of the blades?, i printed out your template and made a card version and i found it so be a little on the small size, a rough idea on how big yours is would make it alot easyer to scale the drawing up. thanks

[spookylean]

I'm traveling right now - can i get back to you on this in a couple of weeks?

[cprich22]

sure, im in no particular hurry

[spookylean]

Okay, the base (tip to tip, widest point) is 10" (255mm). The individual blades from top tip to base tip are 4.75" (120mm). I think I made it a little small too. Unfortunately I don't have my original plans any more. Hope this helps!

[EGT1984]

Be sure to check for protective sheets of plastic before one transfers the pattern to the plexi-glass.

[spookylean]

Very true. I made that mistake the first time around.

[lint66]

Could you use a dremil to do some of the fine detailing around the wing?

[spookylean]

I think a dremel would work well, especially if it was table mounted like a router.

[nyquilpillz]

what are the chances of getting a link to a full sizes stencil of what you used?? i would make my own but honestly yours looks so good i would rather use yours ha

[spookylean]

It's a little hard to see, but I posted a stencil with a scale bar at the bottom of step two. You should be able to print that out full size.

[nyquilpillz]

oh wow yeah.. didnt have my contacts in earlier.. sweet thanks! im heading out now to get the material needed! im so excited!! thanks! haha

[chosenangelx]

How did you cut the plexiglass to make it so round?? how did you cut it.. and where did you find the template ?? pm me back =)

[spookylean]

I cut the plexiglass with a coping saw - a handsaw with a very thin blade used to cut intricate shapes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping_saw This step by far required the most patience because to get a good smooth curve takes a lot of concentration, but it's not that hard. I traced a template from a picture of the batarang I found on google images, but to make things easier, I've posted a new picture of my template on step two of the instructable. Good luck!