Today I want to show you a great
technique for making really cool costume
bracers that are bendable and flexible
like this, which is super cool because
that means you don't necessarily need
buckles on the inside or to use expensive thermoplastics
to get something that'll hold its shape and the
great thing is it's a lot more adaptable
that way because, say for this one, this
one is actually bigger than it should be
for my arm but I can overlap those edges,
jam my arm in there and it still works,
right. Like it's overlapped but it still
works. I can still fight evil just as
easily. But then, say I'm done fighting
evil in the summer and I want to fight
evil in the winter and I have to wear
maybe a jacket, then I can just slap on
my jacket. I don't need to buy a new
bracer. Throw on my bracer and it fits
over top of the jacket, right and then I
can go fight crime in the winter. I got
the basic idea from these little bendy
men of my son's. There's a flexible wire
inside a plastic-y outer coating so that
when you bend them the wire holds its
shape and the man does something. So the
main ingredient for a bendy bracer is some
aluminum sheet that's not too thick and
not too thin. I was able to find some
pretty good aluminum in these serving
trays from a thrift store. They're just
disposable trays. They're still thin but
they're not super thin like the trays
that I found at the dollar store. I was
able to make a bracer out of this stuff
but I needed twice as many layers for
the same bracer goodness. So, one more
option is aluminum flashing from the
hardware store. This is for roofs. It works
amazing. It's nice and flat to start out
with, quick and easy, but you're gonna end
up paying a lot more for it. This was 20
bucks for a 10 foot roll so if you're
making lots of bracers it'd be worth it
but if you just want to make one or two,
it might not be. You might have one of these
in your cupboard
or your mum's cupboard and you can just
grab it and then it's free. All right so
let's make some bendy bracers. Grab your aluminum tray and cut off the rim around
the edge. Make sure to wear some gloves to protect your hands from the sharp
metal. I used a wooden dowel to start flattening out some of the creases and
ridges in the tray. when I was tired of the wooden dowel I grabbed a hammer and
hammered it all over the place.
Back to the dowel, some more hammering
and I finished it off with a different hammer, which left me with a pretty flat
sheet of aluminum, which I then folded in half and unfolded. I then covered the
whole inside surface with water-based contact cement. Once the contact cement
had dried, I folded it over and hammered it thoroughly with a hammer to ensure
that the glue would bond well. Traced my bracer pattern and cut it out with my
scissors. The bump at the top would make the next step trickier so I just cut it
right off. Right now the metal has really sharp edges so in order to make it safe
to wear it they need to be folded over. I folded approximately six millimeters
around each edge. This also has the benefit of giving the bracer a bit more
strength. Once one edge was folded over I hammered it down as flat as possible and
then repeated the process on the other three edges.
I trimmed the corners nice and round.
I then cut two sheets of two millimeter foam according to my original
bracer pattern, spread contact cement on both sides of the aluminum and on one
side of each of the foam pieces. Wait for the glue to dry and then make a foam
aluminum bracer sandwich, trying to get the edges to line up as perfect as
possible. Give it a smack down with the hammer then all I had to do was add my
details and gently bend it into its final shape.
Give it a paint and I am done. So there you go, bendy bracers. I really like how
they look and they make me feel really strong like maybe like I could punch
through a concrete wall or something. Don't know if that would work and I
probably won't try so anyways why don't you go and make your own set
of bendy bracers right now and if you're not doing that why not like, subscribe,
comment, share, buy me a pizza... I don't actually have a pattern made for these
right now cuz I just wanted to do this video and show you the technique. If you
want a bracer pattern which is a very, really quite a simple pattern let me
know I could maybe whip something up but for the most part it's just kind of like
this. So you know, cut out a piece of paper, see if it fits and then go for it.
See ya