For those interested in seeing recycled HDPE used as a laminate check out my newest version of these plates! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q6eFm5Z12Nazl6c.html

I swear to God, if you figure out how to make a level IV plate, you should be awarded a freedom medal

Alternate directions of your fabric by 45° every wrap. It's how they increase strength in regular kevlar vests

Excited for that .308 test's results, love the idea of re-using old milk jugs, very eco and utilitarian.

I'd be interested in seeing similar "armor" panels installed into the doors, and seat backs, and roof, of a vehicle,....

1. This is awesome! Really appreciate this. 2. I have a suggestion for your fabrication process with the composites. Instead of casting solid blocks of HDPE how about this. Separate the softened HDPE into 4-8 equal sized portions. Lay down the first portion and compress enough to form it to the mold. Then add a layer of fiberglass, then another layer of HDPE, layer of fiberglass, layer of HDPE, and so on. Put it back in the oven as necessary to maintain flexibility. After you've gotten however many layers you decide to make, put it back under compression (likely with weights that are heat resistant) and then heat the mold up to near melting point. Then go forward with the annealing process. With the composite sandwiched between HDPE the individual fibers motion is also constrained by the HDPE and the HDPE flow under impact forces is constrained by the composite fibers. Just an idea.

Mother in law's going to ask me why I have 350 milk jugs I refuse to throw away lol

Great work! Taofladermaus put your work on display. More than impressive.

Y'all should get together with Matt over at Demolition Ranch! This is right up his alley and he could help with production of more plates and hitting them with some high caliber weapons. Nice to see some good homegrown content still making it into my feed!

The plates need to be made of very thin multiple layers. So it can flex and absorb the energy of the bullet.

The friction energy reduction is incredible

Awesome video! Love these armor projects! Some of my favorite videos on KZfaq!

19:39 You may encounter a similar problem if you make your 10x12 plate curved with the ceramic tiles. A counter is a mosiac, however, this leaves cracks between the tiles, and you've witnessed first hand what cracks between materials can result in. A simple solution is a double layer of ceramics offset in tessellation, but that forces you to use double the ceramic needed. I think a better solution is out there, and can likely be cooked up in the discord (when you give us the link, lol). Edit: 20:16 There is a commercially available level 3 plate (AMI something) that is non ceramic that uses dynemma backer with 3mm steel in FRONT. This might be the plate to try to imitate, its multi hit capability is ridiculous since ceramic is ditched entirely.

This is truly ingenious, fantastic video, I started cutting up milk jugs, melting plastic grocery bags, chemical bottles, shampoo bottles etc into confetti. I ended up getting a cheap toaster oven to melt it down and made a 5×8 wood mold to press it in to make small individual plates for a batman armor suit and so far I've tried doing thin layers at a time of hdpe and putting fiberglass tape in between each layer of hdpe and change the direction of the fiberglass tape each time until the hdpe/fiberglass is a half an inch to 3/4 of an inch, I think that the fiberglass tape would work best in between the hdpe layers because the fiberglass strands are far apart so the hdpe can go through it and bond to itself better than fiberglass fabric since the hdpe can't melt into a liquid like epoxy resin does. Then I will try the annealing but not sure what temperature will work, I looked up a couple sites and one site said to anneal hdpe at 200 degrees for 2 to 4 hours and the other site said 250 degrees at 2 to 4 hours which I think might be to hot since hdpe melts right around that temperature and lower the temperature slowly after that between 10 to 50 degrees per hour, I'll try to figure it out as well, I won't be able to test it however where I live, I can't wait to see how your annealed hdpe plates stand up against hand gun rounds or rifle rounds etc. Ps I'd love to see you try what I'm doing with layers of fiberglass tape in between the hdpe. Again I really loved this video and it's inspiring!

Stunning Research & Development work, I love it. You guys got one new subscriber. Plus the results are awesome. Those plates didn't receive any favor treatment and still handle the bullet storm. Beyond impressive ! I hope you success in your work, be sure I'll catch up my late on your enjoyable videos.

First time ive seen this channel.... Wow awesome is all i can say!

Please keep this project live! Very good!

*_The man is back_*

Incredible. Im already processing several ways to make these better. Fantastic tutorial fellas. Thank you.

Fascinating results mate, cheers

Good job!! That was awesome

Great video, I love the body armor stuff!

This is amazing. Really cutting edge, it seems like the future of plates may be something like this!

2 minutes of this and I subscribed, keep up the good work this is useful info for all sir.

I see lots of potential. Try making several thinner layers and sandwich several of them with wire mesh between each layer; then heat it up and compress the whole thing so the mesh layers are embedded in the plastic. You could also add some steel wool between each mesh layer; I think this will considerably add to the stopping power because as a bullet pushes through the mesh, the mesh (and steel wool) will pull the plastic tighter around the bullet as well as help hold the plastic together.

Couple of thoughts- Cut some of that glass into strips and incorporate it into the HDPE when molding it. That way the glass will basically create small pockets of restrained plastic that can't move out of the bullets' way as easily. In other words put the added strength of the glass inside the HDPE instead of outside. With sufficient pressure the HDPE should penetrate the glass cloth and bond it all together. HDPE (like most thermoplastics doesn't "melt" the way say ice does. It has a "fusion temperature" (look it up) slightly above 400F depending on its exact composition. Commercial processing is done at about 420- 430F to get best homogeneity and crosslinking which increases strength. Yes, it's harder to handle at that temperature but you can also pour it into molds like syrup instead of kneading it like dough. That means you can make fiberglass "lasagna" out of it- a layer of glass cloth, a layer of HDPE, repeat until the mold is full. Mild steel plates would be better on the front than on the back IMO. Bullets lose more energy penetrating that than they do HDPE so it would be better to decelerate them rapidly with the steel, then let the plastic do the relatively easy part of catching them.

Awesome testing. Keep going!

You are on your way man, this is great, I used to slump glass, annealing plastic? Amazing.

Hell yah man thanks this was awesome

Yoooouuu make it, weeeee shoot it I cant be the only one

Really appreciate the time and effort put into these videos! Been subscribed and had the bell selected since the early milk jug tests, but never get any notifications. Thought you weren't making videos anymore!

this is awesome! thank you!

Shit I didn’t know this account was still making videos. I was just about to watch the q & a. I was watching all the different videos then I saw this. So I guess I’ll subscribe:)

Try encasing the ceramic and steel within the hdpe to help hold the ceramic together. It would also be interesting to see how layering the materials within each other in various thickness effects the ability of the plates to stop projectiles.

That's awesome man, thanks!!

This is awesome keep it coming bro

I'm putting up a sign on my yard that says ...." No Trespassing" Due to the ammo shortage I will not be giving a warning shot.

Honey pass me the milk plates

Great job,very informative.

Hi liked this video. I'm wondering if you have ever considered powderizing the hdpe and doing multiple layers with kevlar or fiberglass in between. In my mind there would be added benifits by combining the materials within a sheet. Would be cool to see you test the idea out

I've already done a comprehensive battery of ballistics tests using solid 3/8 inch thick and 1/32 laminated sheets to make 3/8 thick using Delrin (Polyoxymethylene POM), and it handles nearly every cartridge available to the public.

Very impressive. I hope you keep working at this to make it even better. Keep notes on everything you do. Your processes could end up being the key to what works the best in the end.

Dude you are a true scientist this is the first time I've seen your video and I'm greatly amazed thank you

I did my own test after seeing your first set of videos using several layers of fiberglass and milk jugs. I was able to keep my plate around 1 inch thick. I was able to stop 45 acp, 45 colt, and 357 mag at point blank. The more layers I used the better it stopped the bigger rounds but had delamination problems, also my plates were about the size of a cellphone. The less layers I used would stop more small rounds before if delaminationed.

Awesome video, you should send a sample to Demolition Ranch, Matt would love this

That's great!!! Thanks for your research!!!

Cool vid! Showing how you did it with the shooting, how awesome and complete. Gotta love that ingenuity and hey, you're recycling! Lol. I subbed, I've seen a couple of your other vids in the past and like them and this was so well done and so worth my interest in your whole channel. Such a great experiment and your dad is cool, what a beautiful variety of some real classics and a man of taste. I was drolling at that table of guns, OMG, lol.

You could probably make very cheap vehicle protection with plates like these, since they're light weight and relatively easy to mold and form. I think you just became a millionaire, or I sure hope so! Keep up the good work!

YEEEA BOI!!

Good job! Keep up the awesome work and great videos.

Thanks for making this video

That's awesome man. Good stuff. I like the idea of re-annealing the hdpe. Would you just leave it in the mold, let it cool and pop it back in the oven at 250 or 300 for 10 or so minutes?

Holy shit I need to try this.

7:45 oh no, he's a teacupper! Lol . Awesome video

Great testing coverage 🤙🏼

Looks like I need some fiberglass and resin. BTW Taofledermaus sent me.

Thank you

Definitely saving this video to a playlist, got to try this.

Awesome work!

So, I'm pretty sure that plastic cutting boards are the same type of plastic (or similar enough to give the same results). They are thinner of course, but I wonder if you alternated a few layers of fiberglass and tiles with them what sort of results you'd have. Tile to break up the bullet, plastic to slow it down, fiberglass to catch fragments, repeated a couple times. Would be interesting.

Duuuude, what if, you could incorporate some wire fence INTO the HDPE block in order to avoid excesive expansion? could that help? Like, 2 or 3 layers of chicken wire fence or something thicker, just pressed between 1/4 inch layers of hdpe? Would that help? I think it'd be way cheaper at least, it would be awesome even if it could only reliably stop pistol calibers

This is amazing work..very well done 👍

Who would have thought!! old milk jugs...great idea...good work...good for you...

Hey James, thanks again for another interesting video! The performance difference between the HDPE and wrapped HDPE plates was indeed pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to the performance of the HDPE after annealing though. Do you have any video footage of how the plate performed that you tested for me? (2 porcellain tiles and 1/2" polycarbonate plate) I would be interested in seeing how much the ceramics shattered and how it stood up overall.

Ah-Haa ! Wrap in Fiber....Back to the shop.... 5 Stars Thumbs Up !!

Used to work in a lab testing ppe for use by auto oems. You’re doing a good job figuring this out so far, the only thing i might suggest is to produce standardized test specimens for analysis before a material is destined for the range. Why? Firstly, and most importantly in this line of inquiry, is to ensure a sample’s homogeneity. Secondly, os the ease of testing will be improved, and the quality of data, will be improved by am order of magnitude. Thirdly, the cost of doing testing (in money and time) per data point can be brought down as your data gets better. A simple charpy/izod set up, density check, vacuum annealing oven, hot oil bath, etc could be had onn the cheap depending on your handiness amd luck in finding deals. That with some ingenuity with excel could give you repeatable results that will give insights into how the material responds to stresses and why, while also permitting the testing of additives (such as talc nylon fiberglass rubber etc) and novel manufacturing methods. Most of the astm/iso procedures, requirements, specifications, methods, etc are available online. These will give you a start on the how amd why of various tests you could perform.

I hope this will be giving ideas to office furniture makers who make things like cubical panels and room dividers. Materials and constructions like these could give people in offices a *major* survival uptick vs. shooters and possibly even shrapnel if used in the office environment at relatively very little increase in cost.

I quit wearing BA. There are so many obese folks out in public the advantage I gain in less weight is worth it. Keep eating those Krispy Kremes and I'll always have an abundance of cover. Thanks y'all!🤠🇺🇸⚔🇮🇱🍺

Have you tried layering instead of wrapping?

I just found your video after having the same thoughts about HDPE absorbing bullet energy after having to cut and sand some. Amazing work!

Great video!

Your dad was having a lot of fun.

Have you thought about laminating layers of the hdpe rather than melting it into a solid block? I know that some commercial level 4 plates are ceramic front with multiple layers of a ultra high density PE.

If you pour the plastic into the fiberglass final form instead of building the fiberglass shell around the plastic, it might reduce the area the plastic can use in deformation and provide more stopping friction.

Amazing, simply amazing!

Mold a medium SAPI plate size

Where the hell did you find FMJ .22lr

Great stuff.

this is the stuff I like to see on youtube! this is freaking awesome!

new to your channel, this stuff is awesome. thanks!

Came from taofladermous

Metal on the front should work better for mangling and slowing the bullet, and HDPE to catch that.

Very interesting. Greetings from France!

This was very interesting thank you very much for sharing the video I thought it was an awesome video great job keep up the good work

Also I don’t know if you’re doing this but if you’re using ceramic dont use one full piece. Use the little tiles that come in like a sheet.

I think HDPE would make a GREAT anti spall coating.

Basically “UHMWPE at home”.😂😂 Good work dude really cool video

This would be fantastic for the military. Absolute dedication absolute loyalty

Active shooter situation, you are most likely to face .223 then 7.62x39 in the US if the bad guy has a rifle.

If you are not doing this already, your best bet at stopping any bullet is to put the ceramic or metal plate as the first layer in this ballistic protection system you are creating. The reason for this is you want to break up the bullet or make it fragment upon impact with a hard surface. The plastic will deform (plastic deformation vs elastic deformation) and absorb some of the kinetic energy of the projectile. The problem you will face in using low thermal plastics is the kinetic energy of high velocity rounds tend to 'melt' there way thru plastic barriers that have a low melting point, kind of like a hot knife thru butter. The problem with using ceramics, for bullet fragmenting, is they tend to shatter like glass after the first round hits them and therefore drastically reduce their effectiveness at shattering successive rounds. The fiberglass wrap you are using is really good idea for spall containment. Lastly, the best material I know of for fragmenting high velocity bullets is high carbon steel, but this ways a ton so to speak. Love the video and project you have going on, godspeed in your endeavors.

Damn you got a big head and a even bigger brain! Keep up the good work love the ingenuity

outstanding keep up

man thi is some mad max fallout type stuff. i love it.

I retired from school district maintenance. We used and discarded 5/8" slabs of recycled milk jugs and oil bottles. Stopped most .22lr rounds and .38 special. Man, I miss being able to pull them out of the dumpster.

This is a great channel ALOT of ppl can't afford body armor....this is awsome for defense

Awesome vid brother ! Some great info for newbies or like most of the country now people with smaller normal budgets, not SPONSORED budgets. Like utube is filled of.

Very cool!

Awesome thank you. I have to say perhaps a sandwich of the plastic and kevlar say 5 layers with a thin hard steel plate at the back to catch the round after it has mushroomed and lost some energy. Appreciat the effort. Cheers.

Thanks for the video.

This guy is a genius