weblon instead of marine grade vinyl

[NegativeEleven]

I don't know what I'm doing differently than other scouts. Perhaps it's riding my motorcycle in armor or just wearing the boots to work, but the vinyl (marine grade from Hancock, same as what they have at Joann's) shifts and changes shape so much. I've got glue exposed, which picks up a lot of dirt. Also, the bottom edge is slowly moving away from the sole of the boot. I've met some older scouts whose boot vinyl seems much thicker than what I've got. I'm mad that my right boot won't stand up on its own with the holster attached while theirs will.

 

After asking over and over where to get that stronger material and getting no real answers, today, I went by a marine cushion maker's shop and slowly went thru his options. He said that there's not a "vinyl" that will do better than what I have. He said my best choice would be Weblon. It's technically vinyl, which is actually PVC. With Weblon, there's a vinyl coating on a strong polyester base. It's just as flexible as the vinyl from a fabric store, so my boot's still not gonna stand up on its own, but given this guy's experience, I believe him when he says it isn't going to change shape as much as vinyl.

 

I believe this is what I brought back: http://www.outdoortextiles.com/2985-62-vanguard-pearl-white.html The inside is ribbed, almost like canvas, but outside has that natural almost leather appearance of vinyl. It's much whiter than the stuff at Hancock and Joann's as well.

 

He then gave me Eisenglass to sew inside the right boot for support. This stuff is another type of vinyl that is clear. It's basically like a thick shower curtain. It should flex enough to be wearable but not so much that the holster makes the boot fold over like it does now.

 

I'm hoping to be building new boots soon (2 weeks til next scheduled troop). I'll probably do a quick repair job on the boots I have now first, just so I won't have to stop trooping. I'll try to take pictures of the process. I think there's a lot that I will do differently this time around. I'm thinking I'll sew the dogbone to the leg vinyl, then rivet to the boot and glue another dogbone over that. I'm sick of the dogbone shifting and having this black outline where the glue's been exposed. I'll be using a strip of plastic inside to secure the top of the holster instead of the sintra piece the size of the whole holster that I've got now. That was a mistake. I thought it would be more secure, but really it just put more stress on the rivets.

[Donovan]

Mine wont stand up with the holster when I'm not wearing my boot but it will if I am. I just have a smaller opening in the boot. Make it just about as big as your calf

[NegativeEleven]

My current boots are a little wide, but even with snaps on the flightsuit and an elastic strap from the holster support around my leg, it still looks saggy in pictures.

[Chex]

I have velcro on the inside of my boot where the holster is, and the other part of velcro sewn to my leg. It works out great.

[NegativeEleven]

I will probably try the velcro inside the right boot like in the tutorial with my new pair. The snaps I've had don't leave any room for movement. If I crouch or kneel, they're gonna pop loose. Velcro is a little more forgiving.

 

I spent a couple of hours tonight trying to salvage this holster. I've got a new one ordered, but I'm really leaning toward buying a new pair of base boots and salvaging this pair as a backup or to wear until the new ones are done. On the holster, I already had to repair the top two rivet holes where they'd cracked after I tripped on something back in February. Over 4th of July, I wore them and leaned against something, completely breaking off the bottom corners around the rivets. So I cut out a vaguely similar corner from sintra, heated to the same curve and glued behind the missing corner. I have some scrap ABS here. I cut even less accurate corners from that and glued to the sintra. Then I used my acetone/ABS paste to make a mess over the whole thing. Tomorrow,after it's bonded a little more, I'll be applying the paste again to smooth it out. Then after letting that sit for a few hours, I'll be delicately trimming away with the dremel and orbital sander. Hopefully it will be strong enough to put rivets through on Sunday, but I'm cleaning up and re-gluing most of the vinyl on the boots first.

[Donovan]

For your base boots I recommend palladium boots also trey a smaller opening

[Chef]

The vinyl that I use is quite thick and has a cotton weave backing to it, rather than a furry felt style one.

 

It's not exactly rigid, but it does hold it shape quite well. The downside is that it's quite difficult to shape initially.

 

With the holster and blaster in it, it does sag when on it's own, but when worn, they stay up perfectly week.

 

I think the trick is to get the top of the boot exactly the right size for your calf.

 

I've used E6000 glue on all my boots (of which there have been many) and it's been great.

My own personal boots have lasted for 6 years and are still going strong. They need to be a bit taller for screen accuracies sake, but they haven't fallen apart sufficiently for me to justify making a new pair!

 

If you need any tips etc, just drop me a PM or shout up in here.

[TB-7076]

I have leather chaps like the originals which provides a far better fit

and look than vinyl. Plus it's closer to the originals.

My current boots only suffer from an ill fated choice of leather type

and a mistake from the leather worker regardig the toe tip cover.

 

Version 2 will feature the almost original boot base and bring a remedy

to those two points of disappointment.

 

Compared to everything I've seen so far I am lucky I spent

the extra money on my boots made of leather.

 

Unfortunately I can't post pics before 24th of july

when I have returned home.

[NegativeEleven]

Yeah, if I could afford it, leather would be the way to go. Almost got the old boots repaired enough for trooping. Still sanding the fixed corners of the holster. I'll probably pick up a new pair of base boots tomorrow to start working on this new build and then I'll share some pictures.