Hey everyone. Today I'm gonna show you
how to make a steampunk gun prop
thing out of a couple exercise mats and
a bunch of tubing and some other stuff.
I just want to mention for safety sake:
Even though you know this is a prop and
it's made out of foam and it can't do
anything, other people might not know
that and from a long way away
it might look dangerous so be careful
where you take it.
Now let's make our
steampunk prop gun.
Start by printing out
your pattern making sure it's being
printed at actual size or a hundred
percent which are the same thing. Now
tape together the two pages that make up
the stock, being sure to line up the
alignment crosses, then you can cut out
all the pattern pieces. I like to use
scissors most of the time but for the
tricky bits I pull out my scalpel and, as
I hope you already know, sharp knives are
sharp, so always look at what's ahead of
the blade and don't cut your fingers off.
Now you can see how excited I am at the
thought of cutting out this fancy-pants
swirly piece so I'm gonna show you a
handy trick. You'll need your pattern
piece printed on an inkjet printer, a
sponge and a festive hat bowl. Fill the
hat bowl with water, put your pattern
piece face down on the foam sheet and
slowly sponge down the paper, being
careful not to move it at all.
Once it's thoroughly saturated you can
carefully lift up your soggy piece of
paper to reveal the design. Just remember
the result will be a mirror image of the
original but for our purposes today it
doesn't really matter. Of course if you
don't have an inkjet printer or a
festive hat bowl it will still work fine
with a knife and a bunch of time. Once
your pattern pieces are cut out you can
trace them onto your foam. It's helpful
to mark the center lines and the centers
of all the holes. Also some pattern
pieces are cut out more than once,
often flipped for the second one. To
transfer the swirly lines on pieces 10
and 26 you can either use the wet sponge
method or by tracing on top of the
pattern with a ballpoint pen, using
enough pressure to kind of rip through
the paper which leaves some marks on the
foam that you can trace.
Next, draw over those lines with a fair
bit of pressure, creating some nice deep
indentations in the foam. I'm using two
different thicknesses of EVA foam in
this project: the two millimeter which
you've already seen, and some 12
millimeter foam. This is the type of foam
that you can get as interlocking mats to
put on the floor and set your weights on.
Grab a mat and trace piece number one
four times, making sure to flip the paper
over to create two mirror-image sets. For
one set trace the oval cut-out, but for
the second set, once you have the outline
traced, cut along the dotted lines on the
pattern and trace those lines on as well.
Once all your pieces are traced it's
time to start cutting. Always use a very
sharp knife for cutting otherwise your
foam will end up with really rough
edges. You may notice I like to use a
wide blade for straight and larger
radius cuts and my scalpel for sharp
corners and small radius curves. And
don't forget to punch any holes that are
required as well. The textured side of
the exercise mat is kind of shiny and
glue doesn't stick to it very well, which
is why it's a good idea to sand all four
stock pieces and the four circle pieces
with some coarse sandpaper. Now it's time
to glue the layers together. I would
often use hot glue for this but today
I'm going to use water-based contact
cement. Apply contact cement to the
textured side of both stock pieces with
the slot cut in them. Always follow the
safety directions on the bottle of
whatever glue you're using. I'm not sure
why but I forgot to put on gloves when I
was doing this. I guess I was just really
excited to start gluing something. You
can also apply glue to all four of your
large circle pieces. Once the glue has
dried according to the instructions,
carefully line up the two stock pieces
and slowly press them together, working
your way from the back of the stock to
the front. You can see how I'm using my
fingers to separate the two halves so
they don't stick together until they're
in the right place. Once it's lined up
give it all a good squish down, and go
ahead and stick the disks together. Now
you can glue one of your outside stock
pieces to your stack of center stock
pieces. Cut a piece of half-inch PVC
conduit 92 centimeters long. This will be
the lower barrel of the gun but will
also act as a support for the stock. I
like to use a tubing cutter for nice
straight cuts. Mark approximately where
the tube leave the stock
and sand the section of the tube that's
going to be in the stock. This will help
our glue stick way better. When you heat
PVC it releases toxic fumes so take it
outside and wear a respirator and some
gloves so you don't burn your hands. I'm
gonna try out my new heat gun today that
looks a bit like a spaceship. A big
thanks to Wagner who sent it to me so I
could try it out. I set it to 650 degrees
Fahrenheit which is about 340 Celsius.
Heat up the section where it needs to
curve nice and slowly until it becomes
flexible. Pop it in the slot and let it
cool.
Next, make marks on the pipe at each end
of the oval hole in the stock and drill
a hole about five millimeters behind
that mark so it's hidden by the side
when it goes back on. Take two and a half
meters of old telephone wire, stick it in
the hole, and start wrapping towards the
other line. Go a couple wraps past the
second line. Drill another hole and stick
the end into it. You could really use any
kind of wire you have around you just
might need more or less of it. You'll
also want to cut away a little bit more
foam right where the wire coil is going
to sit. Again the width of that cut will
depend on how thick the wire is that you
end up using. Next I'm gonna cover the
part of the barrel that sticks out with
copper tape to make it look coppery. I
find metallic tapes to be extremely
uncooperative when you're trying to get
them on smooth with no wrinkles so I
like to tape both ends of the strip down
on to the table, stretching it as tight
as possible, then I can center the PVC
tube on the copper tape. Cut it or pull
off the clear tape that's holding it
down and then you can start rubbing the
tape down, working from the center line
out to the edges.
The main thing you're trying to avoid is
trapping air bubbles underneath the tape
so work slowly and methodically and you
should end up with a pretty good finish.
You can see that I've covered the bottom
of the pipe first because hopefully when
we put the top two barrels on they'll
hide the seam where the next piece of
copper tape starts. The next piece just
needs to be wide enough to cover the
remaining tube so cut a strip that's
just a little bit wider than the gap. For
these thinner strips, peel a portion of
the backing paper away, line up one edge
with the edge of the tape already on the
tube, and stick that edge down as you go
along.
Once that entire edge
is stuck in place you can burnish the
tape down, working towards the other edge.
You can also burnish the tape over the
end of the barrel. Apply a generous
portion of hot glue in the bottom and
sides of the slot and press the lower
barrel in place. For good measure
add a little more on top. Now you can
finally get out your contact cement
again and glue the last piece onto your
stock stack. Now that's a pretty square
looking stock so it's time to start
giving it some contours. I really like
using an old electric carving knife I
got from the thrift store. It seems to me
to be the easiest way to get kind of
smooth cuts when carving EVA foam,
however if you don't happen to have an
electric carving knife you can still do
a fantastic job using a very sharp
utility knife. I did one side of the
stock with the electric carving knife
and the other side with the utility
knife just to show that you can get a
good result either way. Once you've got
the contours you like, sweep the foam
bits into your festive hat bowl and use
them to help plump up your beanbag chair.
You're welcome, environment.
Now grab some 80 grit sandpaper, wrap it around
something round, and use it to smooth out
all your crazy cutting. Once you're done
sanding it's still gonna look kind of
fuzzy. You can get rid of a lot of that
by taking it outside and giving it a
blast with your spaceship heat gun. Again,
wear a respirator and do it outside
because foam can also release toxic
fumes when heated. It's a bit hard to see
on the video but it actually made a
really big difference using the heat gun.
Now let's add two more barrels on top of
the first. Set them in place on the stock
and mark and cut them equal with the
lower barrel. Cover them both with copper
tape the same way you did the first one.
If you want a brushed texture grab an
abrasive scrubbing pad and spin the pipe
while holding the pad around it.
Now you can tack the top barrels
together in a couple places with a bit
of hot glue and then mix up some
five-minute two-part epoxy. Hot glue
doesn't stick that well to the copper
tape and we don't want the barrel to
fall apart randomly in the middle of a
very important shootout. It's important
that you measure and mix your epoxy
according to the instructions and that
you mix it very thoroughly otherwise
it's possible that it just won't cure
and you'll have a really gooey
disgusting mess. Once your epoxy is mixed
you can apply it in the center crack
between the two barrels. We don't want it
to run through the crack because we're
trying to keep the glue all on the
inside
so that when you're finished it doesn't
look like your guns been glued together
by someone in their basement. Once that
glue is cured, glue the two barrels on
top of the stock. You can slide the two
circle pieces over the three barrels to
hold it all in place until the glue
cures. Jam a little bit of glue in
between the barrels at the front and you
should be good. Alright so that's the
basic rifle structure done. Now it's time
to add a whole bunch of super sweet
details to make it... super sweet.
Okay
that's it for part 1 of steampunk gun
making. Make sure you watch the video
right here for part two where I put it
all together and paint it, and also at
the end of that video I'm gonna show you
a sneak preview of my next project that
I've already started that's gonna be
crazy cool and amazing. It'll blow your
mind. So see you in the next video...
