My balteus

[Chuck Russell]

good start!

you may want to put your plates a little closer together though.

[Aetius Helvius Merula]

Any tips on what to use for rivets, fraters? That's been my biggest setback; the plates are 3/32". 1/32 more and they'd be a standard 1/8th inch, which I think I'll bring about with the drill at work. I spent a frustrating hour today peening both ends of a piece of brass rod and washer. I got 1 plate done in that time. Seems brass is harder to work than copper.

[Peroni]

Any tips on what to use for rivets, fraters?

How about commercially available rivets?? Domehead or flat head.

[sulla felix]

A quick search on e-bay might do the trick? Brass 1/8" domed head rivets maybe, but as you say copper is easier because it is softer.

[Peroni]

Go here...(dead cheap) :wink:
https://www.modelmakingsupplies.co.uk/glr/start.html

Hit the catalogue option and search for 'rivets' and 'rivet snaps'

[M. Demetrius]

In the US, here's some other sources
http://www.rjleahy.com/Store/rivets/crvr.htm
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... atch_type=

and, of course

http://www.forth-armoury.com/research/p ... _rivet.htm

[Aetius Helvius Merula]

Ordered the rivets I need since I can't find anything local (thanks again, Demetrius!) and while waiting, I got to work on the terminals and pugio frogs.



For this, I scribed out the hinge teeth on a 3" plate, chiseled the vertical ends, annealed and folded it. Then took a hacksaw (carefully) to the horizontal lines. For the second one, I didn't bother scribing everything, just the tooth ends. Worked better, actually. And wonder of wonders, it worked the first time! Never tried that idea before, though I'm sure someone else has thought of it.



For the terminals, I folded a 1/2" piece around a rod, then cut the ends out of what was left. I wanted to do the buckle too, but I had other things to do around the house as well. Like eat :lol:

[Aetius Helvius Merula]

Took a few days off, then my rivets finally arrived and I went to work. Worked out much better this time, thanks to everyone's advice!



Tried Brennis' nail method for the apron, only with thumbtacks. Got much better results with the lighter leather; those bigger furniture nails need 6 oz or so and mine was 3. I couldn't bend the shanks enough to get a good hold without their breaking. Didn't have that problem with the tacks. Besides, as I understand it most apron studs were flat.



I got 5 plates done in an hour, using all the tips I've gotten thus far. Again, with much better results, and I'm learning more as I go. I'm getting close to done! When I am, I'll post it on the belt thread. Sorry for the mediocre close-ups; the camera's kind of basic.

[brennivs - tony drake]

Looks great all round, look forward to the final piece
Regards Brennivs