Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Chewbacca’s Bandolier!

Time for some Star Wars prop building–Adam Savage makes an upgrade to one of his favorite costumes! Adam’s never been satisfied with the original bandolier strap and satchel he made for his Chewbacca cosplay, so today he fabricates new ones from scratch with metal and leather. And of course Adam hides an easter egg into this Wookiee prop!

Comments (38)

38 thoughts on “Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Chewbacca’s Bandolier!

  1. You can take some of the guess work out of the bends by calculating the sight line for the brake using the K factor. There is a great manual that aids with this that is free from the FAA in PDF format Here: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/Chapter_04.pdf the useful bit to the video starts in section 4. That book contains a wealth of other data that can be used for many other tasks as well.

    I hope that helps anyone who wants to make sheetmetal items in the future.

    Take care all,

    DuctTapeGroupie

  2. I was wondering the whole time if the length of the bandolier was original Peter Mayhew-spec or proportional to Adam Savage height.

  3. I wish Adam would have said how long he took to make it verse his first estimate. He said he is off by several hours most of the time but what is the offset between his estimates and his actual. I was always frustrated with that on my own projects until I kept track and found that if I had done something similar my actual was a little under 2x my gut estimate and if it was something I had no experience with it was around 3x. What also helped was realizing that if I said I think it will take X amount of time that I shouldn’t shortcut just to try and keep my estimate but finish like I intended and then look at the offset.

  4. I would love to win one of the boxes, if it is cosplay I’m out of luck as I tried making a Star Trek uniform and it was really short even though I thought that I measured longer, but I would love to get the graphic to print my own label. Another awesome video Thank You

  5. Great video!

    Quick question for someone (anyone? lol) about spray paint overspray management…. as someone with limited space, how do you prevent the overspray from going everywhere? With this build and the recent Nerf gun mod, Adam seems to spraying with all sorts of equipment, etc. around him. Thank you 🙂

  6. Thanks, I was looking for exactly this kind of info a little while back and the stuff I found was nowhere near as thorough as this. This is now going in my archive! 🙂

  7. I love these One Day Builds. My son and I watch them all the time! I would love to have one of those boxes! My son would DIE if we got one! Adam you are my son’s all time favorite maker! Keep up the fun and great work!

  8. I just use old bed sheets. Throw on underneath, drape some over nearby tools and you should be ok. I have also hung my piece inside a cardboard box if I can find one big enough to allow me to move the piece around inside of it an paint. Then I just make sure that no matter which way I turn the piece I always direct the spray down into the box.

  9. “Sane measurement system”? There are two kinds of countries in this world. Those that use the metric system and the one that put a man on the moon. Seriously though, love the detailed how-to build videos.

  10. That decorative “coin” element is called a concho. A cabochon is a gemstone cut with flat bottom and a domed top. I’m honestly surprised and delighted my expertise has come in handy here.

  11. Adam, I’m sorry to say that the moment you said how heavy that Latigo is, I knew you were in trouble… Sadly, shouting out to you was of no use and only disturbed my neighbors.

    Also, have you ever used a strap cutter or plough gauge? They are very handy tools for cutting belt blanks or straps. C.S Osborne is a good resource for American leather tools. Sadly, Joseph Dixon, makers of fine English leather tools have closed down, but some of their stock seems to still be available at Booth & Co.

    Absolutely loved this build, as I’m slowly putting together a Chewbacca costume of my own. Perhaps I’ll even get to wear it someday!

  12. this is far from an expert answer but I just have a sacrificial dropcloth to catch all the spray.

    Also Ahhhhhh Omg wooden treats!!!!!! That’s all 🙂 Much love tested folk

  13. Love how Adam says “and if you’re using a sane measurement system…” (referring to the more accurate and far superior metric system)

    Great job Adam, Keep it up 😉

  14. I like the idea Wookie Treats are riveted closed. If they can rip a droid’s arm out of its socket I’m sure they can break a pop rivet when they’re hungry

  15. This was just fun. And, of course, it’s not an “Adam Build” without frenetic pacing, guesstimating, and the inevitable “awwwwww shit” moment. Many good lessons to learn here for makers. 🙂

  16. If I were to guess, I’d say that Adam built this the same way the first time. He wet the over-strap and snapped it down.

    And then it shrunk, as leather does somewhat when drying.

    So when he removed it, and used it as a measure, it wasn’t right.

  17. “I will wear the Wookie out to another Con soon…” Silicon Valley Comicon? Adam did the Hellboy sword build last year and was immediately spotted holding it at SVCC. I suspect a ruse. Besides It’s a Star Trek TNG themed con. And with regard to my earlier comment, use of the metric system for international and scientific endeavors is the only real choice of course. We had an honest look at changing over to the metric system in 1975 but by 1982 we decided to stick with our beloved 17/64″ system. In a land where a 2X4 is actually 1 1/2″ X 3 1/2″ you just go with it. (So what’s a 2X4 in Europe, a 50X100?)

  18. hmm, at least here in germany, we don’t measure/sell wood by inches. in common parlance, i find using cm more common, while hardware stores use mm.

  19. This has got me thinking how I can incorporate a wookiee treat dispenser into my R2.

    My favourite thought on metric vs imperial has to be:

    “In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”

  20. Also a small tip. If you have the choice of the scissor tool and the hammer/tools that Adam uses. Go with the ones Adam uses, I once lost 90% of the grip strength in both my hands for a weekend after a making project using the scissor tool.

  21. Have you hugged a Wookie today? The person wearing this costume at Disneyland was wonderful with my family. Instantly made me want to make a Wookie costume.

  22. I love your one day builds! I realize this is a long shot, but I wondered if you might help me with a prop for my first film? It’s a cine-musical about a brewer who saves his town, and I’ve imagined a special electric guitar effects pedal to give the finale a huge sound. My awesome brother drew this.

    I would Idealize the effects in the pedal be unknown to anyone but you 😀

  23. What did he make the small boxes out of? Styrene he said, but I can’t find that online similar to his. Any ideas?

  24. I saw that brake and had to have one. So I welded this thing together.

    I can’t afford a lot of the cool stuff Adam has but this was pretty cheap.

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