Finally... > Creative Projects
Girlinhat: Proficient Metal Crafter
forsaken1111:
--- Quote from: Farmerbob on April 30, 2012, 07:55:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: Shinotsa on April 29, 2012, 01:59:00 pm ---<snip a lot>
Anyhow, has anyone else actually gone through with projects and found some practical uses for their work? Besides making money of course.
--- End quote ---
Blasphemy! Lol. Practical uses defy the will of !science!
If I lived 500 years ago the chain I was building would be good for armor. It stopped modern arrows in a 60 lb bow at 20 feet, it would likely stop or deflect anything but a direct hit from a musket or english longbow or crossbow. Of course, 500 years ago, getting 5/16" lockwashers would not have been very possible. I could see some very niche uses for heavy chain though - for working in the crabbing / fishing / butchering industries, but they typically use heavy wire weave or cut/pierce resistant nonmetallics - not heavy chain.
--- End quote ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(armour)#Modern_uses
Farmerbob:
--- Quote from: forsaken1111 on April 30, 2012, 08:36:40 pm ---
--- Quote from: Farmerbob on April 30, 2012, 07:55:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: Shinotsa on April 29, 2012, 01:59:00 pm ---<snip a lot>
Anyhow, has anyone else actually gone through with projects and found some practical uses for their work? Besides making money of course.
--- End quote ---
Blasphemy! Lol. Practical uses defy the will of !science!
If I lived 500 years ago the chain I was building would be good for armor. It stopped modern arrows in a 60 lb bow at 20 feet, it would likely stop or deflect anything but a direct hit from a musket or english longbow or crossbow. Of course, 500 years ago, getting 5/16" lockwashers would not have been very possible. I could see some very niche uses for heavy chain though - for working in the crabbing / fishing / butchering industries, but they typically use heavy wire weave or cut/pierce resistant nonmetallics - not heavy chain.
--- End quote ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(armour)#Modern_uses
--- End quote ---
Cool, I thought those industries had moved on to wire weaves and synthetics instead of chain. I guess not.
Girlinhat:
If it's not broke don't fix it. Chainmail works for those industries, and it'll keep being used because it's cheap and easy, compared to polymers and fancy whatnots.
So far the only practical use I've found is to tease the shit out of my cat. She has a fit over chainmail. Anywhere it is, she roots about until she finds it like some mutant chainmail-mole, or some type of truffle-seeking pig, and then she throws it through the entire house until she loses it or gets bored, and if she still has it she'll "bury" it under the carpet or under the bed. I use baby food jars to hold my rings, and if I step away she's always there holding the piece of work in her mouth and trying to fish inside the jars with her paw. It's adorable but utterly disruptive.
Although I've been thinking about "climbing gloves". There's this one tree in the back yard that I keep trimming on, but unfortunately many of the trimming points are high up. It's a big "bush tree" in that it doesn't have a central trunk, but instead sprouts out like a 40 foot tall bush. I have to climb up it a bit to get at the base of low-hanging branches and get them there. I was thinking of making a pair of "gloves" that would work for that, namely with some stainless done in two sheets, about 1.5" wide and 5-6" long. They'd then be joined halfway along, so there'd be a 2.5"x3" flat segment, and then two side-by-side 2.5"x1.5" thin sections. A small band would go around the solid end. This would effectively make a solid cover for the palm, and then have two finger-covers, so it would act sort of like an awkward mitten that only covered the inside of the hand. If I needed I could slip the finger covers off to do whatever I needed to do, or could slip them on so that I wouldn't scrape up my hand while climbing. I've just been debating the weave and size needed for this, because it needs a lot of friction to work and I'd like for the chain to "bite into" the tree. This would probably need large rings of a high AR, so they'd have room to flex a bit and more rings could angle sharply and dig into the bark. If the weave was too tight then it would just form a sort of cloth and wouldn't grip very tightly.
Also a waterbottle holder. I go walking a lot, what with having no car and all, and usually carry water in my purse. But I'd like to make a sort of "bag" shape to hang off the purse and put a water bottle into so that I don't have to reach all the way into the purse, or I could wear it on my belt when cutting grass or something.
silverskull39:
cellphone pouch/holder, although you might want to put cloth on the inside so you don't scratch the shit out of your phone :P
You could also use it to make a sort of plant holder; take a potted plant, make a sheet that fits the pot, and make chains and a hook to hang it from the ceiling or something.
I'd like to make a chain door, kinda like those bead doors, and use a whole bunch of different chain lengths, weaves, etc. and hang it from a door frame.
You could also conceivably use full Persian as rope, if you wanted
Farmerbob:
--- Quote from: Girlinhat on May 03, 2012, 09:58:05 am ---If it's not broke don't fix it. Chainmail works for those industries, and it'll keep being used because it's cheap and easy, compared to polymers and fancy whatnots.
So far the only practical use I've found is to tease the shit out of my cat. She has a fit over chainmail. Anywhere it is, she roots about until she finds it like some mutant chainmail-mole, or some type of truffle-seeking pig, and then she throws it through the entire house until she loses it or gets bored, and if she still has it she'll "bury" it under the carpet or under the bed. I use baby food jars to hold my rings, and if I step away she's always there holding the piece of work in her mouth and trying to fish inside the jars with her paw. It's adorable but utterly disruptive.
Although I've been thinking about "climbing gloves". There's this one tree in the back yard that I keep trimming on, but unfortunately many of the trimming points are high up. It's a big "bush tree" in that it doesn't have a central trunk, but instead sprouts out like a 40 foot tall bush. I have to climb up it a bit to get at the base of low-hanging branches and get them there. I was thinking of making a pair of "gloves" that would work for that, namely with some stainless done in two sheets, about 1.5" wide and 5-6" long. They'd then be joined halfway along, so there'd be a 2.5"x3" flat segment, and then two side-by-side 2.5"x1.5" thin sections. A small band would go around the solid end. This would effectively make a solid cover for the palm, and then have two finger-covers, so it would act sort of like an awkward mitten that only covered the inside of the hand. If I needed I could slip the finger covers off to do whatever I needed to do, or could slip them on so that I wouldn't scrape up my hand while climbing. I've just been debating the weave and size needed for this, because it needs a lot of friction to work and I'd like for the chain to "bite into" the tree. This would probably need large rings of a high AR, so they'd have room to flex a bit and more rings could angle sharply and dig into the bark. If the weave was too tight then it would just form a sort of cloth and wouldn't grip very tightly.
Also a waterbottle holder. I go walking a lot, what with having no car and all, and usually carry water in my purse. But I'd like to make a sort of "bag" shape to hang off the purse and put a water bottle into so that I don't have to reach all the way into the purse, or I could wear it on my belt when cutting grass or something.
--- End quote ---
While I whole-heartedly approve of !science! in DF and even to some extent in real life, I also have a penchant for trying to use the right tool for the job. Rather than climbing around in a tree that you are trying to prune, you should really get one of the long handled pruners. You can get one that will let you reach 20 feet up into a tree for about $50 bucks brand new. Not a long saw, a rope-actuated pruner.
If you have neighbors with trees that need pruning, you could buy the pruner for your tree, then charge your neighbors a few bucks per tree to prune their too, and end up making your purchase make you money rather than costing you money.
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