Captain America heater shield in titanium

Wronghands

New Member
3/16" ATI grade 38 titanium armor plate rated level 4 (stops steel core 7.63x39). Right now it weighs in at 12.5 pounds.

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24" square plate after rolling through the triple roll press.

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Redrew the center line since the plate went through the rollers a bit cockeyed, made a half template to trace both halves off that center line and cut it out in about 3 hours on the band saw.

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Sanded the mill stamps and surface scuffs off and I'm ready to weld on the strap brackets and file and sand all the edged round and smooth.

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Only $980 into this project so far. :) I want to spray the back with textured bedliner to improve the grip and deaden the ring it has when it gets knocked around. Carrying a giant gong around the SHTF scenario doesn't exactly seem stealthy. The stars and stripes will get anodized onto the surface but I can't get a red color from titanium so I'll settle for bronze, silver and blue. More pics as I progress.
 
Oh man, this is going to be amazing. Always wanted a titanium shield. The Bedliner should increase the shields durability as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That is awesome!


My guess on the pics is you are uploading from your mobile phone. Does it to me as well sometimes.
 
Thanks everybody, so far so good, BUT...

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Try as I may, I cannot bend the 45 degree angles on the ends of the brackets that will get welded on the back for the straps. I spent the better part of 2 days rigging up various jigs to bend them with a huge machinist vice and a metal bender with not enough leverage. Even when I heated them up to glowing hot I couldn't put enough force into it to get it very far. Titanium retains it's strength at high temperatures. That's one of the things it does best so it looks like I'll be making another trip to the metal shop that rolled the curve for me so they can put these in their hydraulic brake press. At least I'll get nice consistent bends on every piece.
 
Duuuuuude! Will you make a classic captain America costume like the one from the first avenger ´´? That'd be AWSM

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I mean Captain America the first Avenger

I didn't really intend it to be a replica of the WWII shield although I will do a few of those after I finish this one. This was made to be a functioning ballistic shield of a manageable weight compared to steel and I made it bigger than the movie shield at 27.5" x 20.5" for more coverage and to use the most of the material. Sort of my take on what he would be issued in the real world where we have no vibranium. I'm not even going to paint it. I'll be anodizing the stars and stripes onto the surface probably in the 2 shades of blue style of the round stealth shield from Winter Soldier. For replica heater shields I want to have them professionally Cerakoted in red white and blue but that will be expensive so I need to sell this one first.

I also really, REALLY want to do this mindblowing render of the Hylian shield in titanium,

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but that will take 2 plates at $600 each plus some waterjet cutting work so I have to sell a few Cap shields first.
 
So I got the strap/handle brackets bent after another redesign and after hours of filing and sanding the edges round and smooth they're ready for welding.

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Since a tight fit is always good when welding anything, but especially when welding titanium alloys, I spent a couple of days rubbing each bracket on the spot where it will get welded with a piece of sandpaper between them to get a perfect fit to the curvature.

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Now for the welding, which is the part that scares me the most. The whole project is turning out phenomenally despite the way I just kind of "Leroy Jenkins!" my way through it. Hope my luck holds up.
 
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