Give Joan Rivers another face lift?
Maybe, but that's not what I did.
I trimmed my NATO strap down to fit.
This has been talked about before.
You can look through the search engine
and find several posts on how to best
shorten a nylon strap, and I've tried
them all, but I think I've found a new
method that works really well.
You need a way to heat a razor blade.
I use a propane touch. I hold the blade
with pliers, and heat it to a cherry red.
I have my strap already measured, and I
have it laid out on a block of wood. The
straps have lines, actually ridges, that
you can use as your guide. Just heat the
blade, square it to a ridge on the strap,
and press it down. I use the wood handle
of an ice pick to help push the blade all
the way through the strap. I do this again
two more times to get the diagonal cuts.
When you're making the diagonal cuts, you
can use the ridges to orientate where the
cuts need to be. On this strap I counted
down seven rows to determine the angle.
I reheat the blade before each new cut.
It makes a perfectly smooth cauterized cut.
Now here's the cool part. Take the razor
and heat it up again, and then use it like
a butter knife to round off the corners.
It's easy, and it looks nice and clean.
The pics aren't great, but you get the idea.
RICK
GLSM IBC, Rep. Bellm.