TitaniumMithril

welcome ahilynn, for the shirt, you can use theringlord's calculator here: http://theringlord.com/cart/shopcontent.asp?type=Euro4in1ShirtCalculator i don't have experience making pants, but if you use the above calculator to get a number for a long-sleeve-t-shirt-sized shirt, i'd probably order the same amount more for the pants (so essentially two times what it calculates for the shirt to do both). maybe someone else here can give you a better number on that, though.

perfect! i assumed they were archived somewhere, but forgot about this site. thanks zlosk!

that does have the bladeturner image without any explanation. probably enough for a veteran or if you paired it up with konstantin's tutorial on m.a.i.l.

neither of the original sites seem to be up anymore. has no one cross-posted it to a new site because the information is potentially copywritten, or is it just no one ever thought to snag the info before it went down? if the latter, i have heavily edited versions of both of the patterns (with what i considered "beginner" information removed) i could upload...

you are absolutely correct that you "could just up the ring size as long as i matched the AR for the larger rings." unfortunately that may mean making your own rings or sending asking if theringlord will custom make you some. AR is just "inner diameter":"wire diameter". so if you want your pendant to be 3x bigger than your earrings, you'll probably need 3x bigger rings, or 3/4" and 9/16" ID. to keep the AR at 4.0, you'd need the wire diameter to be 1/4 the ID, or 3/16" (about 6 gauge) and 9/64" (about 9 gauge) respectively. hope you're using aluminum and huge pliers! :-)

if this is for a useful belt (e.g. is keeping your pants up or hanging things from) i would not use anything weaker than ss for 20 gauge rings, unless you can weld them. what do you mean by "no longer available"? afaik, 20ga 5/32" ti is still available in saw cut. were you trying to get the machine cut that got phased out last year? if the saw cut is really out of stock too, you could switch the ring and do ss for the small rings and aluminum (or whatever) for the bigger links, but that would still not be super strong...

that would make more sense, but electromagnetic fields are not the same thing as radiation pollution in any stretch of the imagination.

i don't even know where to start with this.... but no, 20 gauge aluminum butted rings in any weave are not sturdy enough for any use beyond holding their own weight. maybe what you're looking for is a pressurized room with 1 foot thick cement floor, walls, and ceiling lined with lead sheeting. or a tinfoil hat.

yeah, the trick is to reduce the image size to a point where it still has all the detail you want without adding any "transition" pixels that add colors you can't get. you can use photoshop and choose a specific palate of colors that it can use. just get your digital artist housemate to do it! ;-)

how big is the original digital image? the one you posted is only 346x960 or 332,160 pixels/links. if it really is "a few million" and you're using 16 ga 1/4" links - that's at least $32,100, and unless you're working on it 40 hours a week, i think your estimation of 4 years is wildly optimistic. if it is really "only" about 330,000 links then you'd "only" be looking at about $3500 and 4 years might be more realistic, working a couple hours/day.

don't despair - it's not terribly hard to open up vertical lines in the shirt to add expansions. in fact, you'd probably do it a few times even if it was in your plans to begin with as it is difficult to judge exactly where each should be. the shoulder blades, waist, hips, etc. are all going to sit in slightly different places with each link size, material, and person.

what a weird guy HE must be.

just fyi, the individual sections are not sealed (they have removable dividers, like most tackle boxes) so if you're doing micro-mail, a few links may slip between sections, but i haven't found this to be too obnoxious with 20 ga and thicker. of course, if you don't care about them being adjustable, you can always hot glue or epoxy them in place.

i do material, gauge, size, and then color (if applicable). i picked up one of these a couple years ago for ~half price, and it's been great for my "working" stock:

you can incorporate all the expansions/contractions of the trevor barker (90-degree) model into the bladeturner (45-degree) model and, in my opinion, makes a more comfortable shirt to wear than the trevor barker alone if you don't have super broad shoulders. it does make it more difficult to lift your arms up, though, so if you plan to do a lot of sca or hema fighting in it, it may require some gussets under the arms. they aren't super-detailed pictures, but here was mine. you can see on the reverse picture the expansions going up the back pretty much from the waist to the top. i found i didn't need the "A" contractions from trevor barker because of the different panels in bladeturner (though i did add a couple contractions right at the neckline to make it sit better, like zlosk's #3) - you can just make the front smaller (hence, the back neckline being about 30 links across and the front about 10). mine's not perfect, but it's infinitely better than bladeturner alone. it is definitely worth taking the time to do these adjustments if you plan on keeping the shirt for a long time.