kevster

Thank you Locitus. If anyone has anything to add or other little tips and tricks please do tell. Like I stated in the beginning, I'm trying to make this a "one stop shop" for self made power cylinders. I really want the credit to go to others, I just wanted to put all the info i've gathered for others who want to try and make their own power cylinders. Seeing as this is my first time ever trying these, I know it wouldn't of come out as good as it did if it wasn't for the hard work of others. Special thanks to Sskunky.

Ok, finally got it all drilled out today. I had put little divots in them and the bit would shave off some metal and then it just wouldn't go any further. So what I ended up having to do was keep using the punch, then drill a little, then punch it again, then drill and I just had to do that over and over. I'm guessing what was happening is since the metal is so hard, instead of really cutting into it, its just shaving the metal so the size of the bit then it will just spin. So by punching it again, it would expose more metal to get shaved off and eventually it would get down far enough that it would have enough bite to drill through. I ended up using a cobalt bit for hard metal from ace hardware. I also had to apply a decent amount of pressure and I ended up breaking the bit but went ahead and was still able to use it. so BE CAREFUL if using the push caps I found, they are very hard to drill through. Hopefully someone else can find an easier way. But here it is, basically done! ( i made a little template to help find the center, just poked the center with a needle so I could mark the center and just eyeballed it)

uh oh, is that a bad hmm? I hope i'm not doing something wrong... This is my first time trying this. My main goal here is putting all the info about power cylinders in one place and my adventures in trying to make them. Going out of town this weekend, I've been having the darnedest time trying to drill through those caps but i should be able to finish it all up Monday.

A little update Got the template cut out and the holes drilled. The best thing to do is grind off a little at a time and keep checking the sizes. The holes for the pins ended up being too big, so what I ended up doing for the pins to fit in the holes and get a better grip when epoxied in is I mushroomed out the end of the pin. I put the rod in a vice then heated up the end to make it a bit more malleable then gave it a couple good whacks with the hammer. This took a few times to get it how I wanted but it will come out eventually. Last little bit, you'll want to keep the end of the pin close to the vise, if you have it too far out you run the risk of bending the pin when trying to mushroom it out. Next I went ahead and made the bend in the holder. The safe thing to do is put the end with the holes in the vise with your line showing just a little bit above the top of the vise. If you try and bend the metal with the holes out of the vise, it WILL bend the holes because it is so thin around them. Also you want to leave just a tiny bit of space below the line if you are doing it in a vise because the bend will not be a strait 90 degree bend. I left no more than 1mm between the line and the vise. ( you can see how the line ended up in the middle of the bend) Just some pics of how mine is looking

Then by all means. If you have any tips or tricks that will make this how to better, I would greatly appreciate it.

This is my attempt at a scratch build of power cylinders and for future reference to others for a " one stop shop" that I hope will become a HOW TO sticky. First off, I got the template and measurements from Sskunky and this thread. -------------- Try as I might I could not get the template to print right. I tried to resize and got close but eventually what I ended up doing was zooming out from the picture in very small increments until the template was the right size on my screen then I stuck a piece of card stock on the screen and traced it the best I could. I would suggest drawing up your own template if you can't resize it perfectly though. Since I am using tubes and pins slightly larger, I kept drawing and erasing circles on the metal using the tubes until I was happy with the spacing. Second I scrounged and gathered parts as best I could. 7/16 Push Nut ( Home Depot in the screws/nuts isle Crown Bolt brand, Ace has push nuts that they say are 7/16 but to me they were the same size as the 3/8, but they were 7/16 tall) 7/16 Brass Tube ( Ace Hardware) ( the tube and rod brand are KS Engineering metals, I've seen this brand at hobby lobby and little R/C hobby shops too) 1/8 Brass Rod ( Ace Hardware) Nuts and Screws ( Ace Hardware, the smallest nuts I could find were in a metric box, the screws i found to go with the nuts were in another box labled pan (cheese) head metric screws) The sheet metal i used was also from Ace Hardware but Home Depot has it too, but Ace I think is cheaper. Now the 7/16 brass tube is 11.1mm wide so it is a little bigger than the measurements Sskunky gave but it fits perfectly into the push nut after they are cut. The rod is a little bigger too at 3.18mm and Ace did have some a little smaller, but I just wanted to see how it was. With the bigger tubes I didn't want the pins to be dwarfed by them so I'm hoping they will look a little more proportional to each other. ( I forgot to get a pic before I cut it up, so this is what they looked like before hand, got the pic from home depot) here's a pic of the package of the push nuts and how they are after they are cut with a dremel with the nut I found for reference. The nut is actually 5mm instead of 4mm but it looks like it can still pull it off. I will be drilling a hole in the caps to put the screw in and screw down the bolt then will cut off the extra thread to make it flush with the nut. just a pic of the tube for the cylinder and rod for the pins. More to come soon.

Well, that was kind of the thing. I scrounged around for screen grabs and for what I could find, it almost looks like there is a tiny tiny return edge. Or was the stuff they used in the original that thick?

So I'm having a bit of a conundrum. I am trying to go for EIB with an ANH stunt. As i was looking through submitted pictures for EIB status, no one has return edges along the sides of the chest and back. The thing is me being as skinny as I am, I like the look of the return edges for giving a thicker look to the armor so it doesn't look too wonky on me. So, if i'm going for EIB should I go ahead and trim off the return edges? Or is there a tiny bit of edge that I could get away with and still pass? Right now I know its too much, there is about a 5/16 inch return edge going along the sides of the chest and back. I was thinking i could trim it down to maybe 1/8 or 3/16 inch? What do y'all think?

Wow, what a great way to return, I've been on a bit of a hiatus for a while, but a big applause for the first 100 EIB members. Here's to hoping to be in the next 100!

Well, we're just giving praise where it's deserved, keep it up!!!

For the mag, I decided to make it out of wood because trying to make the grooves in the bent metal would just be a little too difficult. But i was wondering where to get the grip texture for the handle, any suggestions? and also where can i get some bondo?

( IN PROGRESS ) Just started my scratch build. One of the hardest things to find was the funnel, but I ended up getting the exact one in the scope tutorial <a href="http://www.tk560.com/jegner/M19-scope-tutorial.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.tk560.com/jegner/M19-scope-tutorial.pdf</a> from O'Reilly's auto, its a blitz brand funnel just in case anyone finds this thread looking for the same funnel. Also I came across the problem of the PVC blaster builder pages coming out really weird as well and found through a search people had the same problem, so if the templates arn't right the problem is they MUST NOT be printed to "fit page" if they are, it takes smaller templates and blows them up to fill out the page more. So here is what i got so far.

ok guys, thanks, I'll start on my blaster tomorrow then

I've looked around but haven't gotten a definitive answer. I want to start my blaster soon and was just wondering what gauge metal would be suggested. Smitty mentioned he uses 1/16 steel which is 16 gauge for stainless steel, but to me it seems like it wouldn't be very easy to work with. I just have some regular hand tools, no machinery that actually bends metal or anything like that, or is this thickness still fairly easy to bend and hammer into shapes? I just don't want to get anything too flimsy but still easy enough to work with, what are y'all suggest? ----------

Well, I don't know of any suits that have the strips going over those pieces on the thighs, so i think it would, and if you do, it might not be eligible for EIB if you plan on going for that. but please don't take me as final word, i'm just going by conclusion from what i've seen. and Naatsirihc's lighter idea sounds pretty good, its much more pin point heating i would think and you can adjust the flame fairly low as well. also when working on that particular piece, i found that it really started coming together when you try and work on both sides instead of just one, at least for me it did anyway.

Ya, i came across that too, i used a heat gun on it, and while i kinda got it lined up, its still not all that great of a job i did, maybe its from my inexperience, but i would say stay away from the heat gun because this stuff is thinner than most other armors, it will want to shrink and just start melting off practically. that little line on the left side is from using a clamp because it had drooped down and shrunk so i just clamped it to thin it out again, it worked ok but i didn't think much before i did it, i should of used a clamp that was a bit weaker, put some flat pieces on it so the lines on the clamp wouldn't of deformed the plastic like that but here's my end result, the piece ended up just slightly higher than the other

Ya, i was wondering about this too, and now that has been answered, is there a top and bottom to the kidney plate? it looks like if you hold it flat, there is a curve to it, the outsides curving away from the body while the middle is pushed in to the body slightly, and it looks like one side is flared out a little more than the other, or does it not really matter? Here, the right side looks like it is flared out more while the left side is pretty strait, the middle measures 6.5" wide and the edges measure 7.75" wide and i'm not counting the return edges,so is the right side of the pic the top side?

Here's Stuka's tutorials that he has. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stukatrooper/sets/

If you click on the links in the first post, they come up as a bunch of code for some, but it will work if you right click them and " save link as" that will download them to your computer so you can view them anytime, or you can check out this link that No'l posted and there you can view all the videos as well.

Well, put in some frown mesh today just to check out how it would be. and does anyone know what the size of the rivets are on the side of the kidney and ab plate? I haven't been able to find that anywhere. maybe 3/16"?

Ya, same here, just go to a hardware store and ask for a roll of screen mesh for a door, and you can find a big roll of the stuff for really cheap, the kind i got was fiberglass so its pretty cloth like and soft so you don't have to worry about any sharp edges.

lol, this is awesome

A true hero for sure, sacrificing his life to defuse a bomb that could of easily killed countless others. Makes me proud to see such courageous acts.

After my search and finding this thread, I wanted to bring it back up because i want to start on my blaster, and i'm just not sure what gauge to use because statements on here just do not add up with this chart that i was directed to by a CNC machine operator. like smitty saying he uses 1/16, by this chart is 16 gauge in stainless steel. Then later super says 1/64 is 15 gauge, but for the chart, its 28 gauge, so i'm just really confused and want some real definite numbers, what do ya'll believe is the best gauge to work with thats strong but still easy enough to bend without any big sheet metal equipment? ----------

Ya, i was thinking to correct my right shin, i will cut another piece out and stick it on the top and glue it down then use a tiny bit of filler for the little gap it will leave and sand it down to make it look like its one piece, I should of gotten a modeling iron instead of a heat gun too, ATA is just a little too thin it seems like to me, it's a very fine line between malleable and almost melting it off, but I stopped myself before getting too far with anything lol