Personal Touches: Forearms and Shins

I'm out of town for a week, but I did some work over the weekend on the armor, despite the armor party I was to attend being postponed a week due to inclement weather.

First, I decided to add the H&L tape to the back shin closures, since the shins are (thankfully) pretty much done. I had to wait until the kids went to bed, but the night was still young...

I love this clock.

The easiest way to measure the tape was to use the rear cover strip as a guide. Not only did I measure strip length, but also width.

Turns out that you only need half the width of the strip, so I was basically able to cut one length of tape for both the hook and loop sides, and then cut those lengths in half lengthwise down the center. Before that, though, I used the hook side to measure an equal length of loop side tape.

When finished, I had four lengths of half-width tape for use on both shins.

Attaching the tape was relatively easy, ensuring that the surfaces were clean first using spray cleaner and a paper towel. I started from the top and placed the tape with one hand while keeping it straight with the other.

The H&L system works pretty well for a basic closure. I may replace it with the bra hook system later, but for now it will do for getting me started :)

After the tape was in place, I used the Dremel sanding drum to fix the curves at the slightly offset bottom pieces of the shins. when the cover strip also needed adjustment, I pulled the end up ever so slightly to insert a putty knife, so that I could bevel the edges using the putty knife to guard the rest of the shin.

In prep for fitting, I also adjusted the neck of the chest piece to round the corners to keep the armor from poking me, and to keep it from digging into my neck.

In addition, after a discussion with UKSWrath about the forearm length interfering with my mobility, I decided to trim the end off my forearms a fraction of an inch. To do this, I used tape to mimic the contour of the existing forearm edge, then used the Dremel cutting disk to remove the edge. I had trepidation at first, but after noting the results, decided it was the right decision.

On Saturday night, I was trying on my TK Boots with my shin armor. TK Boots recommends the you line the bottom and edge of the shins with felt or soft material to reduce the amount of scuffing. I thought this was a capital idea, and gathered some spare white felt to line the inside of my shin pieces.

After taping in the felt and trying it out, I was decided. I removed the felt and tape, scuffed the inside of the shin pieces, applied E6000, placed the felt, and applied clamps & magnets. I left a little overage at the bottom of the shins so that I could later wrap a very slight amount over the edge to glue in place, then trim off the overhang.

I actually brought something for me to work on in regards to the armor while I'm on my business trip (after hours, of course), so I may have another update this week, before the armor party on Sunday. Until then...