Functional Leather Ammo Belt Progress

After some internal debate over accuracy vs. functionality, I decided to try and make a functional leather ammo belt. First, I chose leather over vinyl because, just like my aluminum armor, leather just "feels" better to me. Secondly, I like the idea of having working components on my suit (ie. chest lights, range finder led & servo, voice amp, etc.). Ammo pouches that actually open will just be another functioning part of the suit. And while I am all for screen accuracy, and I am trying to get close, I know I will never get every detail just right, so I wanted to get some of my own personality into my suit.

With all of that said, I started with the search engine and gathered all of the various sizes for the ammo pouches. I still could not find a deffintive answer, so used TK409's template as my primary reference. Thanks Chris.

For a base I bought a 1-3/4" x 1-3/4" x 3' long aluminum square tube, and cut it to the approximate size of the wood block on TK409's site. I took an extra 1/8" off of the height to account for the piece of sintra that I would glue on the bottom of the block. Once the glue dried, I sanded the sintra to the size of the tube, and prepared the aluminum for the leather.

Can you send me 8 of those please??

Nice base. Personally, I like the idea of a functioning pouch as well.

I have leather pouches as well but they don't open. I just like the added "real feel" that the real leather gives you.

Originally Posted by webchief

I have leather pouches as well but they don't open. I just like the added "real feel" that the real leather gives you.

...And they stand up to a lot of wear and tear as well. Some of my shoddy armor I had at the beginning dug in and sliced on my pouches. If they had been vinyl, I'm certain they would've worn through.

Awesome idea on the pouches, makes me wanna redo mine.

looks good!! nice idea, using the tube... hmmmm... gonna find my own way soon with this item, as I'm totally revising my Fett, and am now using a Jango ammo-belt.


Im all for screen accuracy aswell.. but being 17 I don't have a big enough wallet in most cases. I'm gonna work on a home made ammo-belt soon aswell, but I'll use vinyl... because of finincial reasons that is... well, we'll see... I can do a few tricks with paint, so it'll look nice I'm sure of that...

This is a great idea!

Have you tried to uphoslster one of the tube pieces yet? I'm curious if the flap on top will dent in where the opening of the tube is.

Also, what did you use to cut the tube? Very nice looking cut.

Originally Posted by Spideyfett

Can you send me 8 of those please??

As soon as I can get you to paint my bucket.

Originally Posted by Christo Fett

Have you tried to uphoslster one of the tube pieces yet? I'm curious if the flap on top will dent in where the opening of the tube is.

Also, what did you use to cut the tube? Very nice looking cut.

I have not made the flaps yet, but I think the leather is thick enough not to sag into the opening of the tube. I will keep you posted.

I cut the tube with a floor mounted band saw, with at metal cutting blade. I then used a floor mounted 18" disk sander, to smooth the edges and even out the cuts. Lastly, I finished off the edges with a sanding drum on my Dremel. I have access to an industrial metal shop at work. One of the small perks for working in the auto industry.

Gator

Over the last few days I was able to make the pattern for the leather pouch. I followed the same method that TK409 outlines on his site. However, since the top of the tube is open, I had to modify the template slightly to accomidate the pouch opening.

In the second pic you can see that the leather at the tube opening wraps around and into the pouch, rather than just over the top of a wodden block. The top flap will end up being seperate, and wrap around from the front to the back and over the top of the pouch. Again, similar to TK409's pouches. The last pic shows the height of the pouch, without the flap.

Gator

wha that's awesome!!! and REAL leather... great job man! but are you gonna dye them a little to make them darker? it looks a little pale...

Very clever idea .. That sure is a nice clean cut too


Mike

Looking great! I wanna know how much this all leather and steel belt weighs when you're done. But more important than that, I want to know what you are going to keep in all of those pouches, tic-tacs? marbles? the Schwartz?

very nice.

Originally Posted by Christo Fett

the Schwartz?

Thanks for the support guys. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I was on vacation for a couple of weeks, and then it took me a week or so to get back into things.

Anyway ... I finished attaching the leather to the 8 pouches, and have started on the flaps and the belt. Before I go any further, I made a sample piece and tested out the dye.

I am looking for some feedback on the color and the stitching. The top row of stitching got screwed up when I tried to use the foot pedel on my sewing maching. I did the lower row by hand, using the wheel on the side of the maching and turing the wheel one stitch at a time. What do you all think?

Gator

The lower is defnitely much better. Those are looking sweet!

Hand stitching is superior to a machine, always has been always will, it takes ALOT longer but it looks so much better. That being said, the original belt isnt near perfect, that might be to good!

Looks like you're in the home stretch. The dye color looks nice to me, not sure if it's screen accurate (I'm no expert), but it looks sharp!

Bottom looks great and I like the color.

Have you tried using a Teflon presser foot when doing the stitching? I don't know if it'll help for leather, but it was great for vinyl:

Originally Posted by batninja

Have you tried using a Teflon presser foot when doing the stitching?

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try tonight.

One pouch done ... 7 to go. The flap is not glued on yet, so if you think I should change something on the flap, let me know.

Gator

lookin good so far

I finished the pouches and started working on the belt.

To make the pouches functional I had to think up a way to support the pouch on the belt. On a non-functional pouch, the flap of the pouch wraps around the belt, and is glued to the top of the pouch block. However, since I have a functional flap, if I only wrapped the flap around the belt and closed the flap with velcro, every time I would open a pouch, it could fall off the belt.

What I decided to do, was glue a piece of 1-1/4" wide belt strap to the inside of the pouch, then wrap the strap around the back side of the pouch. I then glued the other end of the strap to the inside of the pouch flap, behind the belt. This strap will hold the pouch on the belt when the flap is open.

The first two pictures show the pouch support construction, and the third picture shows the start of the belt.

Gator

Why didnt you just use a rivet? anyways that looks awesome!

Originally Posted by cal196

Why didnt you just use a rivet? anyways that looks awesome!

If you mean rivet the pouch to the leather belt, I wanted the pouches to move on the belt and not be locked into one position. If you mean rivet the black belt strap to the leather flap, I guess I did not think of that option.

Thanks for the complement.
Gator

Oh no, I meant right above it. Your way is better now that I look at it.

great job ! congratulation !

After working on the belt all night, I now have a completed functional leather ammo belt. To tell you the truth I am not totally happy with the gromets on the belt, but they will have to do for now. I have three more major components to finish before Halloween, and I need to get started ASAP.

Here are the pics.
Gator

That is awesome! Great work man! I love the fact that its real leather... adds to the realism of the suit.

Looks great! How is the weight of the belt?

Wow that is an amazing job!!! Great Work.

Fantastic!!! Really good work there.

That really came out looking great! Nice job!

great!!!!!! I don´t know why you are not totally happy with it!!!!!!!!!!! it a great job, and also functional...................

Thanks for the support guys. :o

I put together a few templates for the ammo pouches if any one is interested.

Gator

That is really, really nice! I love everything about it! I didn't even know that the belt was suposed to have gromets. I learn something new everyday here. Does the ESB belt have gromets too?

fantastic!!! really awesome!!!

congratulation !

Awsome job on the belt.
You make it look easy.

Thanks for sharing the templates.

Wow, inspiring, it's off to the hardware store I go!