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Review of TK8776's brand new foam rubber neck seals


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I recently had the honor of getting to be the first tester of TK8776 jgarrettg's new foam rubber neck seal design. Click here to see his original post. 

 

The new neck seal arrived in the mail today and I'm glad to report it's first class. The foam rubber/ silicone stuff is extremely light weight while still being incredibly sturdy, thick and strong. They look very screen accurate because the material has a rubber look without any of the weight, heat or general discomfort of actual rubber.

 

Here's a pic of the seal as it comes, laid out flat on the table:

 

5945a9f3.jpg

 

Obviously the neck seal needs to be customized by trimming to fit your personal neck size properly. The base circumference (or length if you will) is 21" which seems like a perfect size to fit nearly all necks. You can see here how much I need to trim off mine:

 

f8457b53.jpg

 

I measured it to about 1.5" on either side that needs trimming to get it to fit. I can already feel that the silicone breathes just as easily as fabric and is so lightweight you basically can't feel you're wearing it.

Here I'm using a clip to hold it just for the sake of the photo:

 

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As you can see the ends are flat:

 

2513ea9d.jpg

 

and the idea is for you to insert some rare earth magnets after trimming to size. It should end up looking like this picture of TK8776's finished one:

 

DSCN0792.jpg

 

The rare earth magnets provide a completely seamless seal that simply clicks into place. The decision on how and whether to attach the cape portion is up to some exploration. TK8776 recently sent some pics of him trooping in his and it looks great - much more screen accurate than fabric due to it's rubber look surface. I don't want to post them here without his permission but I hope he chooses to post them because the neck seal looks great on. He has simply worn his over a higher neck undersuit, so there's not much need for a cape. It's all black on black anyway so you can't tell the difference.

 

Overall I'm extremely impressed. I'm off to get the right rare earth magnets tomorrow so once I start the building I'll get some more photos and post them up here. Stay tuned!

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Looks pretty darn sweeeeeeeeet! I would think a couple dabs of hot glue would attach the "dickie" portion with no problems. Velcro would make a severe rubbing issue on the inside and other harsher glues may melt the foam.

Let us know about a possible price and source for the magnets!!!!!

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Hey Lucas, thanks for writing this review. It will be fun to see what you do with it. I'm currently working on drape options and possibly a terrycloth liner. It doesn't really need it but it would sure add some luxury.

 

I just finished my first troop with it and it worked great. I used it without a drape since my under armor has a 1 inch collar. Snap it on and go. A little info about it, It's made of flexible Urethane foam. Here's some pics of it in action.

 

NeckSeal02.jpg

 

NeckSeal01.jpg

 

I'll be offering a run of these real soon. Perhaps a fully assembled version and a kit like Lucas is testing. Stay tuned.

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Do you have any pics to show how 'seamless' they are - preferably lid-off?

These pics are in TK8776's original thread about the seals:

 

DSCN0789.jpg

 

DSCN0791.jpg

 

You can get a good idea of the seam from these. Pretty neat huh?

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This is my first prototype. I'm still working out the details of cost and construction. I'd like to keep the price under $50. Other details I'm working out is the finish. Right now, from the picks you can see that it is pretty flat. That's because of the texture. The material has the potential to be more glossy. I'm thinking about making another master out of a different material that will be smoother and more glossy.

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DSCN0791.jpg

 

WOW sure beat the zipper i have in mine!!!!!!!

 

and i was impressed with the size of the rare earth magnets, thous were tiny!!!!!

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