Hey, I'm just curious to anyone who's got gauntlets, how to you attach the two pieces? Do you put them together permanently and just slide your hand through, or somehow take them apart and put them on over your wrist?
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Hey, I'm just curious to anyone who's got gauntlets, how to you attach the two pieces? Do you put them together permanently and just slide your hand through, or somehow take them apart and put them on over your wrist?
People told me to use two part epoxy and join the outside seams. This leaves the insides to open like clam shells enough for your arm to slide through. You velcro this inside seam.
For strength, I riveted one side of the gauntlets together (the outside--all of the accessories on the outside hid the rivets) and used velcro for the inside. This way it is strong, but flexible enough to bend a little for me to get my hand through. I like the velcro because it allows me to adjust the tightness of the gautlets a little bit (I wanted them really tight to keep them from sliding around).
I bolted the outside halves together and then covered those bolts with the outside attachments. They are completely hidden. The inside halves are attached with velcro. It's really secure and comfortable and... they don't twist.
I am about to begin construction on my armor and would appreciate some advice. How do you put the two halves of the gauntlets together (adhesive?) so that you can easily slide your hand and arm into it without it falling apart? Also, what type of putty or filler should I use to fill in the gaps. Should I paint the pieces first?
I appreciate all of your help. I have wanted a Boba outfit since I first saw ESP. Now at 35, It will finally be realized. I don't wanna screw this up.
Thanks!
I would try to fill first. Usually after a coat of primer I see parts that need more filling. If you paint first sometimes the filler won't hold as well. I don't know a really good way to hold the two halves together, however I know you can get industrial velcro at home depot in about 2in wide strips.My gauntlets are fiberglass so I have a different method to hold them together.
The real gauntlets appear to clamshell together. The outside edges are glued and the inside edges are left open but have velcro to hold them together. This relies on the plastics ability to stretch and bend a bit to get your arm through so if you have massive forarms this might not be the way you want to go.
I just got mine too.I am going to use a CA glue for the outer seam,and then use a swatch of ABS on the inside of the seam,and epoxy it all along the seam for a permanent bond.I am going to do the original method of using velcro on the inner part of the clamshell.I would paint them after they are completely assembled.
Steve
You know, I was checking out the Jango gauntlets at Ce2 and noticed they were HINGED all the way across. I've seen similar hinges at Lowes.
The are hinged on the fronts and probably velcroed in the rear
I was thinking about the hinges myself. The long thin hinges, like for a storm door, right?
They look like piano hinges & come in all kinds of sizes. These would be excellent provided the right adhesive was used to glue them to the armor.
My gauntlets are glued together as one piece. My forearms are skinny enough to slide my arms in without having to clamshell them open. I glued an extra piece of plastic along the seams from the inside like a lot of others have done. The outside seam was puttied.
I have a piece of industrial strength velcro stuck right inside the wrist area on both sides of the wrist on each gauntlet. I have velcro sewn on the outside wrists of my gloves, so they connect and the gauntlet will turn with my wrist. I have some foam strategically taped inside each arm so the gauntlets remain tight against my foreams.
do the seems on the gauntlets meet or do they overlap???
I believe the seems meet. There are two options I know of for non-permanent attachment. The first and easiest is to use weathering adhesive. Some really really strong stuff. Simply put the halves together and tape the inside. The strong bond will keep it together. The second, my favorite, but difficult to describe is to use velcro. At wal-mart in the arts/crafts section you can find adhesive backed velcro (get that) and some sew on velcro (get that too).
Velcro operates as a Hook and Loop. The scratchy side is Hook, the soft is Loop. What you do is place four lengths of Hook to one Gauntlet, two lengths for each half, one on each inner seam. All Hook. These pieces should be cut in half LONGWAYS, to make them narrower. Then using the sew-on velcro (this piece will be Loop) (convenient because there's no messy adhesive back to stick to your flightsuit/arm) simply do the same as with the above-mentioned weathering tape option. The Loop piece (that is not cut in half longways will be wide enough to cover the entire inner velcro seam because of course, those are each half as wide :)
Please let me know if this isn't clear, it's hard to describe.
Phil
i too was stu,mped when i got my guantlets. My arms were slightly more muscular to fit in the comvetional clamshell idea. So while i pondered the idea over lunch at fatburger it hit me The fat cup would accomodate my forearm. So after trimming the opening, using bondo to fill in the gaps and painting it works very well
TR3171
Im going to be getting some MB Gauntlets soon and I think this is how I'm gonna do it. I figure that with the outer pieces on there over the seem, the flame thrower and hose attachment, that I dont want to be bending them too much, so I'm going to permanently attach the outter edges and on the opposite sides Im going to glue a large piece of elastic so they hold together tight, but also spearate slightly so I can slide into them. Just an idea.
OK GUYS .these are all good ideas for attaching your gauntlets.Let me tell you how i made my aluminum gauntlets.
My gauntlets come apart in two halves top and bottom and
they connect flush to each other.I used hinges for the front
and back parts .The hinges were attached by a wonderful adhesive called ''SEAL ALL'' it works great with sintra or metal.If anyone of you guys want to attach the gauntlets i
recommened you guys use hinges they are concealed in the
gauntlets . Soon i shall post pics again of my gauntlets
and you guys will see how comfortable and snuggly they fit
with the hinges concealed.
I just added the Stanley hinges for some Jango style closures. I'm going to leave the pins in, and clode them on the outside with either velcro, or maybe some kind of magnet. It's off to Home DePot for more Fett adventures of the expensive kind! Enjoy
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...gaunthinge.jpg
I like the hinge work. Im going to have to see if I can rig something like that.
My wife is the same way. What did you buy for that costume while I was gone? Or something just arrived in the mail, what part of the costume where you missing now? Thank God they love us.
Muchos Gracias, Mi Amigos! The hinge was suprisingly easy. The left hinge is 5" and the right is 6 1/2". I had to cut out the edges where the hinge sits so they wouldn't have a gap. A little epoxy and clamping, and you're done. My girlfriend is very understanding. Ever since we met I was into this, and she thinks it's pretty cool. Now to get her to a con!:rolleyes I got off easy @ the DePot. Only $14 for more fiberglass cloth, epoxy, and MEK peroxide. :)
How did you clamp the hinges down when the edge of the gauntlets are rounded? I have some small brass hobby hinges that I also got from home depot but haven't gone and done anything with them because I have no idea how to keep them clamped tight to the gauntlet.
Please share! :?
I used two 2" C clamps. I glued and clamped only one side at a time, and the clamps are big enough to hold down the edges of the hinge from the end of the gauntlets. I used my dremel to smooth out the inside where the hinge goes, it's flat enough to glue the 1/2" side tab. Here's a pic :thumbsup
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...hingeclamp.jpg
Thanks for the tip!
I was going to pull my hair out before too long figuring out how to do that.
:)
Hey Malc, your Jango's looking pretty fly!8) I made a discovery at my local Hobby Lobby, they carry magnets!! I bought two set of 10 magnets for $6 yesterday and glued them into my gauntlets. They are quite strong and make taking them on and off a breeze. I have to fling my arm around very hard to make them fail, so this will be my new closure system! I just need some foam to make them snug.
Here they are opened.
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...ftmagnetts.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...ghtmagnets.jpg
And on me.
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday.../wearinset.jpg
I love the magnet idea. Nice work!
I'm glad I've been holding off on making gauntlets....sometimes procrastination does pay off :)
GG
Hey, my thread came back from the dead!:cheering Thank you all for the very nice comments!:o That makes all the hard work worth it when you guys like what I've done. I've been on the board very little this last week, I've been casting all my little greeblies for the gauntlets: darts, nozzles, and both hose fittings, I'll post pics when I'm satisfied. The hinge was from Home DePot, I got the 24" but they come in all sizes and you only really need a foot. I ended up adding more magnets to make sure that they won't come off. Instead of 10 per gaunt, I now have 14! :thumbsup Plus I added a coat fiberglass resin over the magnets, and the hinges!:thumbsup :thumbsup I've masked everything off for painting, but its been raining since Saturday here in TX :( Hopefully I can get it done this week, I don't want to rush it right before 10/31. Please PM for any info on these babies!
I'm back in town and catching up on all my painting/ finishing for my gauntlets. I'll post more pics when I can get my gilrfriend to take some of me suited up. Everything except the left gaunt rocket/expander/calc pad is an original of mine. The hardest parts to make were the 4 darts. I made an original out of a nail and a pointed barbell that is used for piercings. The right hose fittings are resin casts from brass pipe fittings, and the laser tip original was sculptey. For the flame box nozzles, I used nylon spacers from Home DePot cast in resin. I'm still amazed at how well they came out. They started out as cans of RTV, gelcoat, fiberglass, and spray paint, and look at them now! Hope y'all like 'em!:D
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...left%20top.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...t%20inside.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...%20outside.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...eft%20open.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...ight%20top.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...t%20inside.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...%20outside.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mojoday...ght%20open.jpg
PM for any more info.
I just wanted to post the results of two nights out Fetting in the harshest of conditions with my magnet closure on my gauntlets.
The right gaunt worked very well. I have the three hoses duct taped to one end of a luggage clip, and the other end is sewn up my sleeve. The bottom hose connector was screwed and GOOPed onto the bottom clam shell, and I think that kept it from opening too much. Whenever it did open, all I had to do was move my arm around and it would snap back shut.
The left was not so good. Since I was going for true ROTJ, I don't have any hoses on my left. I can't remember how many times that popped open. :? About 5 or 6 different times I had to catch it from falling off. That's not too easy when your holding a blaster! My girlfriend save my :moon quite a few times.
I'm going to leave the right alone. I really like the easy in/out that the magnets give you. I even took my arm out a few times just to check my watch, it takes 30 seconds! I'll have to add velcro to the left to make sure that it won't fall off. More or stronger magnets might work, but I don't know if I trust it that much.
I'll post pics of my luggage clip soon!
Cool! Glad to hear the magnet closures worked well. I was thinking of you when I was finishing up my gauntlets, and just couldn't get the dang magnets to hold securely. Need stronger ones...!
Nice idea on the luggage clip!! My hoses keep coming out of my sleeve, looking forward to seeing what you've done!
take care,
-Rex
The magnets I purchased for my getup also have steel cups that you can purchase seperately that will increase the magnets strength by a factor of 4. Apparently backing with a steel washer will achieve the same result although I have yet to try this. Something worth looking at if your magnets just aren't strong enough.
I seen somewhere on TDH where people were talking about "special" earth magnets that are extremely stong and small. Anyone else remember this. I think they might work good for gauntlets
:fettrotj
I can't vouch for the ESB suit, but the RotJ suit used velcro along the insides of the gauntlets (towards the body) to close them. It appears as if the outsides (away from the body) were probably glued into place (translation: no hinges). This is known as the "clamshell" method. You can see the velcro in this pic. Heck, they didn't even close it all the way. :rolleyes
http://200.72.163.179:8080/cdref/010...a_Fett_172.jpg
Now Jango's gauntlets DID use the hinges. This was verified by whojedi who assembled the display at Celebration II.
Hey I actually used punch tin as an inner lining that I connected with hinges. Then, I riveted the tin to the gauntlets and the rivets are completely hidden. I am using industrial velcro that I riveted to the bottom (inner most) half so I can open them to get my fat hand in the gauntlet. I added some low density foam to the inside for a snug fit and comfort. PM me and I'll send a couple of pics on how they look, if you want.
I'm think I'n gonna do the piano hinge, magnet thing, sounds like an awesome idea.
I used the Ol' Clamshell method. Pop rivets and Goop on the outsides and industrial strength Velcro on the insides and it works fine. :-D