I am attempting to make the armor as thin as possible, but curving it by anymore than a small amount is improbable with the given tools and time.

The best way to achieve a bending effect or mobility enhancement will be to layer the armor in a scale fashion.

I assumed it would be applied to flat things like a ballistic plate like those found inside of bullet-proof vests... or a shield.

I had intended to use expanded screen in between the layers with a heavy industrial adhesive to hold it all together. The screen is flexible and should allow the scales to realign around a curved surface. as long as it's not to sudden. The adhesive should fill in any minor voids

Artisteroi -- that sounds like you could make curved shoulder plates, side plates, etc...

Bearman, that would maybe be the easiest way to make a basic vest with just front and back plates. Those are useful.

right. should be able to make a curve as long as the radius isnt to tight. Looks like the minumum radius is about 5.5 inches using the 1" scales. I can make smaller scales in order to hit a tighter radius. Just a matter of working out the ratios

I picked up some lexan on Saturday. I should be able to build a few samples this coming weekend (maybe). I'll get some pics up of before and after if I can get time to go shoot em.

Awesome. I look forward to seeing the results.

Back on track with Plate production now.

I have a friend who works at a local manufactureing company, who is cutting the hex plates for a case of beer.

When I reach the later stages of suit construction, I can use the manufactureing house.

Downside is, even if you provide all your materials and designs, shop time is 75 bucks a hour.

Then again, this is a machine shop that can do it all, from building conveyor belt systems from scratch, to making any type of automation.

Hex pieces will be cut in 2-3 days.

If it is taking that much money to make samples, what would be your cost estimate on an armor suit based on that tech if it pans out? I suspect the price tag could make Citizen Prime choke...

4000 bucks is going to be easy to surpass, I suspect.

Hmm. Maybe basic (non-hex) plates might be in order. The point is to be cheaper than regular armor, right?

For me personally the point is also to emulate sports armor... but I don't have a $4000 budget. Maybe I need to take a reality show offer.

:/

I'm trying to keep the shop build under $2K, but I'll have to see if I can stick to the plan of as much scavenged material and hacked machinery as possible.

I'm sure the price can be kept well under that. If my design works (start building this weekend) the cost would be around 200 for a vest, 600 for a full suit. The difference being is I have no machine costs. The work may not be as precise but will definately be cheaper

OH wait, I thought you were talking about 4000+ for MY suit.

No, a vest of this stuff will be considerably cheaper. The only thing I really need their shop is to cut the hex stock, everything else I can do on my own. Thankfully, If I bring them a set of things that just needs to be cut, they will throw a set price at me for it.

Shop time only comes into effect if I actually need to have something built.

Now, this guy is pretty awesome to be using his spare time to do this for me, and I have been contemplating getting him in on the project. It could lessen expenses and really speed construction up.

Artisteroi, I was just thinking of a vest, but what would the overall concept and weight be for a full suit? Could you realistically continue with the concept of making it look like sports armor? (shin guards, elbow pads, etc)? I think at some point it might begin to strain credibility.

I'm thinking it will look like sports armor like tron looked like sports armor. Heheh
But seriously. My idea is to make the ballistic armor useful and then overlay the sports armor on top of it as a sort of camoflauge.

I understand your desire for it to look like sports gear as a sort of "this guy doesnt look so tough" distraction. I think the actual armor will look very awesome when completed. Think of dragon scales. But if you want to hide it under sports armor that should be rather easy to do.

Actually I'm all for looking cool. I just mainly don't want my appearance to scream to cops "hey, you'd better find out why this guy's so heavily armored right away...!"



As for concealment, I was also thinking of those bright lightweight jackets bicyclists wear... not the most superheroic thing out there, though.

so you are trying to look non-chalant in front of the cops. How would one go about looking chalant I wonder.

We could put the armor under the costume so it doesnt show at all. Then you could go full spandex