I’m separating this out as there are quite a few steps to take before making some PopScale – Now I have some WIP shots in that page.
1. Now first you must acquire a can – and then remove the tab. Simply bend it back and forth – don’t throw the tab out as PopScale requires them.
2. You can barely see it but what we’re aiming for is that little chad. Now of course you can get at this via cutting the can up – but the easiest way I’ve found is too make a little tool.
3. Thankfully it’s cheap and easy to do. Simply grab a cheap pair of metal tweezers.
4. And bend it that on side bends out more, and has a sharper angle at the tip – warning this does sort of make them useless as tweezers.
5. To complete your toolset for this and PopScale you need, pliers, cutters, these tweezers and a 1/8th inch hole-punch. I got mine from Michael’s, but any 1/8th should be fine as the metal is rather thin. (I have a pair of long-tipped needle nose to help ‘thread’ things better.
6. You then take said tweezers and go into the can as shown.
7. Once inside you turn it around and move it in place towards the side of the chad.
8. Then you pull up using the little bend you made until the chad clears the hole.
9. Then you simply bend it back and forth.
10. And finally we have the piece we need – be aware you will need LOTS of these.
11. As a note be aware that not all tops are the same, and they can vary in size by brand.
12. As you may noticed on end of the scale where you bent it off isn’t flat (and may have extra material) – simply bend it flat with some pliers and if there’s extraneous material cut it off.
13. Then using your hole punch place a hole at a little beyond where the metal pops out.
14. And another hole level with the first but a few millimeters from the edge.
15. Using the hole punch may cause the metal to bend a little so bend it back into place.
16. Then using your previous holes as a guide punch out 3 scales total. Note I would only do the guide and 1 scale at a time as more than 2 scales tend to shift about.
17. Then using your pliers line up about halfway through the scales (Make sure all 3 are lined up together as you generally can’t bend one a time and have the holes line up)
18. And impart a gentle bend. No it shouldn’t be bent more than I show here and it’s best to bend downwards (I flipped it around for camera.)
19. And finally you have a scale! Just as a note though you need about 350 ‘scales’ per sq ft, which considering that is a thickness of 3 means you need about 1000+ of these scales pulled out of cans – while this is a cool thing it’s not as easy to obtain materials as regular tabmail.
