Scrapyard Flail!! || MIM-I

Welcome.

In this I'ble I will be showing you how I built a medieval-ishy scrapyard flail. (insert dramatic fanfare)

This is part of the Make It Medieval-Ish series of Instructables that fellow maker BrokkHrafnsson and I are currently doing. (unless you are in the future, in which case we are currently not doing it anymore) Go check out the stuff we've made so far in this collection: https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-It-Medieval-Ish/

Now we come to the part of the introduction where I usually explain why I decided to (or why you should) build one of these. For this project however I feel that I can safely skip that part. Let's face it, we all know there is no real reason to make a rusty sharp pointy medieval-ishy spiked flail.

Ha! Just kidding. I had you for a minute there :) No, actually we have had quite a bad zombie problem around my house lately. Needed some bigger firepower, you know.

Check me out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCszMFa_qz5weFBoQ7olwlGw/videos

The challenge for this project from the beginning was to build it completely out of scrap metal I had laying around the shop.

Fine. I cheated. A little. Not much. Here's what I used to build it:

What Jake used to build it:

-Black steel pipe (1" diameter I believe) (scrap)

-Metal rake head (broken)

-Old rusty chain

-Mild Steel bar stock 1/8" thick

-Old sawblade (salvaged from the depths of my friend's burn pile"

-Rake Handle (for the handle) (big surprise)

^^ i bought that. Is that cheating?

-1/4" mild steel round stock (I bought that. Yep. I cheated. Do I care? Negatory.)

Tools I can remember using:

-Angle grinder

-Bench Grinder

-Belt Sanders (1x30" & 4x36")

-File

-Drill

-Welder (DC inverter arc welder to be more or less precise)

I mean it. Be brutal. Cut that thing right in half, which unless my math is wrong should leave you with two sections of equal length. These are going to be our wicking looking spikes.

Oh the carnage.....

I measured the length of the rake-half, added about an inch to give room to attach the chain, and cut the pipe to that length. I believe it ended up being somewhere just over 7 inches.

Because this was a scrapyard mace (and because I didn't have any bolts), I decided to used some large framing nails as pins to affix the rake-spikes to the pipe.

Drill three holes through everything.

Before permanently affixing me spikes to the pipe, I went ahead and spikified the spikes. To make them more spiky. (logically)

It would have been much more difficult to grind the points after they were mounted to the pipe.

I pushed my nail-pins all the way through and hammered down the ends. That actually made it quite secure, and I believe you could use it just like that and it would be fine. However, my welder was just sitting there.......

So I made it more secure.

It was looking good. Very good. But, there was just something..... lacking.

More spikes. (duh) I drew out a design, ground it out of some of the mild steel bar stock, and welded them onto the unsightly (but so awesome) mass I had created.

Okay, they ended up being more like flanges than spikes, but what the heck.

It was beautiful.

Self explanatory.

To connect the chain to the spike-flanged-ball-pipe, you need some sort of ring attachment. I was originally going to use some of those chain connector-thingies (you know, the funny looking carabiner with threads and a nut), but for the size I wanted they were silly expensive.

And I never spend money on something I can build.

I wanted a 2" diameter ring, so I cut off a 6" length of the round stock. I then beat it into a ring (making sure to hook it through the chain and spike-pipe before closing it up). Then I welded the ring shut.

I decided to make a slick hilt for the flail handle. Very simple, really. I ground some more shapes out of my mild steel bar, and welded them equally spaced around a short length of pipe.

Bata bam!

I'm tired of explaining.

(okay fine, it's basically the same as the last step, except larger and with only 3 flanges which I cut out of a sawblade)

The rake handle was just too large to fit inside the pipe, so I used the belt sander to sand down the diameter until there was a good tight fit. I made sure it was a tight fit, as friction is the only thing holding them together (you could add some pins too if your heart so desires).

I then hammered them all together. It was a very snug fit. I had to hammer on them quite a bit before they complied. It was sorta like when two fellas like the same girl, and of course both fella's are insanely jealous of the other fella, but the girl doesn't like either of em, and thus they all hate each other. It was like trying to hammer the three of them together.

Yeah......

Pretty much the same as ring #1, except I decided to go for more of a trapezoid. I also didn't weld the ends together, rather I drove the ends through the holes in the pipe and left it at that.

So yeah. Like I said, nothing like ring #1

Chain needs cut to the correct length as well. I am guesstimating I made my chain approximately 3 feet long. Since the chain I had was a bit on the wimpy side, I doubled it to give some added girth. Purely aesthetics.

This is a scrapyard flail. It needs to look the part. The handle was too light.

So. I. Made. It. Darker.

By burning it with my propane forge burner (sans forge). I really need to get that forge built....

Congratulations, you have just built (in all probability) the coolest thing this side of the north end of the south Atlantic Mississippi. You are also Awesome. And will have no fear sleeping at night knowing this is hanging above your bed.

Unless you think about the possibility of it falling off of the wall and braining you in your sleep. On second thought, you may not sleep quite so well tonight.

But you are still Awesome. With a capital A. Even thought it means the same thing without the capital A.

Am I getting distracted? Probably.

Thank you for reading this instructable. I'd love it if you went and checked out my other projects, as well as following me, subscribing to me on YouTube, checking out Brokk and Me's projects: https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-It-Medieval-Ish/, dropping me a comment, and sending me a billion dollars.

Until next time!

Jake.