MacGuyver's WRIST BLADE DEVICE w/ INVISIBLE BLADES

[Macguyver]

HERE ARE THE 1st EVER PICS OF MY WRIST BLADE EXTENSION DEVICE w/
REAL INVISIBLE BLADES!!! JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIES!!!

YOU MAY NOW BEGIN DROOLING EXCESSIVELY.
This is the sort of stuff that happens when MacGuyver has too much time on his hands, well, that is...other than writing in the 3rd person!
I'd been experimenting w/ a wide variety of different ideas for several months on how I'd do it & this is what I've been able to create. I used a camera tripod track slide (left over from my extendable Predator Spear creation) as the main sliding section w/ a spring taken from inside a Nerf Bow n' Arrow toy. Works great & has the same "lever-locking safety" feature as the ext ends of my spear. One goal I wanted for it was to have a reliable push-button release for the blade extension. To make this work, I used a variety of parts & accessories meant for controlling R/C Airplanes. I'd found most of the parts I needed at a local R/C Hobby shop. I experimented w/ a number of different designs & concepts for months, until I found one that gave me the desired results & reliable performance. The entire device w/ blades, weighs only 1 1/2 pounds. The structural base is 10" X 3", & it gives a little over 7 inches of blade movement.

THESE BLADES ARE TOTALLY AWESOME!!! Hand-crafted from crystal clear, high-impact POLYCARBONATE Plastic. It's literally bulletproof ...up to a .44 caliber shot at point blank (I've not actually done this myself, but did speak w/ a guy who claimed to have witnessed a friend put this theory to the test) It's the same material used for windows in prisons! THESE BLADES ARE AWESOME!!! They'll always stay perfectly straight & true. If/when enough pressure is applied on them will they bow a very small amount & will always go right back to being perfectly straight immediately after the force is release. These beauties are made from material which will never break! I hand cut, shape, engrave & polish the hell out of 'em myself. I've also been working on another pair which are a bit thicker (3/8") than the 1/4" thick blades shown in the pics above. This new pair is routed in to give a smooth edge & is then polished. Finally, on the ones shown below, I did even further detailed etching into them...still in a WIP stage, should be completed within next few days. (SEE PICS BELOW).

The coolest thing about these blades (aside from them being INDESTRUCTABLE) is that they're damn close to being TOTALLY INVISIBLE!!! Which led me to this next ultra-cool looking "Movie-like Special Effect" idea. To make them brilliantly visible, I mounted two blue LED's directly into the blades, one at the rear & one at the mid section, which tranfers a very cool "neon blue" illumination glow effect throughout the entirety of the blades. I wired the on/off switch for the LED's to a mini toggle switch that's mounted right next to the push-button release for the blade extension system, which is encased into a modified "mini Bic" lighter casing. This gives me complete control of the illumination of the blades & the wrist blade extension system from one handy little module that's wrapped in shrink tube & formed to stay right in the palm of my hand.

Due to the length of time required to make each pair of these blades by hand, I'm not planning on making many more of these to sell within the foreseeable future. Although, I would certainly be willing to make a new pair w/ the new, rounded polished edge for anyone seriously interested & willing to negotiate a $ price OR in trade for a good quality pair of AVP gauntlets, preferably ruffkins since I've already verified the dims will fit my blade device perfectly Yeah, ok...I know it's a longshot that anyone has a pair of Ruffkins gaunts just "layin' around", but figured I'd still ask anyway!).

I'LL DEFINITELY CONSIDER ANY/ALL SERIOUS OFFERS MADE!!!
Send me a PM & we can work out the details from there.

I LOOK FORWARD TO ALL THOUGHTS & COMMENTS, ENJOY THE PICS EVERYONE!!! B)

 

[Sinister]

OK! Those blades are SWEEEEEEET And those blue LEDs are an inspired touch, I love the look of them. The mechanism is also a nice piece of work, similar to mine, except that my blades are manually operated with a lever on top of the blade housing connected to a centrally mounted spring. Flick the lever and Whoosh!! except that then you have to pull the lever back and lock them in place. I'd like to have a remote set up like yours but at present it's not possible. Still it's something for the future. Once again nice job.

 

[Mannowar]

Never ceases to amaze me... The creativity here on the Lair... Those look incredible! And I love the lighting effect. Can't wait to see them in a pair of Ruffs... You'll need to get us a video when it's all done. VERY NICE WORK!

 

[carlart]

As your namesake implies, you've definitely got a talent for coming up with cool gadgets. Terrific job!
carlart

 

[mumbaki]

awesome job!!!!!!!!
creativity at it's best!!!!!!!!

 

[Bovine13]

Pretty spiffy. Kudos man.

 

[Faken]

Can you post a video of the blades retracting?

Dan

 

[Macguyver]

OK! Those blades are SWEEEEEEET And those blue LEDs are an inspired touch, I love the look of them. The mechanism is also a nice piece of work, similar to mine, except that my blades are manually operated with a lever on top of the blade housing connected to a centrally mounted spring. Flick the lever and Whoosh!! except that then you have to pull the lever back and lock them in place. I'd like to have a remote set up like yours but at present it's not possible. Still it's something for the future. Once again nice job.

THANKS!

I swear...I almost shat myself when I came up w/ the idea of creating this "glowing blue-colored blades effect" by simply combining common LED's w/ a clear plastic material!!! It was one of those moments where you feel a profound sense of clarity in ur thoughts. However, I never truly let myself enjoy those moments that allow one to feel like a diabolical genious because whenever they do happen to strike, my brain usually switches right over to wondering in sheer disbelief of how the hell I didn't think of it before! I bet most of you reading this know exactly what I'm talking about, too!


I also came across another product at my local hardware store that'll allow me to take this "movie-like effect" yet another step closer to reality! The product is called "FLASHIES". It's a very tiny, super bright, randomly flashing, multi-colored LED keychain. (SEE LINK BELOW) It comes in several different flash-color combinations like Blue/White, Red/Green, Red/White/Blue, Red/Red. They're also motion-activated which will then turn off after 8-10 seconds w/o movement.
I bought every single one the store had in stock & the store's owner also gave me the display, which has one w/ all the colors wired into 3 AAA batteries.
I'll mount a Blue/White colored one into the rear of each of my blades. This will give my blades that "flickering, electro-static" appearance, which looks almost identical to what you see in the movies when the Predators Cloaking device turns on/off. B)

CLICK HERE FOR "FLASHIES" WEBSITE

Still haven't totally given up on the idea of creating an entire "cloaking" suit yet...but really, j/k!

 

[Macguyver]

Can you post a video of the blades retracting?

Dan

Sorry Dan, no can do. Regretfully, my wrist blade device doesn't actually have an automatic retract to bring the blades back...gotta cock it back manually.

Although, BELIEVE ME...it's certainly not from any lack of trying to make it a reality on my part! It all came down to the amount of thrusting force that the Nerf extension spring retains when condensed. Even after I cut the spring down & rebent it a few inches, IT STILL PACKS A HELLUVA PUNCH! I also had to mount in another, much smaller extension spring into a polycarbonate reinforcement block located underneath/inside the rail on the "front" end (closest to the wrist) as a precaution. This prevents the 1/4" thick dia bolt from physically blowing through the rail's "front" end.

I honestly have no idea whatsoever how many pounds of force it uses. Which I know isn't even a part of your question...I'm just curious to know the actual amount of force it has myself! I did all I could to use the least amount w/o losing the needed thrusting force for the desired effect.

But thanks to the incredible strength of the polycarbonate blades, all I gotta do is hold onto one of the blades & push 'em back until I hear/feel the curved, metal tension bar I'd custom bent to hold & lock them into place. The push-button release uses a combo of a flex-cable acting as a push-rod on a 90 degree bellcrank which then tranfers the "push" force into a "pulling" motion. From there, I bent a few steel rods to continue on the "pull" motion, which in the end finally pushes down the rear of the tension bar that holds & locks the blades, under full pressure, in place near the rear end. Does that make sense to anyone, cuz I think I may have just confused myself w/ that!

 

[Shataan]

That really is an awesome idea man!!! Very unique. I love it when peeps go that leeetle bit extra mile. Amazing what can be come up with. :0)

 

[recoil1701]

Sorry Dan, no can do. Regretfully, my wrist blade device doesn't actually have an automatic retract to bring the blades back...gotta cock it back manually.

My God!! Man you never cease to amaze me outstanding piece of engineering , I guess they don't call you Macguyver for nothing. Excellent job on the blades I too use plexy for all my blade work. Although not bullet proof polycarbonate , where can i get some......



*****

 

[Macguyver]

My God!! Man you never cease to amaze me outstanding piece of engineering , I guess they don't call you Macguyver for nothing. Excellent job on the blades I too use plexy for all my blade work. Although not bullet proof polycarbonate , where can i get some......
*****

Yeah, well...even good ol' MacGuyver couldn't find a way 2 do it w/ only a few gum wrappers & a paperclip!!!

I'd first tried using plexyglass myself. Found a VERY cool wavy-like frosted texture plexy (used for hard shower doors) but it was FAR too brittle, it busted into 3 pieces from a very small amount of pressure. So, I had to opt up for the polycarbonate material which is also MUCH harder stuff to shape as well.
As much as I'd like to say its my own "ancient chinese secret" on where I got this amazing material ...but, it's really not. Got it locally at a plastics distributor company that's got a wide range of plastics in any size & thickness. They sell off scrap pieces by the lbs. from all their different types of plastics material leftover from big custom orders. The guys there helped me out a lot in deciding what'd work best for my needs, but it still takes a good amount of time & patience to shape it rightl...I swear Dremel should offer me a sponsorship any day now!

Also, a guy I spoke to about just how strong this particular material is, He took a 1/4" thick sheet & layed it on the ground. He bent/folded it & then walked on it to force it to fold in half. I though it was going to either snap in half or shoot him up into the ceiling...but it didn't. Once he stepped off it, it just went right back to being perfectly flat...w/ almost no evidence that it'd even been bent at all!!! Absolutely ******* magical!!!

I could do LED's in several different colors too, like White, Red, Green, UV, Amber, Orange, etc. I use SUPER high-brightness LED's, rated anywhere from 4200-8000 mcd rating which makes getting all the resistors/battery/wiring needed for the number of LED's each varies greatly. Not yet sure if I'm willing to take that route yet...might just include the parts w/ it as an extra add-on.

 

[AlphaTech686]

The blades look great. I have a question. Do you have to use that blue controller to activate the blades?

 

[Macguyver]

The blades look great. I have a question. Do you have to use that blue controller to activate the blades?

Yes, the palm controller has to be used to control both main features of the entire device via the two switches built into it. The cable that wraps around to connect it to the rest of the device is quite flexible, although I used shrink tubing as a wrap to form it into a curved shape so it'll stay where I can grip it readily in costume once it's installed inside a gauntlet.

I'll even further try to explain how & what these 2 switches actually do!
The longer, push-button rod has been highly modified from my own "MacGuyver-like" style of design. It's like an oversized momentary type switch, w/ the added suppliment of two seperate extension springs loaded into it, allowing the push-button rod enough constant force to stay at its fully extended resting point until pressure's applied & releases the blades main lock by means of a "push-pull" flex-cable & several other push/pull devices. Once the push-button rod is pressed down manually, this force is tranferred throughout all the various push/pull devices until it finally reaches the tension bar. The tension bar acts as both, a lock & a loaded-spring release; the lock holds the blades when retracted back, near the bottom rear area of the base (remaining safely under-pressure of the large primary spring) and also, the far rear end area of this bar is the same area which, once a small amount of pressure is applied downward, it lets loose all the force that'd been holding the blades back & allows them to release & fully extend outward.
The other switch mounted into the controller is a simple mini toggle switch from Radioshack, wired so I can turn on/off all four LED's w/ one easy flip of the toggle. The outer blue casing that you see in the original topic pics posted above is a modified mini-bic lighter holder.


WHEW...NOT gonna explain that again any time soon!!!

I'll see if I can put together a quick video demo for all of you!

HERE'S THE DESIGN I'D CREATED FOR THE PARTS INSIDE THE BLUE/BLACK SHELL!

 

[Ice1]

Dude those are some awesome blades. I can see some of those hanging on a shelf and light them up at night. I like the blue....

 

[recoil1701]

Posted the patterns on my topic hope this helps you if you look at my other topics you will see my AVP spear in all it's splendor also look for my AVP elder spear and my predator 2 spear...


*****
P.S. here are the patterns just in case you missed them

 

[AlphaTech686]

That whole thing looks nice but for a costume the hand controller seems a bit cumbersome. In looking at your controls it apears that if you used a shorter cable that ran from the wrist housing to your same little actuator arm, you could use a wrist movement to release the blades. I used a cable like that on a gauntlet that I made many years ago and it still works today. As for the toggle. I would replace it with a mini push button on/ off switch and have it mounted on the oposite side of the wrist housing as the cable. Again, the a small wrist movement you could turn the light on or off. Just a thought.

 

[predator paul]

Oh my dear god! just found a link to this thread on Planet AVP. Mac you are a genius this are first class!

 

[Macguyver]

That whole thing looks nice but for a costume the hand controller seems a bit cumbersome. In looking at your controls it apears that if you used a shorter cable that ran from the wrist housing to your same little actuator arm, you could use a wrist movement to release the blades. I used a cable like that on a gauntlet that I made many years ago and it still works today. As for the toggle. I would replace it with a mini push button on/ off switch and have it mounted on the oposite side of the wrist housing as the cable. Again, the a small wrist movement you could turn the light on or off. Just a thought.

Sounds like you & I think very much in the same way...
I'd tried every one of those ideas & several more too, but found using this small controller unit (measures only 2 1/4"x 1"x 1/2") to function FAR superior to all other ways I'd tried. The smooth, ergonomic shape of it is made to fit very comfortably into a palm. Some of the pics were taken a while back & I've made a ton of "tweeks" to the design since. The palm controller unit's cable is flexible enough that it's able to be tucked inside or wrapped around the wrist area (w/ a small piece of velcro) to keep it out of the way when not used. Even better still, w/ the type of gloves I have, it actually fits into a pocket-like area on top of my hand that hides it from sight between the glove & a layer of latex. Ha ha, get it...it's outta sight.
I was also going to use a push button type for the lights, but couldn't find one small enough to fit into the small controller unit. I have a soft-touch momentary on/off push for my bio lasers, but that one doesn't always stay "on" unless its pushed in exactly the right spot. Decided to go w/ a toggle also because it requires a different type of movement to turn on/off. Its easier to know which button is which by feel that way since my thumb is used to eject the blades & my index finger just has to slightly squeeze in to turn on the lights. I have also replaced the toggle shown w/ a better even smaller version, but still the same flip toggle type.

I'd like to see some pics of your wrist cable release. That was my original plan too, but I just ran into too many problems w/ it because it would more often cause the gauntlet to slide down the arm or would just be too "touchy". Couldn't find a happy working medium, so it became a big issue for me to get better overall reliability & safety for those around me. That's what really drove me to create this push-button type release...which has never even had so much as one "misfire issue" yet from over the 100+ tests I've put this device through.

For me, it was kind of similar to the problem w/ that classic invention "The Clapper". Yeah, at first it seemed pretty cool, but that was until ur watching TV & a studio audience gives a big applause...turning every room in ur house into a raging disco party!

One of my friends has his Masters in Robotic Engineering...someday we're planning to make a joint effort utilizing all I've learned from this one & his knowledge from designing/building competition-level robots to make a whole new version that'll surely blow this current one right outta the water! Although, I doubt we'll be able to make it weigh less than my current device thats only 1.5 lbs (yet still tough as nails) & has no bulky batteries to worry about...but for now, thats still in the dream phase.
So many things to really take into consideration w/ this kind of stuff, u know what I mean?
But thats also what makes the lair such a great place!

I'm interested to know how you did the cable pull work well, I look forward to seeing some pics!

 

[AlphaTech686]

Hey Mac., here are a few pics of my old gauntlet. The first one is the kit I sold back in the early 90s. that was big stuff back then. no internet. I sold it out of Sci-Fi entertainment for $150.00. Deal huh. Anyway, the others are some pics I took yesterday. It's pretty beat up but it still works like a champ.

That's all a far cry from My "topknot" gauntlet that was up on Trophy room. which I will be getting a vid up pretty soon so people will believe me when I say it does work.