Any tips on making PVC chainmail? - PAINTED!!

I wish I would have checked this thread earlier. I want to learn to chain mail now. Any good online tutorials or do I just have to find a master to learn from.

Brandon
 
More Maille Trivia

Finished and painted, ~7000 ring Hauberk weighs 22lbs.



~125 views since I posted the painted effort. (except for DH) No comments, questions or feedback? I do a thorough job of explaining everything I did? No interest? (well, enough to peek).
eh. Guess this one is ready for archiving, after I tweak the graphics a bit.
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Rich, you are doing a very through job of explaining the entire *ordeal*
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Hence the lack of questions? A very well done piece. Seems alittle complicated (for me) otherwise I would be all over this for an Elf archer idea I have. And you thought my detailed Predator helm was complicated??
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The paint job is especially convincing. From the pics you have, it seems very gunmetal like, in that it has the right amount of matte vs. gloss. Just what one pictures when thinking of heavy hand wrought metal chainmail.
 
Rich,

Just returned from vacation and I've got to let you know you did a great job on it. As someone who followed the thread from the beginning you took the time and effort to explain everything in detail. I've received a gift card for Home Depot and I'm toying with the idea of a small band saw for cutting the PVC. It's very tempting after seeing how well you finished yours. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Dean

PS Nice bathroom
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Indigogyre wrote:
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PS Nice bathroom
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LOL. I'll have to post a Before & After series on that in the OT forum. LOL

BTW Dean, and everyone else, thanks for the tips and suggestions that made it possible.
Particularly about only needing to cut half the rings.

Saw a nice Ryobi(?) 9" bandsaw at HomeD the other day, for $100. But wondering how easy it would be to maneuver a bundle of pipes cleanly through the blade? Using a chop saw, it was a simple matter to support and feed the bundle up against the jury-rigged stop, and >chop<.

You'd asked about 'kerf' earlier, and I don't think I responded directly - the carbide-tipped blade I was using was 1/8" in thickness, causing about 40% waste of my pipe material. Could have wasted less with a thinner plywood-cutting blade, but considering I only spent ~$20 on PVC pipe, and the thinner blade would likely cause melting and burring, why bother?

I think the next time I try something like this, I'm going to give it a try with the black pliable drip-line hose (polyethylene?). Ought to be MUCH easier on my fingers (which are once again calloused and cracked from handling the rough-cut PVC).
And it won't have to be painted
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Nothing new, just tweaking the graphics prior to archiving.

More PVC Maille Trivia:
Now I know why Knights have Squires. Put the thing on the other day, and almost got stuck in it. The maille isn't flexible enough to allow me to grab my own collar / shoulders and pull it off. Wound up using a bent wire coat-hanger to snag the collar and pull it up enough for me to grab, then lean over and shrug it off. Comedy.
 
Rich, incredible job you're doing. You mentioned in an above post that you couldn't find a water tight painting container solution. I have just recently finished painting the interior of our newly built home. All of the paint I used came in 5 gallon pails with a rubber seal on the lid. maybe you could use one of them for your painting process. Jon.
 
Great work, looks like you did a nice job with explaining things so well that most people won't want to go the project
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I am going to give it a try myself on some smaller bits and see how it turns out. Thanks for all of the info...

Sean

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rayra wrote:
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More Maille Trivia

Finished and painted, ~7000 ring Hauberk weighs 22lbs.



~125 views since I posted the painted effort. (except for DH) No comments, questions or feedback? I do a thorough job of explaining everything I did? No interest? (well, enough to peek).
eh. Guess this one is ready for archiving, after I tweak the graphics a bit.
ohwell.gif

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Sean, that's what I expected / was afraid of
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And Jon, thanks for your suggestion. I have a couple of those 5-gallon paint jugs, and thought to use them when TK818 mentioned tumbling rings with paint, but the full hauberk with sleeves attached is actually too large to fit in a 5-gal container. It should fit in a 10-gal., though.
I'll definitely have to try the already-black polyvinyl drip-line hose for the next one. Just have to figure a good way to cut the rings. Bandsaw? Maybe I'll find a used Deli Meat Slicer and give that a whirl.
 
Beautiful work, Rich...simply beautiful. You've paved the way for me to finally roll my sleeves up and try this myself.
 
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