For my second instructable I'll be making some Maille and Plates armour.
I've chosen this style of armour due to the fact that it requires only a couple more tools than maille, goes together fairly fast, is easy to make, and i think it's pretty damn awesome looking.
For this project you will need....
Maille supplies
-THIS covers making maille better than i ever would in here.
Plate supplies
-fabric measuring tape
-tin snips
-a metal punch
-as much 1 1/4" pallet banding as you can get your hands on.
-something to curve plates with (rubber mallet, soup can, chunk of pipe... it just needs to be round)
-duct tape
-a sharpie
and that should about cover everything you need.
I've chosen this style of armour due to the fact that it requires only a couple more tools than maille, goes together fairly fast, is easy to make, and i think it's pretty damn awesome looking.
For this project you will need....
Maille supplies
-THIS covers making maille better than i ever would in here.
Plate supplies
-fabric measuring tape
-tin snips
-a metal punch
-as much 1 1/4" pallet banding as you can get your hands on.
-something to curve plates with (rubber mallet, soup can, chunk of pipe... it just needs to be round)
-duct tape
-a sharpie
and that should about cover everything you need.
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Signing UpStep 1: Making the plates 1
Step one is working out how big to make your plates.
I did that by using a fabric measuring tape to measure my chest at nipple height, make sure you're taking a deep breath for this measurement or it will end up too small.
got that number? great. now divide it by how many columns of plates you will have.
I'm doing 8 in total so i wound up with plates that are just over 4 inches long.
step two will be prepping your pallet banding.
the first thing you'll want to do is cut your banding into manageable size. I usually cut mine down to lengths around 3 or 4 feet. if you want to cut down on waste then cut them to the circumference of your chest plus 1//2 inch.
after you've done that you'll want to bend out any kinks as best you can. this batch of banding was around small bundles of pipe at work, and is in worse shape than i usually find.
Now that you have manageable lengths of banding it's time to clean them. Fortunately I clean metal for a living, so I have access to all sorts of fun machines to do this for me, odds are you'll have to do this by hand.
I'd recommend just hitting them with some emery cloth or sand paper and sanding them to a nice satin finish to remove the rust and paint on them. it's easier to sand a bunch of 3 foot lengths clean than to sand hundreds of 4 inch plates clean.
Ok, so you've got a bunch of shiny strips of metal now, right? Good.
now measure out the length of one plate, mark it, then take your tin snips and cut it as perfectly as you can. this will be your template. now just keep using this to measure and cut your plates until your ready to pull out your hair. i usually make my plates in batches of a hundred or so.
I did that by using a fabric measuring tape to measure my chest at nipple height, make sure you're taking a deep breath for this measurement or it will end up too small.
got that number? great. now divide it by how many columns of plates you will have.
I'm doing 8 in total so i wound up with plates that are just over 4 inches long.
step two will be prepping your pallet banding.
the first thing you'll want to do is cut your banding into manageable size. I usually cut mine down to lengths around 3 or 4 feet. if you want to cut down on waste then cut them to the circumference of your chest plus 1//2 inch.
after you've done that you'll want to bend out any kinks as best you can. this batch of banding was around small bundles of pipe at work, and is in worse shape than i usually find.
Now that you have manageable lengths of banding it's time to clean them. Fortunately I clean metal for a living, so I have access to all sorts of fun machines to do this for me, odds are you'll have to do this by hand.
I'd recommend just hitting them with some emery cloth or sand paper and sanding them to a nice satin finish to remove the rust and paint on them. it's easier to sand a bunch of 3 foot lengths clean than to sand hundreds of 4 inch plates clean.
Ok, so you've got a bunch of shiny strips of metal now, right? Good.
now measure out the length of one plate, mark it, then take your tin snips and cut it as perfectly as you can. this will be your template. now just keep using this to measure and cut your plates until your ready to pull out your hair. i usually make my plates in batches of a hundred or so.
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by fire, i mean im useing a forge (in my case a wood/coal based fire pit, with a metal base.) and melting the metal. unlike what u have done, which isent bad and im not hateing on it, i prefer to use more manuverable ways.
because steel takes a great deal of heat to melt i use aluminum, which can be as strong as med-strength steel and is not only cheaper but has a much lower melting point. i try to melt this and pour into molds made of fireclay, so as too not only keep it contained in a cheapish container but because of the materials it is easliy moldable and dosent explode from extreme heat.
if i have confused or lost u somewhere please just let me know.
Great 'ible, too:)
stainless is a beast to work with. i try and avoid it, it chews up your tools, work hardens faster, needs to be hit harder, and is just generally more of a pain. the advantage is that you can often get away with using a gauge lighter steel and get similar strength to mild, and it's as low maintenance as armour gets.
Also, about how heavy is your suit? I want to estimate how heavy my aluminum one will be.
DO NOT SET YOUR BARN ON FIRE. Your wife will be really really mad.
as for the weight of my armour, well, i;m not really sure. 15 or 20 pounds would be my guess. it isn't that heavy, certainly no more than 25. In aluminum i'd recommend using 1/8" plates, i think that's 16 gauge in aluminum, and i would guess it would come out in the 10 to 15 pound range.