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making steel armor
http://www.forum.alienslegacy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19677		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Punisher [ Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:36 am ]
Post subject:  making steel armor
I started watching the youtube series by bigbisont on making aluminum armor. He made it look like it wasn't too difficult to do. I've never made armor before, but I've worked with metal for many years.

I don't have any aluminum, but I do have a lot of scrap steel and access to more if I need it. I printed out the templates for the ear pieces and traced them on some 20ga. I cut them big and hammered to shape. Then used a belt sander to trim off the excess. It wasn't hard and took less than an hour to make them. The cutting actually took longer than the hammering. The hardest part was getting the tabs for the hinge to bend around the nail.

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Author:  prev [ Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:17 am ]
Post subject: 
Very nice start dude.
Author:  Scapey [ Tue Jan 04, 2022 8:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
Excellent work so far!
Author:  bigbisont [ Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
Awesome! Very crisp work!
Author:  88reaper88 [ Tue Jan 04, 2022 11:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
Impressive work! Keep it up :)
Author:  retrogarde [ Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:45 am ]
Post subject: 
Very cool indeed!
Author:  schotti [ Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
Steel is more foregiving than aluminium.
Looks great mate,keep it up.
Author:  Punisher [ Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
I don't have a real anvil. Instead I've been using a piece of cut off mini lathe bed. All the forming was done with a regular claw hammer.

I have used the Harbor Freight cross slide vise as a bench vise for many years. Like bigbisont shows in his videos the weight of it is usually enough to keep it in place. It's still light enough to be portable when needed. The way he uses it to hold the anvil in different orientations makes it a very versatile setup for not a whole lot of money. I recently converted my vise for another project and replaced it with a regular 6" bench vise. While the new one is stronger I do miss the cross slide.

After watching some more videos I started thinking about getting an english wheel and bead roller. I might have enough scrap to build an english wheel. I do have the plate and round bars to make the bead roller. When I looked for dies I couldn't find a set that was cheaper than buying the whole setup.

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Author:  Punisher [ Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
For the helmet I'm going to be using an Austrian m75. The shell is basically a copy of the American m1. The liner is completely different. Instead of fiberglass the shell is made out of plastic. It also uses a German style of suspension.

I bought 2 of the helmets several years ago when they were very cheap. One of them I removed the suspension and installed it in a Spanish m42/79 helmet. It's a copy of the German m40, but thinner and has an unrolled edge. The suspension is also closer to an American style. I removed the suspension and welded up the holes. I also welded on a strip of sheet metal around the entire rim to make a rolled edge. The suspension I used had holes in the tabs like the German. The only difference is that there is 9 tabs instead of 8.

The m75 without the suspension is the one that I'm going to be using. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do to replace the suspension.

I could get a m1 liner. That would be closer to the screen used ones. Unfortunately I'm not 100% positive that the liner will fit. I think that my dad has a m1 helmet so I might be able to verify.

I could fit a m1 suspension into the m75. They are still available very cheap.

I do have Finnish m40/55 which is a copy of the German m40. The shell was made on German machines, but the suspension is slightly different. I was planning on eventually replacing the suspension with a correct looking reproduction. That would free up the suspension to be fitted into the m75. That would also bring the helmet back to having a suspension very similar to what it originally had.

I have a pasgt helmet that I installed a padding retrofit kit into. The suspension was completely removed. Then velcro taps were placed on the inside of the shell to hold the new pads. That converted the inside to a mich/ach style. The kits are pretty cheap. Going this route I could eliminate the liner and stick the pads to the shell.

I could also go super cheap and glue foam to the shell. Cutting them to shapes similar to the mich/ach style would keep the inside still looking decent.

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Author:  Punisher [ Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
I tried making the helmet bump plate. After a couple of hours hammering it's close, but I'm not quite happy with it.

First I bent it by hand to match the curvature of the helmet. When I started hammering the brim it ended up flattening it. Rebending the curvature would flatten the brim. This ended up taking a lot of back and forth.

Most of the forming was done with a claw hammer and a trailer hitch. I ended up using a piece of 1" round bar to form the edges. With a lot of small taps I was able to smooth out most of the initial hammer marks. It's not perfectly smooth, but my helmet has several dents so it matches.

Now the bad part is it sits too high. When I laid out the line for forming the brim I second guessed myself and moved it lower. There ended up being no material left to wrap around the helmet. I'm going to have to trim and reform the brim.

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Author:  Punisher [ Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
After another 4 hours the bump plate is done. It's not perfect, but turned out decent enough to use.

I might have been better to have just started with a new piece. Although I was able to flatten out the pervious bend for the brim I still ended up fighting with the extra material. I lost my patients and started hitting it in the middle between the jaws of the vise. Since there was the bend on the top and bottom the middle bowed out into a compound curve. That's what I was trying to do, but the jaws of the vise put some gouges on the outside.

Getting the ends to fit took quite a bit of hammering. I was able to get it close enough that with some clamps it would close up. After some trimming, adjusting the bends slightly, and clamping I was able to get a pretty good fit. I didn't want to go through the trouble of bending the bottom edge around the helmet so I tacked it on. That was enough to hold it and when the clamps were removed the top still stayed tight to the helmet. I did end up with a slight gap on the left side. I might be able to close it up using a punch. The bottom edge was trimmed and sanded smooth.

I was able to smooth out most of the hammering marks, but it still has the gouges. Some filler primer should cover them up. The camo will also help hide the imperfections.

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Author:  88reaper88 [ Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
Looks great mate!
Remember the nicks and dings can always be weathering
Author:  Punisher [ Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
The lobster plates are done. They took about a hour a piece. That completes all the armor pieces for the helmet.

Instead of modifying a chisel for the beads I used a 1" wide piece of 1/8" plate with rounded corners. I put a rag over the vise jaws to keep them from gouging. The beads turned out better than I thought they would.

I had the upper plate curved to match the helmet, but when I bent over the edges it flattened out. When I tried recurving it the edges would kink. I ended up slightly rounding the end of the 1" round bar. With it pressed into the corner of the bend I could hit both sides.

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Author:  septic [ Thu Jan 13, 2022 3:05 am ]
Post subject: 
Very nice work! Quite inspiring; might have to hunt down a tow ball ...
Author:  Punisher [ Sat Jan 15, 2022 1:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
After looking at some reference pictures I noticed that I bent the ears of the lower lobster plate in the wrong location. With some more hammering I was able to get it fixed. Then I cut the slots for the strapping. For the straps I'm using some od webbing that I salvaged off of something a long time ago.

For the helmet band I'm using the strap from inside the cargo pocket of a woodland bdu pants. It's not elastic, but it does have a little stretch. I'm going to sew it together a little smaller than the helmet.

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Author:  Punisher [ Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
I cut the helmet for the ear piece. I put a slight bend in the ear piece to match the helmet. Then hammered down the edges a little more for a tight fit.

I tried drilling for the rivets, but it didn't want to drill. I heated it red hot with a torch to anneal it, but that didn't help. Not wanting to buy a cobalt drill bit I decided to plug weld it on.

I used a torch to burn off the rest of the paint. Then wired brushed it off.

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Author:  Punisher [ Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
I marked out the ear piece for the slots and drilled holes on the ends. Using a cutting wheel in a dremel I cut the slots. The wheel was too big to fully cut them, so I had to finish it with a needle file.

Not wanting to spend a lot of time hand filing I figured it was the perfect time to try out the handheld die filer I've been working on. It started life as a Milwaukee M12 one handed jig saw. I removed the foot and blade holder and attached an er20 collet onto the shaft. Using a 3mm collet it can hold any needle file. With the tool the filing was done in only a few minutes.

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Author:  Punisher [ Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: making steel armor
I made a test print of the ear defender. When I compared it to the ear piece I made it looked like it was the right shape. I temporarily attached it with a few drops of super glue and mounted it on the helmet.

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Author:  bigbisont [ Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:33 am ]
Post subject: 
This is all awesome man. Loving it
Author:  Storm56 [ Sat Jan 29, 2022 1:31 am ]
Post subject: 
Very nice work!
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