New year! New Post! New Tool!

Alrighty then. 2012 was a super busy year for us here at KnowOne's designs. If you haven't been keeping up with us on Facebook you should hop on over there and take a look see. We definitely keep that page more up to date than our website.....not sure if that's a good thing, but that's the way it is. So now on to my new toy! I have had the various piece parts for a home made vac former sitting in my shop for well over a year now. It was time to put it all together, in the most terrifying and unsafe way possible.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS IN NO WAY A "HOW TO" GUIDE ON BUILDING A VAC FORMER! I am just showing you  the random and hazardous way that I heat up thermoplastics and use suction to create objects. There are many other sites with plans (both free and paid for) on how to build one of these machines. If you wish to also play with melty plastic I suggest using your preferred internet search engine and finding proper plans. KnowOne's Designs is not responsible for any burnt fingers or seemingly random appearances of fire in your work shop. This can be seriously dangerous so.....don't be dumb.

OK so remember when I said that I had all the parts just laying around? That was a bit of a stretch.  I had most of the parts, and then just made do with scrap lumber and cheap, undersized hardware. I was trying to build this as close to free as I could, alright?! But at the end I had a functioning tool, so that says something. When building a vac former, you first need to decide the size of your "platen" or as it is commonly known, "the bottom part with all the holes in it".  The idea of spending hours drilling tiny holes, in a perfect grid, into a piece of aluminum, was abhorrent to me. Instead I based my entire design off of a 26"x18" baking pan that already had holes in it. Lazy? Definitely. Smart? I would like to think so. This way I could use a regular 26"x18" baking pan as the top of my oven box. To finish off the platen I needed a wood bottom with a hole in which to put the shopvac hose. Did I have a piece of lumber 26"x18"? Of course not. So I made one by splicing some other wood together with a 2"x4".  I also put some support blocks between the top of my platen and the wood base to keep it all from crushing when suction was applied. Then all the seams were sealed with caulk.

And no, I did not trim those exposed screws. They add to the challenge. 

See how many holes that is?! No way man. Not this guy.








For the next part I needed a heat source. $18 later I had my grocery store electric griddle. Almost all electric food devices use the same kind of heating element, and I think that the shape of the griddle will lead to a more even heat distribution over the plastic. Plus it already had mounting points and its own hardware. All I had to do was strip the plastic off of it and drill 4 holes into my pan.

My frame for this monstrosity started off as a pile of rusty old angle iron. The kind that has the slots in it for shelving. Sadly the slots did not quite line up with the top pan, so off to the trusty drill press.













Now this next part got tricky. I needed to get the 4 main legs attached to the platen and the heating element. What I ended up doing was stacking some lumber on table at the height that I wanted the platen to be. At this point all I wanted to do was  get this thing together without contracting tetanus.  The final assembly is held together with bolts, screws, 2x4's, and my hopes & dreams.

This part really sucked. I had to get Jackie to come out and help. At that point she had not seen any of the build process. Let's just say she was a bit underwhelmed and far less enthusiastic than I would have liked.












Now that my FrankenFormer was standing on its own, I needed to build an oven box around the heating element. Off to my local ACE for some aluminum flashing. I wanted a 5in box but the smallest width that they had was 6in. So I settled for an 8in roll that I would trim in half.

Not going to lie, I was terrified that my drill was going to catch the flashing and eviscerate me.  Luckily we had no instances of spinning metal or horrific injuries.



Once the box was assembled I sealed all the gaps in structure with foil tape.

Now to hold the plastic, you need to build two frames that you can sandwich the plastic between. I made mine out of window screen stock. It was boring to build so I didn't take any pictures. I also tried an elaborate magnet system to hold the frames up to the box, which failed.  So instead I use binder clips to hold it up. Not very high tech, but look at this thing. Its probably for the best. I got my first piece of plastic up there, turned the thing on, and waited......... It just was not getting hot enough. So I did what any sensible person in my position would do. I cut the thermometer prod off of the griddle power source. Now when it is on, it is ON. I may have just increased my chance of a shop fire by, like a lot, but its ok. I have a fire extinguisher somewhere in there. So its all cool. After all that messing around I got my first successful pull of what will soon be a new offering from KnowOne's Designs: a Monarch Henchmen mask from Venture Bros!


 I hope that this was entertaining and enlightening  More posts to come with 10x as much melty plastic and at least 2x as much new stuff!

Steam Punk Power Supply

So a while back I talked about building a prop for a local web series Mantecoza. Well it is finally finished, thanks in good part to my father, Kenneth Backer. He helped out tremendously on this build. This was a very interesting project for me, as I normally do replicas or work off of some one else's designs. We were basically given free reign on the design. I just had to incorporate the light fixture that was provided. We also had to finish it in 2 weeks, so ya know, decisions had to be made fast and there was no turning back. Jackie did a quick sketch of our basic idea for the "reactor", but because of the time constraints we ended up not being able to incorporate all of the complexity of her original work. Such is the fate of most concept art.

Once we had our basic ideas it was out to my dad's garage to see what we had laying around to build this thing with. Wood from an old desk: check. PVC pipe so old and heat stressed it was browning: check. Random fittings, valves and switches: check.

Now we were going to need more than that to make this thing look the part, so it was off the the $.99 Only store and thrift shops to find lights and other doodads. Pro Tip: $.99Only is the best place to get LEDs. $1 gets you a battery pack, round circuit board with 7 Leds, mechanical switch and a resistor!? Try pricing that out at Radio Shack.

Always look at the clearance items at Michaels.
The rivets were some scrap-booking sticker.

My dad found this gem at Savers. No idea what it was for, but we cut the guts our, ran 1 AA to the knob switch and attached it to the terminals on the gauge. It actually worked! we were able to control the needle with the knob. I added an on/off switch and some other dummy switches on the final piece.

With the casting from my hardware store silicone fuse mold we began to lay everything out.

We used several different spray paints. A bright hammered finish on the joints, a darker hammered finish on the back board, and a rustic bronze on the pipes them selves. I don't remember the brand or the exact name. Cut us some slack, we were in a hurry. I would also like to note that I hate wood. We used 3 cans of high build filler primer and 1 can of hammered paint on that back board and the grain still came through!

 Did I mention that this needed to light up? And be pretty? I didn't? Well it had to do both, be small, light weight and run on batteries. Well the $.99 Only store provided the light sources, but just plain white lite shinging out of this thing wouldent cut it. Luckly  Jackie had some leftover fantasy film from her Wasp wings. A little heat, armature wire and some glue and we had our prettiness! We also needed tubes coming out of the center of this "pixie warp core". My dad took some PVC fittings and used his oscillating sander to give them a curve that would fit the center of the fixture. With a small screw in the center for support we just 5 minute epoxied them right on

After that it was time for the final assembly and testing.

The thing worked like a champ!

 And one last shot on set.

I want to thank everyone over at Mantecoza for giving my dad and I a chance to work with them. It looks like the series is going to be great, and everyone reading this should shoot over and check out their website and facebook page!

Quora v3 and N01 program

Well our first con with a booth went great! We have pics up on our facebook of all our costumes, but i was really excited that we got to show off our latest Tron costumes. The v3 Quorra has to have been the most complex piece I have done to date, with countless solder joints and wiring. And of course, one of the two joints that came from the factory failed. But besides that set back it was great! Now i needed a costume to go with Jackies, so i decided instead of doing something from the movie, I would create my own Tron style character,N01. Simple El jacket and a helmet with sound responsive El in the grill. Both were a huge hit at the geek prom.

Commission Requests

So not really a post, but more of an FYI. If you would like to commission my wife and I to build you a specific prop or costume please send an email to us with the following information:

1:Your name and contact info

2:Character or Prop name and source material (movie/game/anime etc.) OR concept art/detailed description if you want an original work

3:At least one reference image (the more the better)

4:Date you need it completed by. Most projects we require 4-6 weeks. We still have day jobs you know!  But depending on the circumstance we may be able to work faster, although a rush fee will apply. On the other side of the coin, if you want 10 suits of armor it will take longer.


Now a quick word on pricing. We are two people building everything by hand, not a factory in China. Almost all projects will be over $100. Very complicated or time consuming ones can run into the $1000's. I am putting this up here because you would not believe how many people have hit up my wife asking about a Deadpool costume but only wanting to spend $40 on it. And no, there is no set pricing. Everything is based off of material costs, complexity and time, which changes drastically from project to project.  All other terms will be negotiated on an individual basis.  We will try and keep our pages updated with our availability, but we will not take on new commissions if our work load is too heavy.

Thank you!
Garrick Backer
Jackie Backer

Wasp Armor

With the Avengers movie out and everyone excited already for a sequel, my wife wanted to build an Avenger costume. Since the only choice from the fist film was Black Widow, and we have a good friend with a great Widow costume, she picked The Wasp from the comics. This build was split between the two of us. She will have a post up about how the design came about and how she put the suit together. I'm going to show off how I built the armored pieces. Now since we are in a time crunch before PHXCC, sculpting, molding, and casting pieces just wasn't going to happen. Lucky we have EVA foam to make our lives easier. This foam is commonly known as Foamies or Craft Foam but it is also the same material they make some of the anti-fatigue floor mats out of. The best part of working with this foam is that when heated and pressed it will take a shape and keep it, so with that in mind we looked about for something to use to form the breast plate. What we found was an over-sized Easter egg.

 After cutting it down to a appropriate size I used plaster to make solid copies. On a side note, don't try and rush de- molding plaster of paris. You will just end up with a mess.




 After only one failed pour I had my forms!

 To put pressure down evenly on my foam I took a scrap piece of acrylic that has been laying around my shop and used a dremel to cut it in to shape. After gluing my forms down to a board I used my heat gun and my make shift press to get this shape. I still ended up on my hands and knees pressing this into place.




My parents said I could do anything when I grew up. So I gave a floor mat boobs!

After my wonderful wife gave me the shape she wanted it was off to seal this up for painting.  EVA foam is very porous and does not paint well if you don't prep it right. A mix of white glue and water will seal it up. The glue I used is a craft glue called Sobo that you can get at any craft store, but regular Elmer's glue will work as well. I use about a 2 parts glue to 1 part water mix. And by that I mean I totally just eyeballed it. But if I had to guess I would say 2to1 is about right.

Now even though its been sealed I want a primer layer down before I start painting.
This is just one coat of Plasti-Dip out of the spray can. The high gloss shine goes away after it dries.

Now I just recently discovered acrylic spray paint, and I think I'm in love. Super high pigmentation, excellent coverage, flexible, low odor, fast drying time, mixable and blendable. The only draw back is that they average $10 a pop. Oh and you have to shake them for at least 3 minutes or you can ruin the whole can. The Liquitex brand they now carry at Michaels craft stores. They don't have as wide a color selection as the Gold brand (which Arizona Art Supply carries) but you can color match to their regular acrylic paints which might come in handy in the future. The Gold brand Chrome came out more like a bright silver, but chrome in a can never looks like the real deal. The Liquitex transparent yellow was tricky to work with at first but I think I nailed the metallic yellow look that my wife wanted. To top the whole thing off I clear coated it in a gloss acrylic sealer and glued to the suit using fabri-tac. My only failure was the hands. The clear coat wont dry on vinyl and the yellow will flake if it does not have a top coat. But we did get to coin the term "handruff" at free comic book day, so all was not in vain. Check out the other half of this build here oneblackcatsuit/wasp