Highlander’s AP ANH Stunt Build

[ABS80]

On 6/21/2020 at 4:39 PM, rwmead10 said:

Is this what you mean Mark? I marked widening the scoop with pencil lines.

Yes but you can remove more

[husky68[TK]]

I’d suggest build it, wear it and then make additional cuts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwmead10]

12 hours ago, husky68 said:

I’d suggest build it, wear it and then make additional cuts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is it a pain to trim the scoop portion after the forearm is glued together?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, rwmead10 said:

Is it a pain to trim the scoop portion after the forearm is glued together?

Quite easy with a Dremel or similar rotary tool  

[husky68[TK]]

3 hours ago, rwmead10 said:

Is it a pain to trim the scoop portion after the forearm is glued together?

  It follows the idea that once you take away it is harder to put it back.  Wearing the armor and moving around will give you a better idea of how much to trim rather than guessing.  After my first troop I had armor bites and rubbing rashes which told me areas that needed to be change.  Slowly trimmed small amounts away until I could wear it worry free for hours.

[rwmead10]

Got the 20mm inner cover strips done from scrap material. They are thinner than the outer cover strips which I like. I will begin gluing this weekend.

[rwmead10]

Inner strips for the biceps were glued and clamped on each side and cured for 12 hours. After 12 hours I closed the biceps and used clamps and magnets to hold everything together. This will cure for 24 hours for full cure time. Next up are the forearms.

[wook1138[TK]]

Looks great! You are very organized with your magnets - makes me feel like a barbarian.  lol

 

When you are gluing parts together, are you taking a bit of sandpaper and roughing up the surfaces a little?  This really helps with adhesion.

 

[rwmead10]

29 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

Looks great! You are very organized with your magnets - makes me feel like a barbarian.  lol

 

When you are gluing parts together, are you taking a bit of sandpaper and roughing up the surfaces a little?  This really helps with adhesion.

 

Yes forgot to mention. I roughed up each side with 220 grit sandpaper and spread thin layers of e6000 with a tongue depressor prior to clamping together. When I removed the clamps after 12 hours the bond was strong.

 

You should have seen my wife’s face when I spent an entire night making the magnet sachets lol. I am going to attempt crickets shin closures so I picked up that tip from her tutorial.

[rwmead10]

I was able to glue 3 of the 4 forearm inner cover strips but ran out of clamps. Biceps are done drying and ready for cleanup and outer cover strips!

[rwmead10]

Making progress on the forearms. As the last inner strip was drying, I combined one side of the two halves together and applied with mini trigger clamps and magnets. Once this cured for 24 hours, I moved the magnets to the right forearm, giving the left forearm another 24 hours to cure. Just closed the left forearm and used almost every magnet I had to make it a strong seam. I will wait 24 hours and hope it holds. Lots of waiting...I should have quadrupled the amount of magnets and clamps, especially the trigger clamps.

 

[rwmead10]

While I’m waiting on glue to dry, I began cutting my outer cover strips. I made sure to score and snap on the “rough side” of the cover strip to avoid the slight ridges created by the blade. This gives a clean finished side. Also made sure to sand the non-finished side so I can keep it straight which side gets glued. I have it resting here as a reference. 20mm strips with no overhang.

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

2 hours ago, rwmead10 said:

20mm strips with no overhang.

For Biceps and forearms cover strip they are 15 mm.  

 

 

 

 

 

[rwmead10]

18 minutes ago, TKSpartan said:

For Biceps and forearms cover strip they are 15 mm.  

 

 

 

 

 

I had to leave 20mm to fit my arms and I cut the cover strip so that no ridge is showing. I may cut a 15mm cover strip to see what it looks like.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

13 minutes ago, rwmead10 said:

I had to leave 20mm to fit my arms and I cut the cover strip so that no ridge is showing. I may cut a 15mm cover strip to see what it looks like.

You could do a test, not glued, with a piece of scrap and see the result with out trimming the one of 20mm 

[rwmead10]

Here is a better picture of where the 20mm cover strips sit compared to a 15mm strip.

[wook1138[TK]]

Ideally, you want to cover as much as the ridge as you can.  Because of the sizing, I would say the 20mm coverstrips look better.  You could cheat a few mm on them (17 or 18 mm), but the 15mm shows too much of ridge IMO.

[rwmead10]

2 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

Ideally, you want to cover as much as the ridge as you can.  Because of the sizing, I would say the 20mm coverstrips look better.  You could cheat a few mm on them (17 or 18 mm), but the 15mm shows too much of ridge IMO.

I agree. The 20mm looks better. I will test 17/18mm for fun but I’m leaning towards 20mm. 

[rwmead10]

First forearm closed! However the shape is a bit off. It is more of and oval and is causing pinch points and the arm wants to shift the wrong way. Is it possible to do a hot water bath to ease this tension and make the shape a little more round? 

[wook1138[TK]]

Yes!  I've done exactly that. Easy to do - and fits much better afterwards.

[rwmead10]

10 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

Yes!  I've done exactly that. Easy to do - and fits much better afterwards.

Any pointers? Just boil water and hold the end in the water for 40 seconds, hold into new shape and then run under cold water for it to set? Am I missing something critical?

[Blast 'Em!]

Hey Ryan,

 

I recently hot water bathed some of my armor pieces and I tried to capture everything in my build thread. I need to do a second round of water bathing in the coming days, so this is a good refresher for me too.

 

I think the main considerations are as follows:

• How big of a pot do you have? If it can fit the entire armor piece, great! Just submerge the piece, being careful not to let the plastic touch the walls of the pot while also not burning yourself in any manner (I've seen people use a string through the armor to hold it). If you don't have a large enough pot, like me, you can try a large bucket or your sink.
• Water temp: you want it as hot as possible (think rolling boil). ABS doesn't go through a phase transfer until it reaches temperatures above the boiling point of water, which is quite convenient for us. 
• Dunk time: use a test piece of ABS, of equivalent thickness, to test how long it takes for the plastic to soften. For me, it was around 70 seconds I think, but this was partially because I had to pour my water into my sink, dropping the temperature.
• Setting the shape: pull the part from the water, mold into the new shape (use your hands, rubber bands, zip ties, etc), and then submerge in cold water. I've used a sink and a bucket for the cold plunge. I hold it in the water until I can feel the temperature of the plastic cool off (maybe 20-30 seconds). I tried using painters tape to hold my shins closed but all the tape came off in the boiling water, so I don't recommend tape.

Depending on how much shape correction you get, you might need to repeat the process to get the desired change. Good luck bud, you got this!

[rwmead10]

Will a hot water bath remove the glue?

[Blast 'Em!]

From my experience and what I've read on here, there's no significant impact on E6000. The boiling water may soften the adhesion of the glue, but it's probably a negligible amount. 

[husky68[TK]]

Some suggest giving a few seconds pause between hot and cold water to avoid making the plastic brittle. Always test with some trimmings or scraps before going in with the full pieces.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk