Building the Mandalorian FLAMETHROWER Gauntlet Out of Steel

Mandalorians are awesome. Duh. I think I've wanted a suit of mando armor ever since seeing Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones as a kid. I mean gosh, what kid hasn't wanted a flamethrower gauntlet?

Now that I am an older, child-minded ...person, and have money (lol), I can build one. I've literally wanted to make a gauntlet flamethrower for years. This new Disney + Mandalorian show gave me just the inspirational push I needed.

Today I'm going to show you how I made a REAL STEEL Mandalorian gauntlet.

That is also a flamethrower.

Heck yeah

Step 1: Video

I have a youtube channel. Every video is an episode full of fun and creativity. Go subscribe.

I have spoken.

Step 2: Inspiration

When starting a new project, I always love to go find a bunch of pictures that inspire me. I can look at them throughout the build to regain that inspiration or to give me new ideas. Its good to have something to look back on to remind you where you are trying to go. Like a map.

Except dudes don't use maps; maps are for women.

Step 3: Planning and Materials

After obtaining the map (like a good woman), its time to plot your course. I drew up a rough design that I could follow.

Its a 'rough' design because I haven't yet unlocked the ability to see into the future and had no clue how it would actually turn out.

Materials:

Most everything that you will need to build something similar is found in this Amazon List: (affiliate links)

https://amzn.to/39yPYim

Tools:

All the basics; Angle Grinder, Drill, Rivet Gun, sandpaper....

Some not so basics: Welder, Sheet metal brake, Wire wheels, etc....

Step 4: Templates

I came up with my own templates messing around with some cardboard, so I don't have anything good to share with you. However I did find some good looking templates on the MandalorianMercs costume forum so if they are any help:

http://mandalorianmercs.org/downloadables/tutorial...

Step 5: Lots O Cutting

Angle grinder time.

After the shapes were cut out, I cleaned up the edges on my belt sander.

Step 6: Lots O Bending

I do not have the correct equipment to make these kind of bends. So I used the incorrect equipment that I had and bent it anyway. I used a dirt cheap metal brake to make countless small bends that all together formed the correct arc. Each piece of the gauntlet forms half a circle. Put together, they wrap around your arm in a completed circle-shape-thing.

Step 7: More Bending

To achieve the correct shape, the edges needed to have sharper bends, forming flat sections that I could attach a hinge and other parts to. The flats were about 1/2" wide.

Step 8: Where We're at So Far

I ended up making my templates wrong (classic), so I needed to cut off half an inch off the top, and while I was at it I cut some more to give the gauntlet this shape (see pictures).

Step 9: Welding Hinge

I wanted to be able to easily take the gauntlet on and off, so I decided to have the two pieces connect at one side with a hinge. The other side will have a buckle of some kind to latch it closed on your arm.

I wanted to weld as much as possible with this project because rivets would look like crap. Unfortunetely, my welding also looks like crap, so it was a strategic battle to figure out how to hide as much of the unavoidable crap as possible. Tor the hinge I decided to weld on the inside of the piece, through the holes drilled for attaching screws. That actually worked pretty well, and my garbage welding was completely hidden from view.

Side note: Welding magnets are worth their weight in gold.

Or some much much cheaper metal. Whatever they are valuable.

You need to have them.

Step 10: Metal Thingie to Go Onto the Rest of the Metal Thingie

I had a piece of scrap laying around from cutting the metal, and I realized it would be perfect to got on the buckle side and hold everything in place a little bit better. I drilled four holes in the gauntlet piece and welded it on from the back through the holes exactly like I did the hinge.

Step 11: Hand Piece

The Mando has got an armor plate on the back of the glove, I don't have a name for it so we'll call it "the hand piece". My creativity is incredible ain't it?

I cut a quick template out of some card stock, added the correct bends, and traced it onto the metal.

Cut. Sand. Bend.

Step 12: MAking the Glove Look Good

The welding glove I bought was cheap, but was also the wrong color. White is a no go folks. No problem, I just spray painted the white black. Does it look kinda funny? Yeah. Does it look better than white? Also yeah.

Step 13: Attach It to Glove

Darn it, I couldn't get away from rivets on this one. Oh well, its not that noticable. Doesn't look that bad.

Pretty straightforward, I figured out exactly where it needed to go on the glove, marked it, cut the holes in the glove, and riveted the two together.

Step 14: Can't Think of What to Call This Part

This is going to be the piece on the top of the gauntlet that holds all of our electric stuff. Batteries, ignition wires, trigger buttons, etc. It also needs to look good and add more details. Once again, I came up with a quick template, cut it out, and bent it into the correct shape.

The challenge with this piece was getting the curve on on the front to match the curvature of the gauntlet. A lot of grinding and sanding and testing fit and grinding and sanding some more.

Step 15:

I welded the seams from the inside so the welds weren't visible.

Cause my welding sucks, again.

Sanding the front to clean it up, and then test fitting and laying out the rest of the parts to figure out where they were going to go and how I was going to affix them.

Step 16: Drill Holes

I decided on attaching the top housing with bolts, and then hide the bolts with some other details. This will allow me to remove the housing to get at the electrics inside, and, once again, no need to use my mad welding skills. Drilling straight holes was a bit of a nightmare as the pieces are so irregularly shaped it was hard to figure out a way to hold them still. Luckily, I am a genius.

I had some extra metal, so I cut out a strip to add some more detail on the bottom of the gauntlet. I used a couple of rivets to attach that part.

Step 17: Details Details....

Mando gauntlets are COVERED in weapons and small details. Building a real one with only one weapon (flamethrower), it ends up looking a little lacking. Details are the key. I had a leftover pipe-thing from a previous project that I repurposed for a fake gun on top of the electronics housing. I did have to use my welding talents here, as there was simply no other way to attach the pieces.

Fortunetely, I am more skilled at grinding and sanding than I am at stick welding.

I also welding on another gun/detail bit on the front of the housing. I managed to weld that on from the inside however, so no clean up was neccessary.

Step 18: Making the Flamethrower Barrel

Finally onto the actuall flamethrower part! The barrel of the flamthrower will be mounted on the side of the gauntlet, similar to Boba and Jango fett's gauntlets. The barrel will extend out to about the front of the fist, so there shouldn't be any fire actually in contact with the glove. Safety, you know.

The barrel housing is a lenth of square steel tube, which I welded onto the side of the gauntlet just above the hinge. I cut an angle on the front and back of the tube for looks.

Step 19: Finished With the Metalwork!!

Hoorah! Revell in the glory of my creation.

lol

Step 20: Padding

Self explanitory. I think.

Am I the only one who is mad instructables doesn't have a spell checker? Explainitory? Explainetory? Explanetory? Explanitory? Jeez.

Step 21: Flamethrower Inner Barrel

The inner barrel is a couple of 1/4" pipe nipples, screwed into the solenoid. I wrapped them in electrical tape to create a friction fit inside the square tube. No permanent attachment, because attachments are forbidden for a Jedi.

Bad. Sorry.

I want to be able to dissasemble it easily.

Step 22: The Zappy Zappy Thing

Ignition will be kindly provided by a zappy thing, also known as a voltage booster. It is basically the innards of a stun gun, it takes low voltage and boosts it WAY up using dark science and secrets only the sith know.

I connected it up to three AA batteries, and we get a nice fat spark. I went this route instead of modifying a stun gun because of size contraints, not much space under that housing.

Step 23: Installing the 'lectrics

The solenoid is powered by 2 9v batteries, bringing the voltage up to 18v. Those batteries and solenoid are hooked up to a button switch installed in the side of the housing. The ingition system is hooked up to the other button. Push the near button, the solenoid opens, push the far button, you get ignition.

Step 24: Gasoline Fuel Tank

Onto the fuel system! Going into this project I wanted to do a fuel system similar to the classic military style flamethrower, a CO2 (or similar) non-flammable gas propelling a liquid fuel (in my case gasoline).

The fuel tank itself I made out of an old empty fire extinguisher. It is rated for 300 psi. The paintball CO2 I was going to use to pressurize it is about 900 psi more or less (depending on temperature). So we need a regulator on the CO2 tank to bring that down to a pressure the fire extinguisher can handle. I found a regulator made for converting pneumatic tools to run off of paintball co2, takes the pressure down to 0-160 psi. Perfect.

I drilled and tapped the nozzle of the fire extinguisher to connect to my hose leading to the gauntlet, and then drilled and tapped a second hole in the side of the fire extinguisher. I epoxied in a fitting, and then connected up that line to the co2 tank.

See the first picture for a diagram of how the thing works if you are a bit confused.

Step 25: Propane Fuel Tank

Because I am a genius, I had the genius idea of using some quick connect air line fittings on the fuel tank and gauntlet lines, which allows me the ability to disconnect them all easily, and ALSO to use a different fuel system.

So I made a second, PROPANE fuel system. Two propane canisters mounted upside down (with a couple ball valves to be able to shut them off). Upside down because that makes the liquid propane flow down and shoot out the gauntlet rather than just the gas; creating a much larger flame.

Step 26: Nozzle

For the propane fuel system, no nozzle is necessary.

The gasoline system however needs a nozzle, because the pressure is too low to get a good reach/fuel vaporization otherwise. Because I am a genius, I had the genius idea to (quite geniusly) use the nozzles for a pressure washer. They are quick connect fittings, so I can swap out nozzles and use no nozzle for propane easily. I used a 15 degree nozzle, and it worked very well to get a large spread of fire. If I wanted a smaller flame but a much longer reach, I could quickly change out for a 0 degree nozzle, and so on.

Pure genius.

Lol.