Rod Tutorial

By The Bug King

Sick of your armies weapons bending over because the pewter weapon shafts are too thin?
Follow these instructions and that will be a problem of the past!

The tools and supplies you will need:

• The part you intend to modify and a similar weapon so you can make measurements.
• Brass Rod
• Brass Tube that will just fit over the Brass Rod (I used 1/16″ brass tube and 1/32″ brass rod for this example)
• Needle Nose Pliers
• Side Cutters
• Exacto Knife
• A Dremel with Drill Bit sized just larger then the brass rod
• A Dremel with Cut Off Wheel (I am using my Foredom flexible shaft for this example. The two tool attachments are pictured above). You can replace the dremel with a pin vice and a good metal miter saw but the dremel is much easier to use.
• Super Glue
• Pencil or Fine Point Magic Marker

Step 1

Cut off the sections you want to replace.



Step 2

Use your Exacto knife to clean off any flash on the parts you are keeping and cut smooth the points where you cut the sections out. It is very important to make sure that the cut sections are flat and square. If they aren’t the brass rod will not line up correctly.



A close up of the hand section:



You can see where I have cut as much of the pewter weapon shaft off as I could with out damaging the hand. This makes nesting the brass tube easier later on.

Step 3

Drill through the hand section and into the two end pieces. When drilling the hand section it is very important to keep the drill bit aligned with the old weapon shaft. There should still be a bit of the weapon shaft visible on the hand section so just line up the drill with that and go slowly. If you do not line up the drill correctly you will wind up putting the drill bit through the fingers or some other part of the hand.



Step 4

Glue the brass rod into the hand section. Leave plenty of rod above and below the hand section. It is easy to trim the rod once glued but nearly impossible to remove it if it is too short.



Step 5



Use the spare weapon section to mark where the end pieces attach. Then clip the excess brass rod off laving about 1/8″ of material past the marks like so:



Again, if you are in doubt leave a bit extra. You will not be able to remove the brass rod with out destroying the hand section.

Step 6

Use the marks on the brass rod to mark the cut lengths on the brass tube and then use your dremel cut off wheel to cut the brass tube sections.



At this point I usually do a test fit of everything to make sure that it looks the way I want it to.



If you have to make any changes to your parts now is the time to do it. Once you glue the parts together you will not be able to get them apart.

Step 7

Apply a drop of glue next to the hand on the brass rod. Do not put glue on the entire section of brass rod. The glue will set before you get the brass tube into place!
Apply about as much as is shown:



If you apply too much glue let it dry and file it off if necessary. Again, DO NOT put the brass tube on if there is too much glue on the brass rod!

Use your needle nose pliers to slide the brass tube into place.
You want to start sliding the tube onto the rod but stop well away from the glue drop. Then very quickly slide the tube into place. If you are not quick the glue will set before you get the tube all the way on.

The results after gluing both sections on:



Step 8

Glue the end pieces on and you are done!