Weapon creation question

[Yardpuppy]

Can someone direct me to where the larp weapons aisle is at the local Home Depot/Lowe's/Ace Hardware/JoAnne's/etc.? Every time I ask about these things, the store clerks look at me like I have worms coming out my ears. The book specifies 5/8 inch pipe insulation, but that is difficult to find locally for me. Also, the open cell foam for the tips would be great, even if it isn't a thrusting weapon. If someone has some direction on this, I would love some guidance.

I am trying to make a staff (weapon). I would like to try building it myself, rather than pay someone else to make it.

Thanks,
Sean
(NPC aug. 09, camp cutter OAOE)

[kittenpunk2]

Well to get you started on the right foot, you can get a 20 or 30 foot long PBC pipe from the pluming department at your "Home Depot" or "Osh" for 2$ or so give or take 50 since. this is  long enough for you to make a couple of things or mess it up and try again...

Wile there get your self the cheapest duct take you can get per foot. and some electrical tape.

As for the body of the weapons foam,  you can get  pool noodles from the "Dollar Tree" for 1$ a pop i suggest getting 2 or 3 to go with your long  part of pipe, and for having extra for messing cuts up or making cross bars. note some times you can get electrical tape there too, 2 for a $ nice deal, but that's not allays the case.

Next tip foam, a bit harder to come by, and  more specialized as  of how soft swishy or safe  its needed to be.... i like to use car stereo  speaker foam, i can get it in big  blocks i can carve down and half the time if you know a friendly car stereo shop that have a tun of it as scrap out in the dumpster and will just let you take it.

past that its  getting used to  putting them together  making them look right and keeping them safe.

[Nyrani]

Osh has 3/4" wall insulation. This exceeds the 5/8" and is good to go.

You can get PVC at Lowes. You can also get graphite golf clubs at thrift stores and this makes an acceptable core. Tap plastics is another location to get core from. If you get the kitespar, you'll want to make sure it's .550 or thicker.

Open cell foam you can get at Joann's, or anywhere where you can get large amounts of couch cushion material. You'll find it in large sheets of green and white at Joann's. You can also just look for free couches and steal the cushion (but sterilize it first if you go this route.)

Joann's and Michaels both sell a riot of colors for duct tape, of the Duct Tape brand (which is the one I personally recommend for most general use weapons.)

I actually don't recommend pool noodle for sword physreps as the tape causes it to break down and get hard.

If you want some hands-on instruction in building a standard construction boffer, get your materials and tell me a time and I'll be happy to sit down and help you build a serviceable nerf bat.

~Sarah

[Yardpuppy]

Great! Thank you for the help and offers of more help. I knew asking here would start me off on the right foot

[vikingsurvivor]

Well to get you started on the right foot, you can get a 20 or 30 foot long PBC pipe from the pluming department at your "Home Depot" or "Osh" for 2$ or so give or take 50 since. this is  long enough for you to make a couple of things or mess it up and try again...

Wile there get your self the cheapest duct take you can get per foot. and some electrical tape.

Ok so to start it is PVC you are looking for. As a weapon marshal I would recommend 1/2' schedule 40 for short weapons and 3/4" schedule 40 for longswords. for 2 handers Pvc is not the best option.
personally I prefer kitespar from tap plastics for all lengths of weapons. it is more expensive but worth the few extra buck. currently @ Tap .505 (great for shoter weapons, usually fine for longswords as well) is 8.00 for a 54" piece
 .524 (what I personally prefer for longswords) is 9.35 for a 54" piece
 . 745 ( good for longs and fantastic for 2 handers) is 15.25 for a 65" piece

I actually would recommend against buying the super cheap tape, it does not stick as well and it is very thin and generally low quality and in the long run not worth the lesser cost.

As for the body of the weapons foam,  you can get  pool noodles from the "Dollar Tree" for 1$ a pop i suggest getting 2 or 3 to go with your long  part of pipe, and for having extra for messing cuts up or making cross bars. note some times you can get electrical tape there too, 2 for a $ nice deal, but that's not allays the case.

Pool noodles are generally lighter then the 3/4 wall foam from almost any hardware store, but like Sarah said they tend to break down and need replacing far far more frequently so on a cost comparison they are in the long run not any cheaper then insulation foam. add to that that the quality of the noodles are very broad I have found some that even though technically meet the size requirement I would not pass as legal due to the compression of them.
I would recommend against pool noodles in general.

for tip foam I again agree with sarah that Joanns fabric is a great place to go I usually get the green stuff which is a double density foam. an old couch is also a good option the key is to use foam that will not compress so much as to be able to feel the end of the foam tube

my advice comes from many years of experience in making them.
Like sarah said we are more then willing to help ya out.

[Shay]

Having found this post, which I vastly appreciated as I can never remember which values for kitespar are good for which weapons, I wanted to the Tap Plastics site with intent to buy a few weapon cores. I couldn't help but notice that if I wanted 3 tubes, the shipping winds up being a substantial fraction thereof. So I thought I would see if anyone would like to combine orders. Anyone planning on acquiring some materials in the near future that might be interested in saving on some shipping?

[vikingsurvivor]

not sure what your transportation situation is but there are quite a few TAP Plastics stores around the area, well worth the drive to save shipping costs.

[Shay]

...Sometimes one just gets into a default mindset and forgets to check assumptions. I hit them online and just went on as though my only option was ordering from them online. There's one around the corner from my house. *slinks off*

Um... anyone want me to pick anything up for them?

[Grishnar]

not sure what your transportation situation is but there are quite a few TAP Plastics stores around the area, well worth the drive to save shipping costs.

TAP raised their prices quite a bit. It might be cheaper to ship it, especially if you buy enough. If you only need one then it is probably better to get it at TAP. Also you can buy longer lengths online, there is a size pipe where you can get two shorts out of one pipe that is only $7.29 but at TAP you need to buy 2 at $8 for the same number of weapons. The same pipe you can buy at TAP for $8 is only $6 online.

[kittenpunk2]

don't  forget a bout shipping costs.

[Grishnar]

Ok so to start it is PVC you are looking for. As a weapon marshal I would recommend 1/2' schedule 40 for short weapons and 3/4" schedule 40 for longswords. for 2 handers Pvc is not the best option.

Do you really use SCH 40 pipe? It is very heavy and might be your problem with your weapons. If you use the next schedule lighter pipe you can easily use 1/2" PVC for all one-handed weapons except spears. Also 1" PVC makes great two-handed weapons.

Also you can buy 5/8" insulation in Los Gatos at True Value.

For tape, I also agree with vikingsurvivor that you need to get some really good tape, Nashua brand is my favorite at Home Depot and it is considered one of the top brands in the industry. The 10 mil contractor tape is nice and if you want to go a little lighter, sometimes they have the economy tape that is 9 mil. Stay away from 11 mil tape, it is unnecessarily heavy. Every once in a blue moon you can find 8 mil tape, it is good but will not last as long. Nashua is also one of the few brands that lists their tape thickness on the packaging.

Last, if you are going to pony up for the fiberglass pipe at TAP, do yourself a favor and get the right pipefoam for it from McMaster-Carr. Product 4530K162.

[vikingsurvivor]

Ok so to start it is PVC you are looking for. As a weapon marshal I would recommend 1/2' schedule 40 for short weapons and 3/4" schedule 40 for longswords. for 2 handers Pvc is not the best option.

Do you really use SCH 40 pipe?

yep don't expect a basic PVC weapon to be UL. like I said thats what I would recommend if you use PVC. PVC weapons are very cheap to make and thats why they are still demonstrated in the book as the example, cheap and easy. very cost effective for learning, but having said that I am of the opinion that they are very outdated, we have available to us things like epoxy tubes, carbon fiber, graphite rods etc. that were not available 20 plus years ago when this all started, heck it was not even a cost effective method when I started trying alt materials in the early 90's. Now go for the UL materials.

It is very heavy and might be your problem with your weapons.

What problem ?

If you use the next schedule lighter pipe you can easily use 1/2" PVC for all one-handed weapons except spears.

not advised. and especially with axes or blunts

Also 1" PVC makes great two-handed weapons.  

no one said you could not use PVC for 2 handed weapons, what was said is that PVC is not the best option.

Last, if you are going to pony up for the fiberglass pipe at TAP, do yourself a favor and get the right pipefoam for it from McMaster-Carr. Product 4530K162.

Epoxy tubing ( also known as filament wound epoxy tubing) is what you are looking for at TAP. the fiberglass rods are not the ones to use,
as of an hour ago the in store price for the tubing is the same as on the website at least at the 3 locations I called.
According to their website product number is in fact 3/4 wall foam. on the plus side at 3.38 per 6' tube it is 1-11 cents cheaper per 6' tube then the retails stores I buy my foam at.

[Grishnar]

It is very heavy and might be your problem with your weapons.

What problem ?

Yeah so I did not expand on this thought. The book and you say that long weapons are bad at 1/2" PVC, I find this strange. Before the split, the rulebook said 1/2" CPVC was not good and to use 3/4" CPVC. We have used 1/2" PVC for years in the Midwest for all lengths of weapons but we also use the lighter weight of pipe not schedule 40. SCH 40 in my experience is too heavy to make safe weapons because of the increase in weight. 

If you use the next schedule lighter pipe you can easily use 1/2" PVC for all one-handed weapons except spears.

not advised. and especially with axes or blunts

I disagree, made properly this should not be a problem.

Last, if you are going to pony up for the fiberglass pipe at TAP, do yourself a favor and get the right pipefoam for it from McMaster-Carr. Product 4530K162.

Epoxy tubing ( also known as filament wound epoxy tubing) is what you are looking for at TAP. the fiberglass rods are not the ones to use,
as of an hour ago the in store price for the tubing is the same as on the website at least at the 3 locations I called.
According to their website product number is in fact 3/4 wall foam. on the plus side at 3.38 per 6' tube it is 1-11 cents cheaper per 6' tube then the retails stores I buy my foam at.

Sorry prices I quoted for fiberglass tubes are shipping from Good Wind Kites, they are really nice to LARPers and can really help you out if you give them a call. Also where do you buy your pipe foam at? The great part about the McMaster-Carr product is that the ID is the same as the OD of the .505 fiberglass pipe/filament wound tube and it is only semi-slit instead of full slit with adhesive. In my experience the full slit adhesive pipe foam does not last that long compared to semi-slit.

[Grishnar]

Also you can buy 5/8" insulation in Los Gatos at True Value.

My bad here, it is actually Los Altos. Still getting use to the town names. I would recommend shopping here even though they have bad business hours as I believe they will order what we want. I talked to the manager and though they did not carry one size I wanted he said he would order it. Very nice people and a local business. Also they store the pipe foam in a closet so ask for help to get to it.