kman

That's odd... my image host is my own web server (well, my web host, DreamHost, a large commercial server). Definitely nothing malicious on my own domain. I've just now converted every photo in the entire thread to point to my host instead of ImageShack. (that was fun!) If you want to see any of them at work, perhaps you should have your IT guys take a closer look and take it off the block list?

Which one? I just opened up this thread in another browser (never been logged in on that browser, to FISD or my hosted site) and skimmed through all 7 pages of this thread. (wow, I've posted a lot of pics!) All of them showed up fine. Is there a specific image you're not seeing, or is a group of them? This thread is still a mix of self-hosted images (You can see I've edited all the posts on page 1, and placed every picture, and all of them on this last page 7, but I haven't replaced pix in all 7 pages yet) and the original ImageShack hosted pix, but all of them appear to be showing up now, as far as I can see. If not, please let me know so I can fix it!

That chest freezer in my garage was one of the best $75 I ever spent.

Freezing the helmet may also help, since superglue tends to become a little more brittle in freezing temps.

I haven't measured (and I'm at work) but you might be able to tell by looking at the photo of my new Chicago screws (the longer, shinier ones) next to the Anovos Chicago screws (the shorter, duller finished ones): Measure the Anovos ones that you have, visually add the extra as you can see in the photo, and you should get in the right ballpark. And actually, I just re-read your question. The Anovos Chicago screws (the four provided for the holster to belt connections) were the perfect fit, for connecting my Anovos ammo belt to my Rob Kittell replacement belt. Measure those, and you should have your answer. The longer ones were perfect for going through the thicker leather holster and then through the thicker Kittell belt.

Super clean, man, nicely done! Rather than hack apart the thighs, I'd consider adding a little foam inside. That'll take up the extra space, and will even let you "steer" the armor a bit to keep everything nice and centered.

I wonder if a touch of E6000 on the D-ring where it connects would give enough resistance that it wouldn't move around much, plus a touch on the bottom center (where it will hit the plastic) to give it some "bounce" and muffle the plastic on metal rattle?

Great job on the weathering! Nice light touch, which I appreciate. I see a lot out there where it's way overdone.

You have the right idea, yes. The acetone to plastic ratio is going to be different depending on exactly how small the scrap is, and that also effects how fast it dissolves. I personally had very small scrap (I started mostly by collecting the POWDERED bits that flew off my bench sander, and adding a few scrap strips chopped up no bigger than 1/4" squares) so I started with a very small amount, like a tablespoon, in the baby jar with the scrap. Wait 20-30 minutes, poke/stir with a wood coffee stir stick, and repeat until the consistency is right. I think I ended up with approx 3 tablespoons of Acetone, total, into a baby food jar that was pretty well stuffed (but loosely so) with scrap. I let it sit overnight after I was close, to make sure it was all nice and consistent. You want to end up roughly like mayo consistency, or a little runnier (but not a lot runnier). Too runny and (1) it's hard to control, and (2) too much acetone content starts to dissolve the ABS you DON'T want to dissolve (your armor!). The phases: Dry: 1 tbs: 2 tbs: 3 tbs, after overnight, ready to use:

I like this idea! Chicago screws is a clever option, although I'll probably use the T-nuts just because I feel like they have more surface area for the adhesive to grab onto. Your mounting plates are perfectly done, though.

Bear in mind you need to fit your hand through. Possibly wearing a glove, unless you put it on after. That tends to limit how small you can make the wrist end. The return edge on the wrist end should definitely come off entirely, though. MUCH more comfortable to put on, if nothing else!

What a great score! That's a really cool machine. They should be strong enough to do some leather sewing, too, so you're probably ahead of most modern machines, with that lovely thing. GREAT job on the snaps. I really need to start converting my suit over to those, asap.

Looks good! Fortunately adding shims isn't nearly as scary as I initially thought.

I've been casually looking into it for a while, but never found anything that worked for me. I actually REALLY liked ImageShack's setup. On the fly resizing, unlimited space, you name it. Unfortunately, in the past 3 years they went from (1) Free, no account needed, to (2) Free, account needed, to (3) $1/mo for more than like 25 photos, to (4) $2/mo for a reasonable amount of photos (at which point I really started to grit my teeth), to the current $4/mo for pretty much anything, which absolutely obscene. I'm paying it at the moment because I'm lazy, but that was definitely the tipping point. Add to the fact that they then proceeded to lose a whole bunch of my photos, and that was IT. DONE. It's a bear to edit all of those posts, though. I post a lot of pics. Here at FISD it shouldn't be THAT tough to go through and edit my posts and replace the links, but I worry about my stuff on other forums, where I have longer history. Especially since some of them have time limits on how long you can edit your posts! At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later but at this point I'm JUST lazy enough that I don't feel a huge rush, since after all it's only $4), I'm going to kill that ImageShack account and then I'll have left behind a series of posts littered with dead links. Here, I only have to search through 300 or so posts, for images I've linked. I have other forums with thousands of posts... FWIW, Piwigo seems to be a pretty solid, free hosting platform. Fortunately I maintain a number of websites so it was no big deal to grab a cheap domain name and get Piwigo installed. Seems to be working so far! The process is a bit more manual than it was with ImageShack, but well within the tolerable range, especially considering the long term stability. The price will never go beyond the cost of an annual domain name renewal! (which I'm doing directly with my web host so it's especially cheap)

Watch those micro cracks. That's how mine split. I'd recommend taking the return edge entirely off of the outside edges of the shoulder straps. That will make the bending MUCH safer, especially it's already showing signs of stress. Further, perhaps you did it but the second step in the heat bend process is COLD water. You need it to lock the plastic into it's new shape, otherwise it tends to slowly contract to how it was before. Perhaps this is less of an issue when you really liquefy the plastic with a heat gun, but it definitely helped with mine, after the hot water bath. I wouldn't worry about the ammo pack. There is so much variation on screen that it's not even funny. You're WELL within the "normal range".

I just noticed last night that most of the photos posted on the first couple of pages of this thread were all broken links, because apparently ImageShack lost and corrupted a large chunk of my photos. ImageShack is dead to me. Technically nothing should be entirely lost, since all of those photos came from my phone or computer at some point, but their filenames are scrambled (which is fine) so I cannot always tell exactly which photo I had chosen originally. I did the best that I could to replace all of the links with links to my own server, where I'm now going to host all my photos from now on. As soon as possible, I'll be migrating everything I've ever done over to my own server, editing a couple of years of photo posts on various boards (*sigh*) to replace all of those links. This isn't going to be easy, as I can somewhat active about topics I get enthusiastic about, in case you haven't noticed. But it's worth the effort. ImageShack keeps raising their rates (now to obscene levels, believe me!) AND they lose my photos? Done. Never again. Hosting myself from now on. It's only going to get harder moving forward, so there's no time like the present...

For the thighs, the cover strips should end just shy of the ridge at the bottom.

You need to clamp it all along the cover strip. Loosen the top clamp, make sure the bottom edge (most important due to the ridge) is properly aligned and clamp, and clamp all along the way up, finishing at the top. When you to this, it will probably pull the "short" piece down a little bit from the top, so it won't align precisely. (It doesn't look like it will be off by inches, more like off by 1/2" or even considerably less) That should end up being covered by the cover strip anyway, though, so it shouldn't matter, and even if not, it's no uncommon to end up taking a little off the top anyway for fitment and comfort, so you can sand it down so it's all nice and even.

Crazy experience with that paint killer stuff. I can't believe how much damage it did to your plastic!

There's no technical rule in the CRL on gap size there. It's not like they bust out a ruler. It's simply a matter of "does it look like it's on correctly, or does it just look wrong?" GML has discretion. As Justin pointed out, I think it will balance the appearance for the better.

One of the GMLs posted on my thread on FB, and confirmed she has my submission, so fingers crossed!

Looking GOOD! I think you're really close! Drop the thighs down about 1/2" to 1" and I think you're in good shape.

"Finishing" HA! I took the Chicago screws that came for the holster and used them for the belt. Just the right length. Then I bought new stainless steel ones (Tandy) to hold to holster (since I stole 3 of the 4 aluminum ones it came with). The SS ones were a little bit longer than the aluminum ones, but in the same ballpark. I think I posted a photo of the lot of them, a few posts back. (EDIT: Yes, see Post #84 on page 5)

Submitted to 501st for approval. I don't anticipate any issues, but I guess we'll see! I definitely have plenty of work to do before I could spend multiple hours in this armor (even ignoring the current lack of cooling fans). First up is improved strapping for the thighs. I'm really starting to hate the Anovos thigh strapping. It's never convenient to hook up, no matter which side you start with! And looking at these photos, I clearly have them them a bit too low, so I need to remember to pull them higher next time. (which will also help with the thigh armor over the sniper knee issue) I also need to add more new snaps to the chest/ab connection. The new snaps helped, but they did pop out at one point, so I need some more to hold it in place. The left side of the armor clamshell is fine, since it's held by all the rivets, but the right side doesn't seem quite good enough to hold it right, although the belt make it something of a non-issue. But proper snaps, again, will help a lot. And THEN we have the rest of the to-do list. *sigh* But at least I'm finally submitted, as a start.

Snap strips accomplished! Fairly routine procedure, once the clamps came off. Reassemble the armor, and here are the new snap "plates": Find the max stretch point, just before the ab plate is going to pop out from under the chest, measure the length needed to connect the new snaps at that distance, and cut two strips of nylon webbing at that length. My handy hot nail makes the hole: ... and the snaps are installed. I took the clamps off my ammo belt (the drop boxes were being glued into place), and reassembled the full belt, with holster and all. I love that this thing goes together so easily with Chicago screws! This is it. The plastic sheeting came off! WOOHOO! No more saran wrapped armor! At that point, the last thing really is gluing the button plates onto the ab armor. They were painted days ago, and shaped weeks ago, a little glue an magnet action, and Bob's your uncle: And now, I am LITERALLY waiting for glue to dry, before I can take my admission pics. *sigh* I got bored while waiting, so looking at my belt sitting there, with the blaster inside, I decided to finally add the D-ring to my Hyperfirm, so it's good for Centurion. Not needed right now, but hey, it's something to do! At Home Depot, I had picked up some black decorative chain. (it's the kind they use for hanging lamps and stuff like that) One foot was $0.98, even though I only need one link. I guess I have a lot of spares! At least it's already painted black, so there's one less thing I need to do. Next, drill a hole through the mounting point for the chain. Then I went out to my tool bench, and got busy with the vice grip. I took one link off the chain (twisting with pliers and a screwdriver did the trick). The decorative chain was a little too oval, so I a squished it in my bench vise until it screamed... that is, until it was properly pill shaped. Next, a hacksaw made quick work of the inside bits, because this metal is way too strong to bend into place without damaging something, unless it has to bend far less. So I cut away about 3/16" from each side of the joint. After that, it was just a matter of wrestling it into place! Much less bending needed since I removed that material, and I was able to get the second side into the newly drilled hole without messing anything up. Here we go! DRY GLUE, DRY! No way I'm gonna last 24 hours. Since the only thing still going are the ab button plates, I think I'll grab some dinner, and then see if the glue is set enough for some photos. A quick photo session, and I'll be done! THEN I'll put the magnets back on so the glue can cure overnight. To be continued...