I first tried my hand at metal armor a little over 4 years ago.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15636&hilit=METAL+ARMORI was really happy with it, but when I decided to dive into a Terry English set, I sold a great many things to fund it, including that metal armor.
After an event involving some nachos and my Terry English set last con-season ...I started feeling a bit gun shy with it. I couldn't help but feeling like I was risking ruining a piece of art by traveling with it and wearing it. I decided I needed a 'beater' set that I wouldn't be mad if it gets banged up, paint scratched off or my son accidentally catapults a full BBQ nachos into it!
For this new set, I plan to do things a little different than the last set. I plan to incorporate new techniques that I have seen and I also plan to video as much of it as I can. (unfortunately no videos here for this first post though!)
The first thing I will be doing very differently is hammering out more of my own 'dishing'. I will still use vintage aluminum sleds like last time (already dished and not really more expensive than similarly sized new aluminum of the same gauge), but I want to have more control over the level of 'dishing'. I also do plan to work with some regular 'sheet' that I will need to anneal, form and dish on the greaves. So I need a 'stake' with round forming top.
Unfortunately, proper forming stakes are like $200!!!!
So like usual I am cheating. Aluminum is soft enough that I think the stake can be hollow, not solid. I found some 5-1/2" "weld-on steel pipe caps". I also had some leftover 2" square tube already. A quick and dirty hammering and welding job left me with this thing!
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I haven't torture tested it yet, but initial results are very positive! I can work with this.
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These sheets for the greaves are the ones I plan to anneal and shape. They are actually really thick and has a coating of some type, so this will be interesting.
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For most of the other parts I am going with what I know and using the sleds. I had to get 4 total sleds to get enough aluminum.
I will not be using any steel in this version, so no modifying existing steel armor this time.
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I am not too worried about the 'ugly' dented aluminum because the 1.5lb rubber mallet and the anvil/forming stake will clean up basically all of it.