I do not have the answer to this but it all possess a question or two in my head. Part of the bullet resistance of fabric such as Kevlar is it's ability to deform and produce a more gradual deceleration of the bullet. The fabric catches the bullet like a catcher's mit. This fabric deformation spreads the bullets energy over a larger area. It is my suspicion that making the fabric into a solid sheet might actually assist the bullet in penetration. As a crude example, if I placed a material flat against a brick wall and struck it very hard with a Ball-peen hammer, the damage to the material would probably be much different than if the material was free hanging and could move on impact. It would be very interesting to see side by side shots on the fabric not laminated. Perhaps securing the fabric to an open hollow frame? I don't know. Might be interesting results to compare.

1. Calibrated construction gravel and melted HDPE. Thick-ish and not really lightweight but super cheap. [2 thick ceramic floor tiles glued together in the front for more protection if you want] Bare or back up with 5-to-8 layers of the cheapest fine fabric+resin you have, simply taking care of crossing each layers square-45°-square-45°-square-45° etc 2. Same with ceramic balls and melted HDPE around. Will be lighter but thicker. 3. 2 simple ceramic floor tiles glued together and melted HDPE all around. A soft pack behind any plate gives time/room for deformation/dissipation.

Thank you. Exciting stuff. Thats some cheap armor. Appreciate the effort. Keep warm .cheers.

thanks again, glad you're still at it

I'd love to see this with 25+ layers, also a fabric I was looking into called Dyneema. Have you ever heard or looked into it, its used in cut resistant sleeves and such? It may be a viable material-idk about price though.

Liked while intro music started playing :)

Since 5.7FN is so much harder to stop than fatter, slower bullets (despite their greater mass), I think you'd save yourself a lot of time & effort just by using it as a quick test; you can always go back & test the whole gamut afterwards once you have a winning composition...

Yeah I'm looking to build a lightweight curiass that is stab proof and can stop pistol rounds for the zombie apocalypse or long term civil unrest. Actually if I can stumble across the right combination of materials, I'm looking to make a whole suit of armor out this stuff. So videos like these help immensely. Keep up the good work.

I remember your old milk jug HDPE plate, have you ever thought about trying out UHMW? It supposedly has 5x the impact resistance of HDPE

Ranger boats uses a process for their fiberglass called pultrusion. Super compressed. I wonder how it would hold up.

- Try laminating layers at different angles since composites are not isotropic. - Add a thin sheet of aluminum in front of the composite plate to break hollow points before impact. - This is speculative but try making a 30 layer plate and compare it to 2 15 layers separated by a thin piece of EVA, might be different. I'd try it but i live in europe so no access to guns

Any idea what weight the vectran fabric was it 200g? Love the channel looking forward to your ballistic nylon tests aswell mate

I bought a 10 meter roll of UHMWPE sheet/cloth on Alibaba (can't get it in the West easily, and certainly not at the price you can at Alibaba). It is made for ballistic vests and plates. I've been laminating it about 60 layers thick which SHOULD make it level III by itself. I'm applying a layer of hexagonal porcelain tile over it (front side) and going to wrap the whole thing with a layer of Kevlar. It should be level IV or level II+ when done. I think this vectran stuff, plus UHMWPE laminated together to about 1 inch thick, then either covered with ceramic tile or ballistic nylon or Kevlar should get your plate up to III+ as well. As it is, I'd bet you can get to level III with just this vectran cloth if you layered out to an inch thick or so. Take any of these and cover with ceramic tile and ballistic cloth - you must capture shrapnel from the ceramic at least or you can ruin your day if shot and that requires an outer nylon, Kevlar, or even more vectran cover.

Awesome Stuff !! ....and you presentations are down to earth and clearly explained...Heck, even I can understand em ! Built my "mold/form box" yesterday and will begin melting down HDPE tomorrow. Would like to see/hear your thoughts on Soft Armor...IE..how many layers...material used ect. GREAT Channel ! Looking forward to your next one...

Great videos, and a great channel. Please keep this up. You're answering a lot of questions that I have about what can be used as ballistic armor and how to make it. Something that would cool is soft armor. I wonder how Vectran and Spectra fabrics compare to Kevlar in a soft armor application.

There is a stab resistant fabric already. I believe a quick search my help point you in the right direction

Nice work with the Vectran lamination. I am building ballistic shells for shielding equipment at a shooting range. Looked at a number of fabrics for ballistic characteristics, and so far, Vectran looks the best. Do you know which grade Vectran you were using, HS or M? And do you know the denier rating? Most testing is based on a 1500 denier, 300 filament yarn. I have found Vectran with tensile strength ratings of 500, 750 and 1000 lbs, but I need more information about denier size. The heavier the fabric the more difficult to get good wetting in the lamination, although I am using vacuum bagging and low viscosity epoxy. You might check out TECH Ingredients on KZfaq. They are testing various fabrics for ballistic shielding but have not done a video on their results. You might also be interested in a research project done at the Army Research Laboratory in 2011 testing basalt woven fabrics for military applications (apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a552757.pdf ). Thanks for your experimentation and will follow future projects.

I'm reading that excess resin is weaker, as resin is not bulletproof - it only binds the layers. Will it stop 45 Long Colt - Colt, LC or C are same - or 50 cal handgun? How many layers to stop a 30-06? Thanks, great video! Giovanni

Just in time

Great video next gotta try some larger caliber rounds.

Could you make it more bullet resistant by baking some shear thickening fluid into it? I believe shear thickening fluid is polyethylene glycol mixed with silica powder.

Would you make plates half the width and overlapping to put into something like a modern wisby coat of plates? You wouldn't need to worry about curving larger plates and damaged ones could easily be swapped out. Also body armour tends to be cheaper than a quality combat helmet. Seeing the ECH ballistic helmet (HDPE based) test I was thinking it needs a harder interior shell or backing. I wonder if a similar lining to the Vietnam era M1 helmet could be used. I would love to see your designs in a helmet. Perhaps using a cheap replica as a base. The mk6 British nylon helmet was very disappointing. It couldn't stop any pistol rounds. LVL IV body armour exists but helmets continue to disappoint.

The link to the vectran seems to be dead... and I'm having trouble finding it...

Unfortunately, v the link provided for vectran no longer appears to have vectran. That fabric is as hard to find as UHMWPE flexible sheets in the West. You can find dyneema but it's expensive. Kevlar is fairly easy to find. Alibaba has Vectran but I cannot find less than 500 meter rolls.

COULD THIS BE PUT INTO CAR DOORS? WHAT IF YOU MADE SEVERAL LAYERS SEPARATED THEN INSTALLED IN CAR DOORS OR UNDER FLOOR MATS. WITH PEOPLE GOING AFTER GAS IN UR TANK,WHAT ABOUT PUTTING UP A SHIELD OF IT AROUND OR AT THE BOTTOM OF A GAS TANK?> THANKS

No doubt you've considered layers including some 3A Aramid/Kevlar along with fiberglass & poly-U, and I haven't yet watched ALL of your videos, but if you have tried it, did you have any luck stopping 7.62 x 54?

Is epoxy too strong for armor? It might not delaminate as well as polyester resin.

Just found your page, good stuff. Have you experimented with resin/epoxy impregnated ballistic nylon or dyneema? I've been looking around for homemade armor/plates done right and I may have found it. Edit: saw the comment below. I have 1.2mm 300# tes string and it's badass. Are you familiar with dragonskin? From about 10 years ago? I want someone to do an at home, better version of it. I think you're up to the challenge

Halo sir, im from indonesia, i want to ask. how about dynemma in 15 layers, can u predic sir? 15 layers uhmwpe can stop 7.62 or no? Or maybe you can suggest me, how many layers of uhmwpe that i need to stop 7,62 calibre?

I don't see the fabric on that website.

Hey man great to see ya again hope to see some more content soon. I'll be making videos again as well, hope to see ya around

I don't see the fabric on the website. Not sure if I'm bad at searching for stuff, I couldn't find a single vendor that sells vectran. Is the epoxy you used theepoxyexperts.com/shop/adhesives/structural-strength/max-bond/max-bond-low-viscosity-ab/max-bond-low-viscosity-32-oz-epoxy-resin-fiberglassing-marine-aero-auto-boat-building-high-impact/ this one? I wonder if hdpe fabric could work. I've been searching online but I'm only seeing tarps. Thinner is probably better because it can stretch more before breaking. (For the same weight of fiber) If you look at the Lv 3 hdpe plates, you can see the fibers are very very thin. They don't use a lot of epoxy, so the plates even float on water. Very thick plates, but much lighter than sapi plates. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Zs9_qt2er-DIlY0.html go to 2min 16 seconds. You can see the insides of the plate. Only if kelvar wasn't so expensive lol Using as much fabric and as little epoxy is best. Looking forward to your next videos. Please upload often.

Man do we ever need to hang out..

Does someone know where I can get vectran?

so... they dont sell Vectran no more...