My Own Skygazers

Finally about a month after my initial post on how to build a Sky Gazer Chair I have built one for myself. I decided to decorate it with a dragon design surrounded by rose vines. Here are the results.

Camping Wash Station

So you are going to an event that doesn’t have running water. Well that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer through unsanitary conditions. Part of the fun of camping is being able to have that BBQ or dutch oven cookout and who wants to eat that with out being able to wash your hands. 

Sure you could just scrape by with hand sanitizer and baby wipes. But that isn’t really the same thing as just being able to wash your hands with soap and water. So what if you could build a simple foot pump washing station like the one in this picture for around $15-$20?

How it works is simple; the foot pump transfers clean water from the bottom bucket out of the spout where it lands in the upper bucket. There are no faucets to operate, and while the station in the picture is made of plastic buckets with a little luck and a few extra dollars wooden buckets could be substituted and adapted into this design to give it a more medieval look. note: Also this design calls for drilling holes into the bucket as an alternative it is possible to feed a tube through the lid into clean water bucket and to simply have a tube attached at the basin instead of a riser as shown.

The materials needed are as below.

(3) 5 gallon utility buckets

(2) 5 gallon bucket lids

Marine fuel primer bulb and hose assembly

3/8" brass fittings

Rubber O-ring

3/8" tubing

various 1" and 1/2" plumbing pipe sections and fittings

Automotive steel fuel/brake line

Door hinge

Scrap wood

Step 1: Drill a 3/8 hole hole in one bucket about an inch above the bottom then feed the male end of the 90 degree fitting through the hole.

Step 2: Slide  an o ring over the male thread then screw the female half of the 3/8 hose fitting onto the male half of the fitting.

step 3: Take the other 3/8 hose fitting and thread it into the 90 degree fitting inside the bucket. Make sure that the barbed end of the fitting is pointed toward the bottom of the bucket.

The basin is constructed from the upper portion of the third bucket and a lid. While it isn’t necessary for the function of the system it does prevent the grey water from splashing out while you are washing your hands.

step 4: Remove the rubber seal from the bottom of the bucket lid and cut along the bottom of the trench that the seal was in. Cut all the way around and remove the outer rim. Drill a 1/2” hole in the center.

step 5: Cut off the top of the third buck about three quarters of an inch below the last flange.

step 6: Attach the cut off lid to the cut off portion of the bucket using hot glue, rivets, or screws  Basically this should look like a shorter bucket now.

step 7:  Optional: Build the foot pump foot pump using scrap wood, door hinge, dowel rods and a tennis ball. If this looks to complicated don’t worry about it. The pump will work just fine if you simply step on the marine bulb, but the foot pump kind of looks cool.

You could use the buckets like this but if you want to add a support table and a spout here is how.

step 8: Buy or Build a small support table. Coming up with a table makes the whole structure more stable, gives you a place to set your soap, and it gives you a place to attach the riser tube. The easiest way to do this is to find a small used table at a second hand store or yard sale that you don’t mind cutting a hole in. But if you are handy enough you can also just build a table.

step 9: Cut a hole in the center of the table big enough for the bucket to slide into but small enough that it doesn’t fall all the way through. Optimally we want the clean water bucket to be off the ground a little.

step 10: Drill a one inch hole in one corner of the table

step 11: attach a 1 inch galvanized pipe flange to the table.

step 12: screw 1 inch galvanized pipe into the pipe flange. Then a reducer and a 1/2 pipe onto that to make the riser.

step 13: Purchase some generic steel fuel brake line from an auto parts store to form the spout.

step 14: Bend it into a 180 degree cane shape.  

The diameter of the bend should be 1/2 diameter of the bucket.  This will position the Spout nozzle over the hole in the bottom of the Basin.

step 15: Slide a 2" section of clear hardware tubing onto the other end of the Spout. 

step 16: Slide a 1/2" to 3/8" galvanized reducer fitting on the Spout.  

step 17: Then slide about a 24" length of tubing onto the Spout.  

The reducer fitting will be trapped in location on the Spout by the two sections of tubing; yet free to spin and thread onto the Spout Riser.

step 18: Feed the Spout, and Tubing Assembly down through the Spout Riser pipes and thread the reducer fitting onto the top of the 1/2" Spout Riser Pipe.

step 19: connect the tubing from the pump to the riser tube. This can be done with clear tubing or directly with the pump tube.

For more information and the site where I learned about this project please refer to this instructables site. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Field-Sink/#step0

Coming events what they may look like.

It is great to look on you tube for events that are on the calendar. One you can see what the action was  like at prior events and see if it might be something you would like to try and they can be entertaining. Just because the weather is turning cold doesn't mean that you have to miss out.

Coming up this weekend we have the Amtgard event Rising Winds Midreign/Bridge Wars 2014

Christmas Tourney and Candlemas are both coming soon. They are both tournaments. One of the nice things about these two events is they are indoors so even if it is cold or the weather is bad the action can continue.

Winter wars looks like it is a pretty fun event here is a little video of the action.

And of course our a Belegarth event Beltaine is just around the corner.

Alyssa Beaton Photos of practice

My thanks to Alyssa for taking these and sharing them. They are some great shots of the action.

Thanks again Alyssa, you have an impressive talent. If anyone else would like to have some of your photos of the action posted on DA Guardian please send them to m.sauls1969@gmail.com. I would love to share them.

I hope to see you out on the field so that I can get in on the action myself.

Where ever coin jingles or plunder is promised you will find a mercenary. 

Thorne

How to Make a Rope Grip For Your Sword or Shield

I know that you have been on the field and seen that friend who either knows how to make a really nice rope grip or purchased a professionally made weapon that has one. Many people love this style of grip. It fits comfortably in the hand, offers a fair amount of shock cushioning, wicks off some of the sweat from you hand, and it looks very sharp.

Today I am going to show you two simple methods to not only wrap your handle in rope but to do it in such a way that it won't come loose on you after the first couple of uses. The first thing that you are going to need is some supplies. For demonstration purposes I am going to do my wraps on this piece of wooden dowel rod. It is probably a good idea to do this yourself for practice purposes until you are comfortable with the technique. Note: If you plan to use method one then you need to use a rope small enough to feed through a drinking straw.

Method 1: This method is a little tricky to master. It can be done without an adhesive but for best result a basic white adhesive like Elmer's Glue or Aleene's Original Tacky Glue works just fine. First I like to tie a clove hitch on the handle and I tape one leg into place like this. I then spread my adhesive all over the wrap area.

The next step is a trick I like to use. If you try to simply wrap the surface then you will end up with a twisted mess like this.

To avoid making a twisted mess I use an ordinary drinking straw like this.

Make your wraps loose because you do not want to crush the drinking straw. You are going to need to be able to feed the rope through it. Once you have the handle surface completely wrapped do just that; feed the end of the rope through the straw then pull the straw out with the rope. This is now the pull string that you will use to pull your wrap tight.

The tricky part of this is that you will have to keep working the loops tighter and tighter as you pull the slack through with the pull string. Once you have your handle wrapped down tight trim off the excess with a pair of scissors. If you are using a nylon or plastic rope you can keep the ends from fraying by melting it with a lighter. Put the weapon up for a few hours to allow the adhesive to dry and you should now have a handle that will last you for a long time.

Method 2: This method is a little simpler. It involves the use of double sided carpet tape. I have the E-Z carpet seam tape here and it is an incredibly strong. Start by cutting a length to cover your handle then pull off one side of the non stick paper. Wrap it around your handle.

Now what I like to do first is to secure one end down with a little electrical tape. Then you tightly wrap the rope around the double sided tape. When I get the tape off on the other end I again secure that end with a little electrical tape. Then I trim it off with some scissors and you have a very simple and functional rope handle that should last for a very long time without coming loose on you.

I hope that you found this article helpful and I hope to see you out on the field.

stay tuned for the next episode of The Bald Foot Curse coming soon to DA Guardian.

Thorne the Mercenary

The Pool Noodle is Dead

How to build a Belegarth weapon

When I first started building weapons I got a pool noodle and stuck it on a piece of PVC. It was fine for the kids to bop each other with but wasn’t Belegarth legal. Lets face it the only thing that pool noodles are good for is well, playing in a pool. What happened afterwards was a lot of me experimenting with different builds, wasting a lot of time and money. Through out that process I managed to build weapons that were legal to use but often didn’t last long. I still experiment but I enjoy the process. Some people would rather have clear cut instructions on how to make a good weapon without a lot of head ache. The pool noodle is dead.

1. The first thing that I recommend is that you get on the Belegarth web site and look at the rules of war. Specifically you will want to look at the section on weapons to see what is required.   http://belegarth.com/rules.php
2. You will need a work space. Take several things into consideration when doing this. You need enough space to build your weapons. You may want a table or work bench to work on. Ventilation may be important. Also this can be very messy so don’t do this on your mom’s kitchen table. She won’t be happy if you scar it up with razor blades and stain it up with glue. For my first work place I utilized a folding table and worked on my back porch outside.
   
3. You will need a few tools. A knife (I prefer a razor knife or box cutter with replaceable blades), a straight edge, a black sharpie, a tape measure, screw driver or paint can opener, a ruler, a hacksaw, and a wooden paint stick. Optional tools: a compass (for drawing circles and curves, a scale (for weighing your weapons)
   
4. Choose a core. The core is probably the most important part of your weapon design. There are several cores to choose from carbon fiber, bamboo, band poles, fiberglass rods, kitspar, and pvc to name a few. what you want to build should determine what you use. Here I have chosen a piece of bamboo 30" long for my project and as you can see I have put caps on the ends.   
   
5. Adhesives are your next choice. There are a few standard adhesives to choose from. Most people use DAP. There is also Super 77, hot glue, and gorilla glue just to name a few. For this project I chose hot glue. I dislike using DAP although I have used it much in the past. I learned that DAP causes cancer and I have always disliked the smell of the fumes. It remains one of the best adhesives for this type of project but hot glue also works very well.
   
6. Get your padding. Blue camp foam is the foam that is most commonly used but there are a number of options on line. Steer clear of pool noodles they are really inadequate for what we do.
   
7. Get the covering materials that you need. cloth athletic tape, double sided carpet tape, electrical tape, tights, fabric covers, and rope can all be useful for finishing your project.

Now that you have all of these things in order your next step is to glue a box around your core. In my case since I used bamboo I decided to prepare the core first with a wrapping of protective tape which also reinforced it. I cut two strips the width of the core and two strips the width of the core plus 1". Blue foam is 1/2" wide so that makes the box flush and even. Since bamboo is a little uneven I  ended up trimming off a couple of spots that over lap. I then finished the box up with two square caps on the end.

Next I cut long strips 2" wide and covered the whole box twice. I then added a piece of couch cushion foam, taped it into place and added a third wrap of foam over all of that. I then added a cross piece of foam and a foam covering of the pommel. Finally I covered the blade with some tights that I purchased at walmart and covered the handle with cloth athletic tape. Below is a picture of the finished product.

For some more in depth tutorials and information on weapon builds check out the link below.

http://wiki.belegarth.com/Updated_Blue_Sword_Tutorial

http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/tirasleen/documents/Compilation.pdf

Also here is a decent video of a build that I like.

How to Make a Hillbilly Washing Machine

I alway love great camping tips and I think that this one could be pretty useful. If you ever go on really long camping trips finding yourself in need of a trip to the laundry mat could be a hamper on your fun. But what if you could save your pennies and do that load of laundry right there at camp? Check out this article on how to make a Hillbilly Washing Machine using a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger.

http://refashionista.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/diy-hillbilly-washing-machine/