Dave Watson joined the Army two months after 9/11, and was subsequently deployed in Iraq as a member of the 101st Airborne Division. The Army had taught Watson to jump out of planes, but he brought with him a skillset he'd learned in childhood: Sewing. "[I] started Fight and Flight Tactical from [my] barracks room, repairing uniforms, sewing patches and repairing gear in 2002 for beer money," he writes.
By 2009 Watson had completed two tours in Iraq—and sustained injuires that knocked him off of the active duty list. Medically retired and "no longer able to be in the fight," Watson turned Fight and Flight Tactical into a full-time military gear company whose products you can check out here.
Watson caught our eye for posting a tutorial on the DIY Tactical website on how to apply Duracoat to metal fasteners, creating an affordable DIY alternative to powder coating using commonly-available items like an airbrush, plywood and a toaster oven. "And yes, using plywood [in a toaster oven] is safe," he explains. "Plywood combusts at around 500 F, and we're not getting that hot."
We know it sounds unlikely that you could DIY something in your kitchen as durable as powder-coating, but Watson says the proof is in the pudding. "Try to scuff, gouge, chip, maim, kill, and destroy [the coated fasteners], to really test the durability of the coating," he writes. "I've done all sorts of crazy, careless and stupid stuff with mine, and never had a problem. My finishes hold up just as well as a powder-coated one from a major manufacturer." Check it out here.
I'm extremely interested in learning about this method for prototyping, but this page on the DIY Tactical site is down. Anywhere else this information is available?
It's basically painting the objects with a durable epoxy system. Found a copy of the page on the old way-back machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120829025649/http://diytactical.com/blog/2012/04/making-your-own-color-matched-snaps-and-grommets
These drink chillers/coasters might not be particularly striking, but I'm putting them up because they're an example of a company seeking to do something we all should: Turn scraps into something useful. Granite slabs are a popular material for countertops, but as with all natural materials that are machined into...
As revolutionary as it was for the time, Philip Johnson's Glass House could not be made entirely from glass; the technology simply didn't exist in 1949. But as we saw with Apple's Fifth Avenue cube and their insane staircase in SoHo, times have changed for glass.Speaking of which, Italian architecture...
[photo by Nick Tyrer][photo by Nick Tyrer]I was poring over TyrerTecture, architecture student Nick Tyrer's blog primarily detailing his fascinating digital fabrication experiments, when the photo above caught my eye mid-scroll. This one's not one of his projects; it's a photo he shot in Rome of the Palazzetto dello Sport,...
Up above is an Apple patent drawing from 2002, showing the Apple Store glass staircases many of us know. The staircase sides are made from separate panes of glass.This past Saturday your correspondent attended the re-opening of Apple's SoHo, NYC flagship store. The newly-remodeled space is a heckuva lot bigger...
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.