I bought these hard framed welding goggles awhile back and have started to prep them:
I dismantled the plastic lens and sanded the the frames inside and out. Then added a black plastic frame that I had from an even older pair of the vinyl welding goggles, this was filled with a piece of 6mm MDF and glued to the front of the frames with a two part epoxy. When the glue had set I filled around the black frame/MDF with Aves sculpt and this will blend it together nicely before painting. I’ve placed a knob I made on the top of the frames, more to follow.
The reason I added the MDF was that I just liked the look of the flat fronted goggles and this seemed to be the easier way. When I add the Ecto Goggle lenses I’ll make two holes so you can see through the frames, that’s all for now:
The metal clip is just to prop up the goggles for the pic.
I started on the lenses for the Goggles, went to Wicks and used 2 x 40mm to 32mm push reducers for the base sections. I did have to chop them about a little to get what I wanted…cost £1.06 each.
Then I have just cut two sections of 1.25 inch PVC piping and pushed them into the base sections:
I still need to find something for the 3rd section on the left lens, but it’s a start:
Just gone with some 25mm PVC pipe for the last section and filled around it with Aves sculpt. Ordered the PVS harness too (cheers Nick for the heads up). Waiting for some LEDs to light them up a tad…more pics soon.
Laid down a quick coat of primer on the outside to see how it was looking, still very rough yet.
Waiting for a few parts now…then had a re-think about the lenses and after having fixed them, primed them and getting them ready for the final paint job…I pulled them apart to start again. However, I did sort the lens adjusters, started off as 40mm spacers, then cut down to 15mm, primed and ready for top coats, different length threads for different lenses:
Here are the re-built lenses, still need a fair bit of sanding/filling and painting:
And here is the reason for re-building them. I wanted the lenses to be very secure, and the only way that can be is if they pass through the 1/4" MDF body of the frame. So I wanted the middle sections of the PVC lenses to be longer so they can not only be secured in the main frame, but also secured from behind frame too.Pics should explain what I mean:
Hopefully this will stop any accidental knocks and the lenses will stay intact.
The new press studs showed up today so I put a new one on the PVS top strap and fixed the poppers to the frames:
Here are a few of the bits that come with the press stud kit…including the “setting” tool or punch, which curls over the ends of the parts you’re fixing. I used the original PVS top part of the press stud as it was black, only the brass coloured part is new.
Bottom part of the press studs screwed to the goggle frame (will be removed before painting):
And finally the PVS harness in place on my hard framed goggle. I must say how secure these harnesses are when you put the goggles on, that top strap and elasticated/rubber backing really do the job:
Cheers jettajeffro…unfortunately I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so it takes me ages to do something but I try to do it to the best of my ability…more soon!
Another small update, today I did a little work on the battery bracket. I marked around the base of a 9v battery and then used my Dremmell to cut away a section of the internal frame so the battery for the LED’s fits nice and snug.
Good and tight fit…I shall probably turn the battery around the other way when it is wired in. Then I realised that the battery was sitting right where I had fitted the side poppers for the PVS harness and therefore I couldn’t srcew the popper back in place…D’Oh!!
No problem, I’d just have to fill the holes and reposition the poppers onto where the old original harness that came with the goggles, was in the first place.
Initially I hadn’t wanted to use the area where the original harness was fitted because it was very thin and where the old elastic harness was threaded through there was not alot of hard plastic…it was a very weak spot, hence why I placed the poppers further along the side of the goggles.
I had already filled the outside of this weak area when I first started work on the goggles, you can see what I mean if you look at the 2nd and 3rd pics. I use Aves sculpt which dries pretty hard (similar to Milliput but can be worked with for longer…highly recommend Aves for all kinds of filling and sculpting). So I then used the Aves on the inside of this area, this should dry hard and allow for me to drill it and have no problems refitting/screwing the PVS harness poppers back in place:
I just want to thank crusader_x for putting up the “How To” for his Ecto Goggles build (see link below) which is where I have taken guidance from, so big thanks man!!
