Any tips on making PVC chainmail? - PAINTED!!

Correction: Jesse *accidentally* tried 6-in-1 and it was a pain in the a$$
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It had been a LONG time since I'd made any chainmail, and didn't quite realise what I was doing
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Luckily, it was only a 3" x 6" swath of 3/4in. PVC so it *only* took a whole EVENING to do...Trying to spray paint it was a pain though. I'd only rec. spray painting for 4-in-1 (which is what I was talking about above). 6-in-1 (or higher) is a real b!tch, and shouldn't be done in PVC.

I don't have much of an excuse for missing CC, since my Mom LIVES in San Diego, but this year I couldn't even afford gas money because of Anime Expo
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AND it was only gas & food that killed me, since we stayed at Tammy's. Next year though
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<crossing fingers>.

Jesse
 
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TK818 wrote:
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"I'm still trying to convince them to come to LA for the TTT premier."

Can we all stay at your place ; )
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With a little persuasion....
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You need to ask?
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wyrwolff wrote:
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Rich & Tammy - Damn, I wish I coulda' made it to ComicCon
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Jesse
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Jesse, be sure to make it next year! We stay with Sharie, I'm sure she wouldn't mind an extra body.
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And - we'll definitely have our High Elf armor by then! Of course, it only takes one elf to kick a legion of Orc butt...
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I've 'erd tha' feisty elves taste bet'er roasted than th' quiet ones. Guess da' Boyz'll j'st hav' to find out or'selves nxt y'r
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Gru'g, Son of G'nag
Moria Boyz
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wyrwolff wrote:
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I've 'erd tha' feisty elves taste bet'er roasted than th' quiet ones. Guess da' Boyz'll j'st hav' to find out or'selves nxt y'r
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Gru'g, Son of G'nag
Moria Boyz
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*looks down her nose at the Moria Boyz*

Fortunately, you breathe so loud, and smell so bad, we can shoot you in the dark...

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Elf #699, twice removed on Aragorn's great x10 father's side..
 
As for the different types of weaves...

Most chainmail uses only 1 weave at a time, at least traditionally, you can always mix and match them for some interesting effects.

4in1 is the standard used throughout the middle ages in europe, 6in1 is a little denser weave and takes a bit longer to put together, 8in1 is incredibly dense and takes longer yet to put together. There are also a few nifty oriental patterns...japanese 4in1 and 6in1 look totally different than their european counterparts.

Weaves can also depend greatly on the rings used, if you use larger/thinner rings, a denser weave would make armor alot stronger, if you use smaller/thicker rings a looser weave would do just as well...for example, most of the chainmail I do is combat-grade, I use 3/8" 14ga. galvanized steel rings for combat grade 4in1 armor. If I went to a thinner wire like 16ga. I would drop my ring size down to 1/4" to get the same toughness. Any thinner on the wire and I would have to think about alternate methods of strengthening the rings (welding, riveting, or even doubling them, to avoid them simply pulling apart under stess) If I went with a thicker wire I could increase the ring size to get the same toughness -vs- slashing weapons, but then peircing weapons would be able to penetrate the armor more easilly (arrows and such could easilly slide through 1" rings but not 3/8") Another factor is weight...a full hauberk made of 3/8" 14ga. steel weighs in at around 30lbs, around the same for 1/4" 16ga. , if you go with large/thick rings, the weight will drastically jump (I saw one shirt made with 2" 0ga. rings that weighed in around 80lbs...imagine wearing that all day) For PVC chainmail weight shouldnt be a problem though as you are aiming for looks and not combat value.

Aeryk
 
In ragrds to black PVC. I found mention not of black pvc but of a black abs pipe that is similar to pvc. It was found at a home depot. So for those who have one close by give it a check. While also cruising around ont he web I found a palce that had clear pvc pipe. I did not look at the sizes but though I would mention it here.

Dean
 
(sorry, no pics for now, left Digicam at out-of-state jobsite last week, stuck taking 35mm progress shots)

Well, finally got started. Boy, WHAT A MESS!!
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Using 3/4" Sched 40 PVC.
Using a 10" miter (chop) saw.
Have (10) 10' pipe sections bundled together, taped every 18" or so. BTW - taping the (10) pipes in a triangle-shaped bundle didn't work so well - the bundle was too tall to fit under the blade shroud. Settled for a bundle in three layers, 3-4-3.
Have a .25" thick piece of lumber clamped to the saw's body/platform as a bump-stop - just feed the bundle against the wood, and chop.

Was using my fine-tooth blade, getting some burring / melting, then thought to switch to my carbide-tipped rip blade. This makes a good quick cut through the pipes.
There's a little roughness to the cut edges if you go too fast, and at first I was put off by this, but the more I thought about it, the more I like it - makes the rings look more 'hand-made'.

Anyway, the other drawback of the carbide/rip blade - huge waste of material - the blade is basically as thick as my finished rings, so I'm losing 50% of my stock. And that 50% waste material is laying EVERYWHERE like artificial snow.

Anyway, game called on account of darkness. Have about 5' cut, by my calcs, that ought to be ~2400 rings.

Rings are about 1/8" thick, and a quick 4-in-1 test shows they lay flat enough.

I have a good pair of sheetmetal shears, they go through the PVC rings readily enough, but after I cut 5000 rings, I don't expect them to be worth anything on thin metal. We'll see.

It's gonna take a while to inspect, sort, cut, and repeatedly vac all the static-clinging PVC shavings.


And on the black PVC, would work. Same for the grey PVC (ABS?), and it would already be close to the right color, just a little silvering needed.
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.
Also thought the black polyvinyl drip-watering-system tubing would work nice, but too expensive to mess with.

More later, and maybe some pics by Halloween.
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BTW, my little 20-ring weave test works out to about 1.7 rings per sq. inch. If you want to limit the time / mess on cutting, that should give a person a rough guide on how many rings they need (if using 3/4" sched 40 pipe).
 
Hey, Just a quick note. I'm not sure which thread I read this in but only cut every other ring. I'm sorry if it was in this thread that I read that. It saves a bit of time that way. I only mentioned it because you made the comment about cutting 5,000 rings.

The rings were sealed using a jewelers sealing tool. Basically a flat soildering iron. They put it in the ring slot heated both sides, slipped out the iron and then pressed to ring together to melt it closed.

Dean
 
ooh, thanks, have to read up on that (skimmed the assembly how-tos, missed it), wasn't looking forward to all the cuts.

yesterday and today, total about 4hrs in cutting and major cleanup. Wound up with 3 grocery bags of PVC shavings / 'artifical snow', and a 5gal. bucket full of rings.
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Anyone have tips on chainmail tailoring? Going for a massive tunic-like thing (proper name escapes me right now), basically just a large square 'T'?
Any tips on arm and neck openings, and lace-up closures? Do I need a lot of openings, or just a lot of slack ni the sizing to wiggle into it? opinions?
 
Years ago I made a knee length chain shirt (since stolen
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) and I went with the 'T' pattern. It was quite a bit bigger than I was (then) and it turned out to be really forgiving - the weight of the bottom part pulled the upper part snug against the body.

Also - just a thought about the jewellers 'welder' for plastic. It might be possible to use an xacto blade or similar and wire it onto a soldering iron? I'm guessing it won't get as hot as the tip of the iron so hopefully wouldn't boil the plastic instantly.
 
speaking of welding the plastic rings shut - right now I have no intention of doing so. The material is turning out to be very light, and I don't think I'll have any trouble with rings pulling open. We'll see.
Plus I want to be able to alter the design in the future.
 
I left mine open as well.

The WETTA guys told us that they had problems with the armpits of their
tunics.
Apparently the rings didn't hold up to some of the heavy fighting.
I doubt we'll put that much stress on the rings but if it became an
issue you could always use patches of metal rings under the arms.

I intend to make mine a loose fitting T shaped shirt then add my tie
together collar.
 
from a costume perspective (and not an 'armor' one), we could try leaving out the armpits. Better comfort, less binding, less pulling...
 
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