Rob MacLennan

The elephant analogy is an apt one. Also, with a resistance welder that is, unfortunately, no longer sold by TRL. Even a tack weld increases the strength of the ring immensely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgMM8VTGgDY

I tumbled my welded stainless shirt in ceramic, a couple of square feet at a time, then joined the pieces with saw cut rings to minimize the burr after welding. Worked pretty well overall. As you say it's OK for smaller pieces, but problematic and prohibitively expensive for larger. My larger rotary tumbler is only a 15 pounder.

The only thing that I've used ceramic "fast cut" media on is to deburr welded stainless steel rings and you can believe that I police-up every single granule that ends up anywhere, but in the storage bin after use

You don't want to go too abrasive, or you'll be scrubbing off that thin layer of oxide that's holding the dye. I'd say just the walnut shell, or corn cob media, would be enough on its own for anodized. Clean up oils without scratching up the surface. A little water is good, to help transport the soap around better, suds things up, etc.. I've used both stainless pin shot and ceramic cutting media, is a rotary tumbler, to help to deburr stainless. A little polishing compund or blue Dawn, and a little water, and I found that the ceramic media (though rather expensive) seemed to do the best job. I'll be interested to hear Lorenzo's take. Always learning

Tried wearing gloves, but I found them annoying. Takes me a couple of weeks to build up the callous again after I've not been mailing for a while. As to dirt/fingerprints I tumble.

I don't cut rings in those gauges, so can't help there. When working on smaller rings (or sometimes even larger ones these days) I'll use a large lighted magnifier desk lamp, like this one. Far less cumbersome than headgear. https://www.staples.ca/products/2969862-en-dainolite-led-magnifier-witha-bracket-white

From what I remember from the video, the presenter found many barely closed rings. If you've got machine cut rings and leave them closed to say 50% of the wire's diameter, eventually the closure points of abutting rings will meet. The result; the shirt falls apart. That's likely what happened as it rattled around in the box, during shipping.

I saw an unboxing video for one of the "$50.00 shirts." Guy pulled out the shirt, then dumped a few dozen butted rings out of the box that had become 'undone' in shipping. And that was a supposedly steel shirt. My aluminum shirts don't fall apart like that in shipping.

Right now I'm largely just doing what I'd call 'making things out of leather.' I need to cut off a couple of square feet and spend 20-30 hours doing nothing but working on carving and stamping test designs in leather before I'd consider what I do 'tooling.' I might have been happier with the hatband if it had been jeweller's brass, rather than stainless. Most of my models are 3/4 of a continent away, so distance and time are big factors. I have several pieces that I'm waiting to see photographic results from and odds are it'll be quite a while before I do.

I've done a few belts but, in truth, they were only fashion and not for their main purpose; holding your pants up. They were very bad at that. Made one dress that was my version of 'the little black dress', in 1/4" - 10 gauge bright aluminum. Gave it t a model friend, who it fits perfectly, and is trying to come up with some sort of photo shoot idea for it, still, three years later. Several bikini tops, in both chain (50% EPDM rings) and scale. Those were quite popular for a while. The chain dress was based off that basic pattern, extended. Did a hatband in 4-in-1, 18 gauge, 3/16" stainless and didn't like the look as much as the plain black leather, with brass buckle and studs hatband that I also made, so stuck with the latter. Maybe if I'd done Dragonscale instead.... Though one 'shirt' I made for a friend's birthday gift ended up being so well fitted to her, and she liked the look of it on her so much, that I think it's now become a party dress. I contoured it about as well as I could imagine and gave it a far bit of hang, so it can flair out when spinning like a skirt.

Japanese 4-in-1 and 6-in-1 may look like the joining rings are oval, because they're perpendicular to the lie of the main rings, but they're round.

Well this particular CosPlayer is also a social media rep for a software company, artist, podcaster, model, crafter, tarot card reader, Reiki practitioner, and actress. If you've ever heard of "The Gamers:" series of movies, she's been in a few of them. https://www.patreon.com/thejenpage

It's all 1/4", 16 gauge bright aluminum rings, turned out with my coiler and cutter The collar is integrated with the body. Using the 45 degree joins makes it a natural fit to keep building up into a round collar piece. There's a leather bolster under it, to keep its shape. I went back and forth with the model for weeks, getting it just the way that she wanted it, because it was a (late) birthday present. She hasn't done the CosPlay yet, because she has about a million irons in the fire on an ongoing basis. If you check this link, you'll see the progression as we refined the look. The original chunky looking collar is more true to the original character, but also would have been hell to wear. http://www.morallyambiguous.net/multimedia/gallery/index.php/Chainmail/Form-Fitted-Chain

Typically non functional in terms of armour profile. It's about the look and being able to wear it for a day straight, in a 30 degree C convention hall full of barely washed conventioneers, without passing out. Ideally it wouldn't restrict movement. It's also frequently accessorized with foam based armour pieces, like this one eventually will be.

I caught a note, on social media, about a local supplier (Toronto) that was selling off some old stock of display mannequins. When I saw that one particular torso model was just an inch shy of my chest measurement, and pretty damned close elsewhere, I immediately called and asked how much for cash, "today." Still came in at just under C$100.00, but I don't regret it. With one of my gambesons on it, the fit is pretty accurate. Amazon was good for the female dress forms, for fairly cheap. I wouldn't want to put a full length steel dress on the two I have but, for aluminum CosPlay or Hallowe'en grade stuff, they're more than good enough. Be warned though: If the particular female you're making the piece for isn't built like a 14 year old with a boob job, the non adjustable cheap ones won't likely work. The first piece that I had to specifically make for a photo shoot involved an alt model who was a petite 5' nothing, but a 34-DD, so it works. The proportions are different but the measurements are the same as an actress/burlesque performer friend of mine so with a little mental adjustment, I've been able to use it to make pieces for her without issue. One route that I didn't consider, but should have, is schools. Home Ec classes and such must need to rotate out their stuff on a regular basis and they don't buy the cheap stuff. I work in a university and keep forgetting to check with our Fashion Design Faculty. Since my coverage as a comptech doesn't cover their department, the opportunity never comes up.