DIY Bullet Leatherband

What`s up DIY Fans,

Today I present to you my Bullet Leatherband Project, that can be done by everyone without advanced crafting skills. It is a small and inexpensive weekend project, that might accentuate your own style in a pretty awesome way.

In this instructable I want to show you, what tools and materials you will need to build this unique accessories. The Leatherband can be modified towards your desire and I just want to give you in this project one example of how it could look like.

I made a hole DIY Video to show you every step of the building process in moving pictures and I hope it may be an inspiration for some of you to recreate it.

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Watch all steps of the Building Process and get inspired by this DIY Video. Make also sure to leave me some Feedback.

►What Tools will you need:

1. a Scalpel, to cut the leather in clean stripes
2. a Hallow (Leather) Punch Tool, to punch small holes for the metal rivets
3. a small Metal Saw, to accurately cut up the bullet casings
4. a Dremel Polisher, to make the casings shiny
5. a Rivet Setter, to attach the rivets to the bullet casings
6. some Basics: a Ruler, Pliers, Scissors, a Vice
7. (Optional:) a Cutting Board

►What Materials will you need

1. a peace of garment Leather (with dimensions of at least 25cm x 10cm)
2. two 9mm bullet casings, which will hold everything together
3. some .45 ACP bullet casings, for decoration (4 peaces worked great for me)
4. some Metal Rivets, to attach the casings to the leather (here: 6 casings -> 6 necessary rivets)
5. two 13 mm brass bracelet closures (about 1,30€ on eBay)

Start by taking your scalpel to cut out two short stripes (1,3cm x 12cm), two longer stripes (1,3cm x 28cm) and one main big peace (17cm x 4,5cm).

If you use usual garment leather like I did, you will probably have to clean up the edges with a pair of scissors.

Then take your main leather peace and cut in four openings (1,3cm x 0,2cm) in each corner. Now we can stick in the small stripes and fold them together on the other side to get an idea of, how long they actually need to be, that one metal rivet in the middle can hold everything together.

Cut off the spare part. Now it is time to fold them together on the bottom part, turn it to the top and use a hollow punch tool, to punch in the hole for the rivet.

Let`s continue by preparing the two 9mm bullet casings, that hold our leather band parts together.

Start by removing the little Primer in the top of the Casing. I achieved that, by laying it over the small gap of my vice and punching down a thin object (big needle) from the counter side.

Then saw down the head of the Bullet Casing. Make sure to give the bottom a rough sanding to get a nice and clean surface. The upper part should be polished to reveal the full brass shininess.

At first we need to open the tip of the metal rivet, to be able to punch it open when we pushed it through the Bullet Casings hole. Make sure the Opening is wide and clean.

Now take your open rivets and stick them through the hole, we punched in the leather in Step 1.

Then stick the two long stripes through the loops on both sides (Second Picture).

As soon as everything is put together we can, set the bullet casings ontop of the metal rivets. If the rivet does not fit through the small hole of your 9mm Bullet casing, don't hesitate to enlarge it a little bit with a drill.

Then use your rivet setter to fix rivet tightly to your bullet casings.

Watch the video at 4:09 min, to get an idea of what your leatherband should look like at this point.

We can now reattach the metallic primer to the bullet casing to get that Original look back. Since you got less space now in the inside of the bullet, because of the punched in rivet, we need to get rid of the primers inlay, before reattaching it.

Finally we can lay it back into the hole of the casing and press everything together in a vice. I made myself some wooden vice jaws to make sure there will be no unwanted imprints on the casings.

For the remaining decorative bullet casings I used a wider .45 ACP Caliber. I think a bigger caliber adds a little more dominance to the leather band, compared to the small 9mm.

The process to attach them is pretty much equal to the steps before. So here is a little summary of the main steps:

1. Remove the casings primer
2. Saw off the casings head
3. Sand and polish everything nice and clean
4. Punch the holes into the leather band
5. Fix the casings with the opend rivets to the leather band
6. Reattach the primers with the vice

If the previous steps worked well for you, this shouldn't be a problem either!

Optionally: Each bullet casings could be coated with a thin layer of zapon varnish, to protect the metallic shininess of the brass as long as possible.

I found two golden 13mm closures online for less than 4€ on eBay, that had to be attached on the two long leather stripes.

At first you have to remove some of the fabric material on the inside with your scalpel, to achieve a slim joint later. Then use your Hollow Punch Tool to create a slightly longer hole for the the closures tip. Picture 3 will give you an Idea of the dimensions.

Then bring on the closure and fold the thinned leather stripe and punch a hole for the small rivet immediately behind the closure.

Then fix everything with a small 6mm metal rivet by clamping it into the vice. Make sure again to use some soft vice jaws to prevent unwanted imprints on the metal rivets.

Finally we have to punch in a few holes on the counter side. Science we chose to leave these stripes with 25cm much longer than necessary, we now have the opportunity to figure out the ideal length, without any trouble.

Place the leather band on your Arm and figure out the optimal Size.

Then mark the spots for every hole, for example with a little pin. I chose a distance of 1 cm from hole to hole and decided to punch in 1 hole tighter, than my selected optimal size and 2 holes wider, than my optimal size. I used a 2 mm hollow punch tool for that purpose.

Finally we can cut off the remaining part of each leather stripe and reduce a bit of materials in the corners to be able to insert the stripe a little bit easier into the closure.

For a perfectly clean look, I recommend placing the end of the longer leather stripes under the leather loops on the counter side (have a look at Picture 5), so they seem to disappear.

I hope you enjoyed my little instructable about this DIY Leather Band. I really like it, and I gave my best to present it in an interesting way for you.

Since the tools and the materials are quit inexpensive this Project might be possible for many people. Please feel free to ask any question, if something is unclear. I will do my best to answer all of them as soon as possible.

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