Steel MK 7 Armour

[Carraman01]

Hi, first time posting, have been building an Mk vii suit from 1.6 mm thick steel the last 6 months or so, has been very tedious work, was wondering if anyone else has attempted an mk7 or any other steel Spartan suits? Everything has been hand cut, beat, and welded for anyone wondering

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Welcome to the 405th and nice job so far! Off the top of my head I know KragAxe and Coreforge have both started making steel (or some sort of metal) suits.

How does it feel to wear, or are you waiting to put padding in before trying it on?

 

[Carraman01]

Welcome to the 405th and nice job so far! Off the top of my head I know KragAxe and Coreforge have both started making steel (or some sort of metal) suits.

How does it feel to wear, or are you waiting to put padding in before trying it on?

Thank you!
Neat! Will have to check those out

Still waiting on padding, there's more I need to weld to the helmet first, but so far it's pretty heavy haha

 

[KragAxe]

Yeah, I'm in a "holding pattern". Since moving a year and a half ago I still haven't got set back up to work on armor type projects. Now our company just got merged/bought and all Fall has been hectic.

But....as I type this, I'm actually sorting boxes of crap in the house while on vacation so I can move things in from the garage, so I can set my fun stuff back up!

.063"/1.6mm is pretty stout. I use that on my actual medieval combat helm tops, then drop to the 0.050-0.057 ( ~1.4-1.5mm) for the sides.

I'm doing primarily 0.040" aluminum on all the body parts with a few parts milled from thicker stock and a couple small pieces from Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Aluminum parts get smooth compound curves and tight simple bends. The helmet is being done from 0.050" 4130 steel and will be heat treated. Steel is actually easier than aluminum to do complex hot forming....and the 4130 steel is very easy to heat treat to a tough spring hardness. I may even drop to 0.032" on some of it. The slightly thicker is easier to move for complex curves/bends with heat than the thinner, though. Once you drop below .040, it starts to wrinkle really easy.

 

[Carraman01]

Yeah, I'm in a "holding pattern". Since moving a year and a half ago I still haven't got set back up to work on armor type projects. Now our company just got merged/bought and all Fall has been hectic.

But....as I type this, I'm actually sorting boxes of crap in the house while on vacation so I can move things in from the garage, so I can set my fun stuff back up!

.063"/1.6mm is pretty stout. I use that on my actual medieval combat helm tops, then drop to the 0.050-0.057 ( ~1.4-1.5mm) for the sides.

I'm doing primarily 0.040" aluminum on all the body parts with a few parts milled from thicker stock and a couple small pieces from Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Aluminum parts get smooth compound curves and tight simple bends. The helmet is being done from 0.050" 4130 steel and will be heat treated. Steel is actually easier than aluminum to do complex hot forming....and the 4130 steel is very easy to heat treat to a tough spring hardness. I may even drop to 0.032" on some of it. The slightly thicker is easier to move for complex curves/bends with heat than the thinner, though. Once you drop below .040, it starts to wrinkle really easy.

Yeah I can imagine how hectic that'd be, December is such a busy time of year as is, I'm pretty on/off with the crafting process, especially as it gets pretty hot here in Aus

I've been hoping to be able to harden all of the armour once I'm finished, as I've tried my best to make sure I've used full penetration to merge all pieces together properly.
But have been doing a lot of research lately, about how you cannot harden mild steel as that's what I'm working with
Most of the bends and work in my armour has been cold beat as I don't really have access to a furnace or anything other than a blowtorch.

I've had a lot of fun working with steel, very fun to mould and satisfying to piece together, even if it ways a sh*tload

 

[Rock Lobbster]

Holy cow that's gorgeous! Even if it's a bit too heavy to actually wear that would make for a fantastic display piece

 

[KragAxe]

Yeah I can imagine how hectic that'd be, December is such a busy time of year as is, I'm pretty on/off with the crafting process, especially as it gets pretty hot here in Aus

I've been hoping to be able to harden all of the armour once I'm finished, as I've tried my best to make sure I've used full penetration to merge all pieces together properly.
But have been doing a lot of research lately, about how you cannot harden mild steel as that's what I'm working with
Most of the bends and work in my armour has been cold beat as I don't really have access to a furnace or anything other than a blowtorch.

I've had a lot of fun working with steel, very fun to mould and satisfying to piece together, even if it ways a sh*tload

1.6mm mild steel will be pretty dent resistant without worrying about heat treating. We use that for top sections of our medieval combat helms. Using heat treatable steel such as 1050, 4130, 1095, etc allows you to use much thinner steel for the same strength. I'm going to try and form the entire top half of my Mk Vb out of a single piece....we'll see how that goes! Lots of intricate lines and small details, but I have a crapload of steel forming stakes. Whether or not I remember how to use them after 20 years remains to be seen!

You're off to a great start. Nice symmetry and clean welds! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

 

[Carraman01]

Holy cow that's gorgeous! Even if it's a bit too heavy to actually wear that would make for a fantastic display piece

Thank you! Although it'll be heavy, I've built the helmet and suit to by completely wearable, might need to beef up abit to wear it though lol

 

[Carraman01]

1.6mm mild steel will be pretty dent resistant without worrying about heat treating. We use that for top sections of our medieval combat helms. Using heat treatable steel such as 1050, 4130, 1095, etc allows you to use much thinner steel for the same strength. I'm going to try and form the entire top half of my Mk Vb out of a single piece....we'll see how that goes! Lots of intricate lines and small details, but I have a crapload of steel forming stakes. Whether or not I remember how to use them after 20 years remains to be seen!

You're off to a great start. Nice symmetry and clean welds! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

That'd be fantastic! Before I started the mk7, I was actually going to give the Vb a shot, maybe that'll be the next project.
Been meaning to get some of those forming stakes, have seen a lot of videos of people showing how handy they can be

Thanks for all the info mate! Super interesting stuff, I'll be sure to post the progression on how it all turns out!

 

[KragAxe]

Are you using MIG or TIG for your stuff?

I finally pulled my new TIG welder out of the box and fired it up. It's been almost 35 years since I last struck a TIG arc. Based on my practice welds, I'm going to need more practice before I go anywhere near my actual parts......a LOT more practice!

If you're doing TIG, are you finding it easier to weld from inside corners/angle-joints and rely on penetration to fill seam, or are you just laying bead from outside and grinding to clean up?