Housepets!

Posted: **Wed Oct 14, 2015 10:18 pm**

tychoaussie wrote:
Douglas Collier wrote:Foam. I'm going to make the head base out of resin, though.

Actually it's nerve-wracking! One mistake and my OCD would never let me forget it. But I think the finished product will be worth it.
Oh Doug! That's really very awesome!
It'll be good to get some more fursuiter Housepets readers posting their photos on this thread!

- - -

By the way, on the EZcooldown vest. I cannot vouch for them personally, but I think that they are likely a really good product. They use, i think, Glaciertek cooling packs.

On the issue of Glaciertek: I purchased a Glaciertek cooling vest in the summer of 2012. It 2014, one of the packs sprung a leak, so I tossed it out, thinking I would have to order a replacement. Then, this summer, I put my remaining packs into the snack drawer of the refrigerator to cool them, as I prepared for some fursuiting. Well.... I learned to never put them in the snack drawer, as I came home to find my son had mistaken the frozen packs as a pack of vacuum-sealed burritos, and he had cut them out, and was packing one for lunch.

oops. That was a $129 mistake...Good thing these packs are non-toxic, though I hate to think what they taste like.

So I figured I had nothing to lose, and I sent this email to Glaciertek:

"One of my packs sprung a leak last fall, and my son just mistook another of my packs to be a package of burritos. He cut it apart and was getting ready to eat it. Would this perhaps be covered under warranty?"

The director of Glaciertek emailed me back the next day that they still had my purchase record, and as the original purchaser, that they would indeed warranty the cooling packs. In fact ,they put a brand new set in the mail, along with a return shipping label for my 'defective and partially eaten' packs. I guess they got a good chuckle out of it. My replacement packs arrived less than a week later, and I was nice & cool for my next fursuiting gig.

So, Glaciertek customer service flat-out ROCKS, and if I need another cooling vest, I will buy it from Glaciertek again. I own the following vest:

http://store.coolvest.com/concealable-cooling-vest/

If you hunt around for a coupon code, or if you call via voice, you can sometimes ask for and receive a 10% off discount.

I found out EZcooldown is actually Techniche cooling vests

http://www.techniche-intl.com/home.html

Posted: **Thu Oct 15, 2015 3:48 pm**

So, at the suggestion of some fursuit maker friends, I added some eyebrows and black around the eyes. I think it looks decent. What do you guys think?

Posted: **Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:53 pm**

Aaaaaagh! EXTREME CLOSEUP!

LOL just kidding. It looks nice.

Posted: **Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:20 am**

he's staring into my soul.

but yeah, looks better.

Posted: **Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:16 am**

NOSE BOOP!

*boops*

Looks great, Doug!

Posted: **Sat Oct 17, 2015 2:24 pm**

These adds look well made, they give a better look to the face, good work.

But now, stop watching us in that way.

Posted: **Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:50 pm**

So my friend recommended I look into Woodland Creatures Shop for buying a pair of ears. Anyone have any familiarity with them?

Posted: **Mon Oct 26, 2015 6:47 am**

My photograph for this week, taken again, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where we found some amazing street art. Bishkek Kyrgyzstan is near the northwestern edge of the Himalaya mountain chain, a few hundred miles from the western edge of China.

Posted: **Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:44 pm**

That picture behind you is kind of creeping me out. Just saying.

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:37 pm**

Okay, Amazee...
This one does make me look like the size of a stuffed animal toy for a child from the Twilight Zone... but I like the eery sense of realism!

How about I replace it with one that's less ...creepy then? Then again, it is, after all, Halloween season... Maybe I should just leave it & simply post something underneath it.
Amazee, How is this one instead>?

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:57 pm**

I actually really like how that one has come out!

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2015 5:16 am**

Yay! Furry street art!

Another great picture, Tycho!

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 3:00 pm**

It should come as no surprise that fursuit heads get hot, which means that some sort of fan is essential. For mine I tried an internal fan, but it ended up just recirculating hot moist air. So, I decided to go with an external fan, which I could stick in my mouth, and it worked great; unfortunately it also looked like I was swigging from a flask, which isn't an image I want to present. So, I did some thinking and came up with this:

Now I'll look like I'm nomming on a steak!

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 3:51 pm**

That is so very clever and looks really nice! Great job on it!

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 3:53 pm**

Cool photos, Tycho.

I should agree with Amazee Dayzee, anyway.

That's a cool idea, Douglas, but I remember to have already seen a fursuit with a similar fake steak, probably used for the same purpose.

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 4:19 pm**

As a cooling fan? You'd have to show me, because I've looked and I can't find any on the web.

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 9:10 pm**

Regarding cooling fans:
I noticed that when I first received my fursuit, the cooling fan didn't work very well. I eventually redesigned the whole system, and upgraded to 12V fans. Additionally, I too, discovered that the fans recirculated my breath, and they lived a short life before shorting out from all the moisture. They were blowing the air INTO the mask and sourcing it from the muzzle. Unfortunately, this is exactly where we exhale: Into the muzzle. So the air the fan uses is a mixture of exhaled and fresh air.

Then after burning out the third fan, I swapped the direction so that the fan now blows OUT the muzzle, and guess what? It is now sucking up the exhaled breath and pushing it out the muzzle. Additionally, it causes air to be drawn IN through the eyes, so there is a constant, gentle stream of fresh air coming into the head. It's totally the right way to wire these fans: A cool, dry head devoid of stuffy recycled air, and I haven't had to replace my electric fan since making this mod.

p.s. I also have two pusher fans in the ears, and those 8mm x 25mm AGP graphics fans push air into the head through the top and across my head. Everything is run from a 3amp fused circuit and a 2000 mAh R/C car battery that I wear on my belt. It's rechargeable and runs my fans for 8 hours.

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 9:46 pm**

Hehe, so you could say that you wear a wire.

Yeah, I didn't consider moving the battery pack from the vicinity of the mask - I wanted the mask to be as self-contained as I could make it for convenience putting it on and taking it off.

Thanks for the tip, though - I think I might use it when I get to making another head.

In the meantime, though, I've found that my steak does a good job at keeping me cool.

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:39 pm**

So Tycho has fans in his suit? You would never even notice that from looking at his fursuit.

Posted: **Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:12 am**

I would hope he's the only one who wears his suit. It'd just be creepy if his fans got into it.

Posted: **Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:48 am**

Douglas Collier wrote:I would hope he's the only one who wears his suit. It'd just be creepy if his fans got into it.

True story: Design iteration # 1, when I first upgraded to 12 volts, I put on the suit to go fursuiting in Union Square at downtown San Francisco, across from Macy's department store. As I suited up and plugged in the electronics, the fans were running right up until I was about to head downstairs. The fans quit, and I was like "Huh!" and began to go out anyway. My colleague stopped me and said "I see smoke!" about five seconds before I felt the hot burning down my side. Since I didn't have a fuse in the circuit, the nickel metal hydride pack set the wires on fire from the pack all the way up to the shorted connector. I stripped off the fursuit and pulled the melting, smoking remains off my belt and dropped it into the hotel sink. If it had shorted while I was in the middle of Union Square, there might not have been a Tycho Aussie but a Johnny flame!

Posted: **Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:41 pm**

Did you get any lasting damage when the fan burned out and caught fire?

Posted: **Fri Oct 30, 2015 10:08 pm**

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Did you get any lasting damage when the fan burned out and caught fire?

There was a yellow burn mark on the inside of the fursuit where the wire smouldered, but most of it has since washed out over time. No damage to the fabric, luckily.

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 12:58 am**

What about damage to your skin?

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:12 pm**

Oh no! D: That coulda been really bad! I hope you're okay.

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:19 pm**

That sounds a bad thing to experience. Fortunately there was someone with you who noticed the smoke and alarmed you in time.

Douglas Collier wrote:As a cooling fan? You'd have to show me, because I've looked and I can't find any on the web.

I think probably it was used as that. I saw it time ago in a photo posted at FurAffinity, it's really hard to find it...

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 9:25 pm**

First I have to say great work, Doug! That's really some very good and professional looking suit, well done. Did you had any sewing experience? I wouldn't even know how to start...

Then, pretty funny story with the burning fan, Tycho. I'm glad nothing serious happened. And nice pictures and stories you brought from abroad.

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 11:21 pm**

I still wanna know if his skin got burned at all.

Posted: **Sat Oct 31, 2015 11:39 pm**

I had a little experience - I knew how to put the needle through the thread and how to tie it off at the end. As long as you know how to do that, and you cut your patterns out right, it's not too bad - it just takes a long time. One thing I did learn was how to keep the ends even by bunching up one side a little when making a stitch.

Should have some more pictures and videos of me in suit from Furry Unlocked pretty soon.

Posted: **Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:10 pm**

Can't wait to see what other videos you have Doug!

Posted: **Sun Nov 01, 2015 6:06 pm**

I will have mine in like one month i cant wait ! Its a fursuit of my wolf sona

i will put some pictures when i will got it
!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:56 am**

Well 'm sure that it will look just nice. We are all looking forward to it!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:37 am**

Amazee Dayzee wrote:I still wanna know if his skin got burned at all.

I got the smoking harness out of the fursuit in time, but I had a brown (now yellowish) burn mark on the underarmor I was wearing, and another one on the inside of the fursuit, but it's faded after several washings. I, myself, didn't get burned. Somewhere I have a photograph of the remains of the battery harness.

himeakira, It'll be really cool to see your new fursuit when you get it!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2015 3:52 pm**

I kind of wanna see the battery harness now. XD

Posted: **Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:21 pm**

How about an image from the streets of Istanbul, Turkey? Isn't that more interesting than a burned up harness?

Posted: **Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:05 am**

Admittedly yes, it is more interesting. However you put it in my head how cool the burned up battery harness will be so you have to show me!

Geez. That looks like it could have done a lot of damage to your SKIN. Never mind the fursuit.

Posted: **Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:02 pm**

In other news, on Nov 20th I will be in Sacramento California area with my fursuit.

Posted: **Sat Nov 07, 2015 12:28 am**

Make sure you drink lots of water so you don't get heat stroke!

Posted: **Sat Nov 07, 2015 12:34 pm**

You should make an album with a map of all the locations you've taken your fursuit with pictures from each one!

Posted: **Sat Nov 07, 2015 4:34 pm**

Sleet wrote:You should make an album with a map of all the locations you've taken your fursuit with pictures from each one!

That's not a bad idea.
Let's see:
All over the place in Ingham county, MI
Chicago, IL
Grand Rapids, MI
Novi, MI
San Francisco, CA
Yerevan, Armenia
Aghveran, Armenia
Orlando, FL
Pittsburgh, PA
Novkhani, Azerbaijan
Baku, Azerbaijan
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Istanbul, Turkey
Gladwin, MI

Well, the list is still kind of short but it's growing!

Housepets!

Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?

Re: Fursuits: do you own one?