transcendental
New Member
With a resounding, "Hello!" to the members of the RPF, I've begun my build for a Captain America shield. With Halloween coming right up around the corner, and my girlfriend wanting to do a Captain America costume for Halloween, I took it upon myself to make her a shield made from the steel saucer sled. I'm using a dremel, belt/disc sander, a drill, and no jigsaw. When I found my dremel, the other attachments were missing, and only had a fine drill-like bit on it. I tried to hack away at the rolled edge with it, but it didn't get me very far. (though it did give me plenty of metal shards for me to step on! :thumbsup)
Figuring I'd get no where with my current situation regarding the dremel, I had decided to use the sander, and that had actually given me quite a bit of progress, though there were a few sparks that occasionally flew around. Wishing to avoid an unpleasant fiery outcome, I looked at the edge (which looked a bit like it was burnt?) and made a voyage to Home Depot/Autozone. I picked up a set of cutting wheels for my dremel, and the Dupli-Color Metalcast paints.
I had made it back home and wondered how I'd find the center of the sled. I've been reading the thread by Valor, as well as by several other RPF members, and had a pretty good idea of what I'd need to do. My dad, however, had approached me with a different idea. He had lined up the edges of the sled against the edge of a big board, traced the sled, made a square based on the tracing, and had made an 'X' using the corners of the square. At the center of the 'X' was the center of the sled. He drilled a hole through the board, and stuck a dowel, dipped in paint through the hole, to mark the underside of the sled, where we had drilled the hole which we deemed as the center of the sled. It seemed like a lot of red tape to cut through, compared to the ease that the others seemed to have with finding the center. But who was I to argue? My dad's a fairly handy individual, and I respect him.
I then bolted a small paint stick to the center, put a pen into a hole I'd drilled at the other end of the stick and tried to recreate the 'arm' I'd seen everyone do here with their builds. And I have to say, the circle produced by the arm looked pretty nice.
As of now, the sled is sitting with a glob of Citristrip on it, and, looking at the dremel, I realize that the cutting wheel I'd bought will not fit my mandrel. The dremel had come with its own cutting wheel, but I assume was misplaced. So it appears that I will soon be turning the house upside-down for the cutting wheel.
Now I have questions for those willing to answer:
1) I'm going for the look Cap's shield has in the movies. Which clear coat should I use? I see it has a bit of a semi-gloss look to it, but I'm not sure about which particular clear to use.
2) Has anyone tried laser cutting the edge off? There's a university near me that offers laser cutting and might be open to cutting the edge.
3) Is it possible to get the rolled edge off without a jigsaw? I've heard of people just using their dremel, but I'm not entirely sure.
Thanks for taking a look at my build, and I hope to see you in the next post!
Until then,
~ Transcendental
Figuring I'd get no where with my current situation regarding the dremel, I had decided to use the sander, and that had actually given me quite a bit of progress, though there were a few sparks that occasionally flew around. Wishing to avoid an unpleasant fiery outcome, I looked at the edge (which looked a bit like it was burnt?) and made a voyage to Home Depot/Autozone. I picked up a set of cutting wheels for my dremel, and the Dupli-Color Metalcast paints.
I had made it back home and wondered how I'd find the center of the sled. I've been reading the thread by Valor, as well as by several other RPF members, and had a pretty good idea of what I'd need to do. My dad, however, had approached me with a different idea. He had lined up the edges of the sled against the edge of a big board, traced the sled, made a square based on the tracing, and had made an 'X' using the corners of the square. At the center of the 'X' was the center of the sled. He drilled a hole through the board, and stuck a dowel, dipped in paint through the hole, to mark the underside of the sled, where we had drilled the hole which we deemed as the center of the sled. It seemed like a lot of red tape to cut through, compared to the ease that the others seemed to have with finding the center. But who was I to argue? My dad's a fairly handy individual, and I respect him.
I then bolted a small paint stick to the center, put a pen into a hole I'd drilled at the other end of the stick and tried to recreate the 'arm' I'd seen everyone do here with their builds. And I have to say, the circle produced by the arm looked pretty nice.
As of now, the sled is sitting with a glob of Citristrip on it, and, looking at the dremel, I realize that the cutting wheel I'd bought will not fit my mandrel. The dremel had come with its own cutting wheel, but I assume was misplaced. So it appears that I will soon be turning the house upside-down for the cutting wheel.
Now I have questions for those willing to answer:
1) I'm going for the look Cap's shield has in the movies. Which clear coat should I use? I see it has a bit of a semi-gloss look to it, but I'm not sure about which particular clear to use.
2) Has anyone tried laser cutting the edge off? There's a university near me that offers laser cutting and might be open to cutting the edge.
3) Is it possible to get the rolled edge off without a jigsaw? I've heard of people just using their dremel, but I'm not entirely sure.
Thanks for taking a look at my build, and I hope to see you in the next post!
Until then,
~ Transcendental
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