TheLorelei

Not to worry - I imagine most troopers have knit. It's really much easier to find. And cheaper. Everyone's going to want to replace their elastics sooner or later anyway! Generally speaking, knit elastic has a much "looser" or "gentler" stretch to it than woven does, due in part to the looped construction technique itself being stretchy to begin with. The fact that it's made from one continuous length of elastic (not the multiple opposing threads of a weave) makes it a little more fragile, too, as one point of failure can rapidly spread. There. Information. I knew being a textile nerd would come in handy someday!

Exciting stuff, and great call on using suspenders for elastic! I bought a big roll of industrial elastic online because yes, the elastic at the fabric stores is not durable. Fun fact: most readily available elastic is knit, which has much less resilience than woven elastic - which is what suspender and mil-spec elastics are.

Ohh! Ok! Thanks

Ok well now my question seems super stupid, haha. This: looked like leather or something bridging the shoulder gap beyond the elastic further around the arm, perhaps to hide the end of the neck seal bib or something was my thought. Must just be the lighting! Return to your homes. Nothing to see here.

Hello! I'm undertaking a helmet electronics project what I'd consider mostly from scratch (no components pre-wired together). I'm near-novice level; it's not that I've never wielded a soldering iron, it's just that the last time I did I was 12. Fortunately a good friend is an electrical engineer working in the field who can both explain things five times in a row AND lend a hand with stringing everything together. Phew. THE CURRENT (lol, electrical jokes already) PLAN: My voice changer will be a Teensy 3.2 coupled with the audio adapter shield and Bluetooth module as per TK Talkie's delightfully detailed V3 directions. A PJRC prop shield LC will act as amplifier for the little speakers which I'll be setting in my hovi mic tips. I'll have [many] helmet fans ('cause I'm here for a good time, not a sweaty time) on an independent circuit to cut down on electrical noise within my audio system, most likely powered by a rechargeable USB battery. I'll experiment with lavalier microphones behind my neck seal, and will probably integrate a hearing assist system down the road. Disclaimer: this project is in between invention and re-inventing the wheel. People sell similar pre-built components and systems! I've just been spoiling for an electronics project so I want to do it all myself. This promises to be quite the adventure for my ANH stunt bucket Smudge and me. Come along, if you dare.

Ohh - thank you! Tony's is probably one of the build threads I should've printed out for easier consultation. Out of curiosity, in your picture, what's the black material secured there for?

Wait wait wait, please - offset how? I've been digging around and can't find any specific sew-in snap placement. I figured I'd just put it in the middle of the (nylon) shoulder strap.

I agree with Daniel on that one, too! Also you could get other dies for the press and punch holes etc. for snaps and things.

That's the exact one I got and I love it.

Oof. Good to know, Tony. I thought maybe if they were right on either side of the seam that would cause problems of its own. Hopefully my armor will be so well shaped and fitted to me that it will have no desire to slide about, but if it does now I know how to fix it. Thanks! Speaking of strapping, I finally got the sew-in snaps for the shoulder-nylon to shoulder-bell-elastic connection just now. I did NOT expect #10 snaps to be as ungodly huge as they are! Guess they'll keep flat well enough. Boy. I have yet to revisit the chestplate positioning issue so I can't sew them in just yet, but I think (peering into empty wallet with hand drawn moths comically fluttering out of it) I have actually purchased all I need for my TK now. ...minus further helmet electronics. Though I've already got a bunch of those. But that's a song for another time. Merry belated Christmas, y'all, now go eat those leftover cookies!

Thanks, Jeff! It's a lot of legwork, but a lot of fun, too. I definitely can't picture myself actually looking like a tk someday though. There's a strong link between me and the piles of white plastic, black elastic, and tools covering the floors of two rooms, but only a tenuous connection between those piles and actual tk armor. On another note, I just saw your USB fan sales thread. Tempting. May be PMing you later.

(Oh no!! But yeah, if it fits me at 5' 4" pretty decently, I can't imagine adding a foot, yes...)

I found ATA on the small side. Definitely wouldn't recommend it for your height.

Aw thanks Rat You can't keep a good woman down. Despite my best intentions, I did a little more armor work day before yesterday. I put in kidney notches and trimmed the buttplate! The left side looks so nice. Good thing, too, because it'll be completely hidden by the holster. The right side is the side with the splice, and the 20mm trim line was so close to the seam that it snapped there instead... So I'm gonna have to put a few mm back there. I haven't refinished the seam yet anyway so it's ok. (Also, the kidney+ab themselves are different heights at each seam. What is with that??) Buttplate trim time! Been a minute since I was so scared to make a cut. I think it looks great so far, though, and will look even better when I take the return edge off the lower area like so (faint pencil lines): Ooh but also look! Butt snaps!! Doesn't it look just so... real?? My snap press continues to prove it was a great investment, by the way. Foolproof, perfect snap setting in seconds. Future readers from Garrison Carida, let me know when you want to borrow it. I removed the edge snap plates from my kidney. The E6000 did eventually let them pop cleanly off, as advertised. Very pleased. And thanks to the trims I won't have to move the snap plates on the buttplate, as they're now on the edges where I would have moved them anyway. Tonight I painted ab buttons, and did a little bucket work. No pics of the ab buttons because they're an absolute travesty. I tried a couple methods and am relying on the cleanup process to make them presentable. I ended up doing one coat of cheesecloth and one coat of plain plastidip (with a little cloth in thin spots). After two days, I punched out the eye tape and lightly scored the plastidip around the eyes, gently pulling the scrap as I went. For me the edges don't matter much since they'll be covered by my lens/mesh mounting method. Say it with me - feel the relief wash over you - "It doesn't have to be perfect." Then I kneaded up some epoxy putty (another plumbing aisle wonder) and laid plastic wrap over the eye because I don't want the putty to adhere yet. Those of you who attended higher tier art schools - or second grade art class - will recall the roll-the-clay-between-your-hands-to-make-a-snake method which I employed to get the putty around the eye. It's not pretty, but I'll be shaping it nicely after the second layer. I love how this stuff sands. A few minutes later it was ready to pop off and mess around with, but I was cold and weary and ready for dinner. Tomorrow's another day.

Working on it. It'll be a bit, so if you have any specific questions until I get it all written up, fire away First, thanks for the input Sha Sha! Always good to hear from a fellow shorter female TK when it comes to fitting issues. The chest and back tabs overlap by a bit with how I have it taped in the most recent pictures. That does make sense, and I'll definitely try dropping the chest down a bit. One bad thing that may have contributed to October's fitting was the fact that I had the chest sides taped, pulling it back against the ab. Comparison below, October on the left. Ignoring that, though, the chest was much lower. The ab was lower, too, and the cod was shorter. Now, this was before I had the back strapping in. The length of the back and the alignment of the ab with the kidney (now in a fixed spot due to shoulders and butt) put the ab a little higher than in October's fitting, I think. Also the torso was bigger around since I hadn't trimmed it yet so the chest didn't have to come back in as far to sit flush. Seems there were a lot of reasons. But shifting the chest down def seems worth a try! Nice to see your snap plate positioning. Thanks!

Yeah! And oh, really?... that's quite good to know, thank you. Makes sense. I'll wait to attach it until my belt snaps are in and my codpiece reattached for sure!

Hey thanks, Phil! I didn't take terribly many photos of the process because it required more hands than I had to begin with, but I can certainly go into more detail if you'd like. Just let me know.

Lovely to have more detail, thanks A.J.! I was planning on reinforcing the ab before attaching elastic similar to yours, so the third layer would be between the elastic and the ab/kidney, glued only to the ab/kidney. I'm contemplating slimmer reinforcements (nylon webbing? ABS scraps that came from already vac-formed pieces so they're considerably thinner?) to avoid it being a full 6mm of ABS, but I'd worry about the rivet holes sans backup. Ounce of prevention, etc.

Heavens to Betsy, Frank you're right - even if by some miracle they do let me in, they'll send me a certificate that says "Laura" on it and I'll have to hang it on my wall and wince every time I see it. Oh phew. Thanks!

Shoot!!! And I thought about it, and I looked at your profile (and I called you Daniel yesterday, if you recall), and then I figured Hey, Rat probably knows better than I do. Dreadfully sorry, I mean I hate it when people shorten my name without being instructed to do so. Ugh.

Fine, I have balanced the sane advice with Daniel's advice - quickly recoated my bucket with plastidip, and will now lie very, very still. And thanks, Tony! PM sent. Turns out the rivets only have to go through 3 layers of ABS plus one of elastic, so if I can do the initial closure plan I'd like to.

My to do list seriously doesn't seem to be shrinking at all. What, lying around sick isn't checking things off?? Absurd. After I got those pictures kitted up on Sunday, I could barely move. Energy levels are low, mental energy is high but disjointed... my brain is like a sleep-deprived 3-year-old on a caffeine high trying to complete a puzzle with oven mitts on. Moreover, last night to my great chagrin I realized that my split rivets are too short to go through 4 layers of ATA ABS and a layer of elastic (as they would have to have done for my proposed side hinge closure). I can a) buy more online and wait for them to come because apparently nobody sells split rivets any more or b) rework the closure since it was bulkier than I wanted anyway, and I worry about straining the rivet holes (even reinforced). Option b) won out during last night's "sleep", and I think I'll put in ornamental split rivets with a conventional three pairs of double snaps with 2" elastic. Let's lay a few things out. • Sand ab seam • Reinforce seam • Install split rivets • Install ab closure • Size canvas belt • Sew on Velcro • Paint ab plate buttons • Glue ab buttons to ab • Attach belt snaps to ab • Attach ammo packs to belt • Connect cod to ab • Cod to butt elastic • Better butt to kidney strapping • Trim buttplate edges • Re-Plastidip bucket interior • Drill lens holes • Install lens mounts • Install frown mesh • Polish everything • Install ears • Paint bucket • Trim shoulder tops • Connect shoulders • Heat form shoulder straps (?) • Reinforce straps (?) • Apply straps to chest, five bumps on chest plate • Make shoulder bell strap • Trim shoulder bells (12" from bottom of ridge, 5" from side of ridge?) • Sand out hovi mic tip interiors • Install speakers • Paint hovis • Make neck seal bib Seems to me that, from the couch (or adjacent floorspace) today, I can work up new buttplate, shoulder, and ab strapping, trim the buttplate and shoulders, get shoulder strap positioning nailed down, and move on to belt and neck seal work if I can. I'd REALLY like to plastidip my bucket some more, but breathing with my respirator on... oh! I could paint my ab buttons, too. Let's do this thing! *cough*

Thanks Frank! Haha, I can see my submission now. "My belt's, uh, screen accurate! What do you mean my EIB application has been denied??"

I'm on it.

Thanks so much, Tony!! I was going to make sure the butt plate was fully under the kidney first, yes. Somewhere I saw a diagonal strap at the buttplate corner that I think would do the trick. But about the 22mm notch - should I line the trimming of the butt up to where it WOULD be, or not?