Installing a zipper on a lame

[InFerrumVeritas]

For foil:

I have the TCA foil lame, and I love it. It doesn't corrodeand although it is heavyer than othery lames I've worn, it fits well to my body and is in great shape. I have one problem with it, however: it has velcro instead of a zipper. I am afraid that the velcro will go bad realitively soon.

So now to my point: Can I take this to a seamstress and have a zipper added? Is there anything that I should be careful of? Are there any armorers who do this sort of thing (especially ones near or in Michigan), and how much would they charge (armorers can PM me if they would rather not discuss price on a public forum)?

[brtech]

For foil:

I have the TCA foil lame, and I love it. It doesn't corrodeand although it is heavyer than othery lames I've worn, it fits well to my body and is in great shape. I have one problem with it, however: it has velcro instead of a zipper. I am afraid that the velcro will go bad realitively soon.

So now to my point: Can I take this to a seamstress and have a zipper added? Is there anything that I should be careful of? Are there any armorers who do this sort of thing (especially ones near or in Michigan), and how much would they charge (armorers can PM me if they would rather not discuss price on a public forum)?

Yes, you could get a seamstress to add a zipper, but I would recommend you get yeoldarmorer to do it. They have lots of experience with that kind of thing, they do good work, and it's usually very fast.

[fencerbill]

Yes, you could get a seamstress to add a zipper, but I would recommend you get yeoldarmorer to do it. They have lots of experience with that kind of thing, they do good work, and it's usually very fast.

Second the suggestion.

[whtouche]

I just want to throw it that if you do have a seamstress or tailor etc do the zipper, make sure to communicate to them exactly what you need, in terms of the overlap and how firmly to stich it. I had a left handed lame turned into a right handed lame and it came out perfectly except for the seam where the zipper used to be was not very securely put back together, so I had them reinforce it and now it's perfect. Only cost 15 bux too.

[yeoldearmourer]

The cost of having us do it is 10.00 plus the cost of the zipper which is 4.00
total 14.00 plus s&h.

[InFerrumVeritas]

The cost of having us do it is 10.00 plus the cost of the zipper which is 4.00
total 14.00 plus s&h.

Do you do lettering on lames, or just jackets and knickers? If I'm going to ship it, I'd rather ship it once (well twice so as to get it back).

[jfarmer]

Any particular reason to not just replace the Velcro with new Velcro? While I'm not a big fan of it, we have a number of TCA lames with it in the club stash and they've held up very well, some 8 or 9 years old...

[Mergs]

Are you talking the entire strip of velcro? Cost is much greater than a zipper and will continue to wear out faster than a mechanical fastener. My recommendation would be to go with a medium plastic sport zipper. Depending on the fabric store you go to, some will make what ever length you need. And it's not hard to do the sewing yourself. A suggestion would be to go to a large store to see if they have a machine you can rent for a while (this is less than a 15 minute job!).

[yeoldearmourer]

Every lame is different and getting the job done right the first time is important.
I just do pants and jackets name. I don't have the setup to do lames. Marx enterprise is where I send my lame. I had to redo a saber lame zipper were the person had taking his lame to seamstress to have the zipper replace One problem she used a reg zipper and not a sport one. He had to pull his lame over his head. We replace it in between the pools and DEs. We don't just slap a zipper in we strive to make it look as it came from the factory. Mergs it just not a 15min when you strive to make it look factory. anybody can slap a zipper in but is it done right. I seen to many lames that we had to correct the work on.

[Mergs]

OK, Tim. maybe your right. It took me at least 25 minutes to do the last one I did, and that included setting up the machine.