Speedy's Ecto Goggles Mk1 with part numbers & pics!

Equipment Ecto Goggles
1

I saw how others were making their goggles and thought I’d have a go myself. I had got myself some flip-up gas welding goggles from my local welding supplies store. Then I went to B&Q electrical dept and bought the following(all made by Tower, but have provided B&Q EAN numbers for reference, check the B&Q website for actual pictures of the fittings):

2x 25mm conduit male adaptor with bush (usually 2 in a pack, goes on the end of normal 25mm conduit tube) EAN: 5018486425830

1x 20mm conduit female adaptor (for joining 20mm conduit to socket boxes etc) EAN: 5018486479086

1x 25mm conduit corrugated adaptor EAN: 5018486479178

I’m sure the pictures will help those not in the UK who don’t have B&Q!

Mark the front clear lens where you want the eyepieces to be. I took the hex nut off the back of the corrugated adaptor and glued it to the left side of the front clear lens of the goggles using superglue. Once it had set I just screwed the adaptor back into it after painting it flat black. Then take the knurled bushing from one of the 25mm male adaptors, paint it silver or aluminium and glue that to the right side of the lens, again you screw the adaptor in after painting black(and you may wish to trim down the length of the threading to get a flush fit). Now take the other knurled bushing off the remaining adaptor and discard the adaptor. Again, paint it the same as the first bushing. Push the knurled bushing over the plain end of the 20mm female adaptor (its a tight fit but pushing it down on a flat surface will get it to pop on) so there is about 5mm of the plain end sticking through, now position this assembly onto the open end of the 25mm male adaptor you have just screwed to the lens and fix with a few dabs of superglue. The other end of the 20mm female fitting has a nice hexagonal bushing screwed into it which can be wound out a little and then glued into position, looking like an adjustable lens. Paint this section in flat silver or aluminium, and bingo, you got a pretty good looking ecto goggle lens setup. I sprayed the main body of the goggles with olive drab matt paint from the hobby store, and painted the vent caps in flat silver. I also fitted an ‘over the head’ strap by using another goggle strap and riveting it to the top centre of the goggle body and looping the other end around the main headstrap and riveting that to itself. For a finishing touch, I got some thumbscrews that usually hold the side panels onto PC cases, screwed them into PC motherboard standoffs and then tapped them into the sides of the ‘lenses’. A couple of random rotary knobs from Radioshack/Maplin etc fitted to the vent caps on the side add another nice touch. All thats left is to buy some ecto goggles decals from the various suppliers on the ‘for sale’ forum and you have ecto goggles to go bustin’ with! All told it took me less than two hours to assemble my goggles including the painting.

I then added some superbright (15000mcd) white 5mm LEDs to the front panel and hooked them up to a Velleman strobe kit #MK147, not screen accurate I know but has an awesome effect! The speed of the strobing is controlled by the smaller side knob and can go from one flash every 2 seconds to constantly on. This took another couple of hours and some creative trimming to get the speed adjustment pot to fit into the vent cap and for getting the 9v battery and PCB to fit without digging into my face or forehead when I put them on! Pics to follow…

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ecto goggles components:

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Very nice design my man,I really dig it,great job on building them and for adding in your own electronics.

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Thanks UGBfan, I had a lot of fun putting them together and was pleased with the result, not bad for a newbie! I have added some extra pics to show some more detail of how it all went together.

Front lens plate (use the clear lens, not the green tinted one) with 25mm corrugated adaptor hex nut (left) and 25mm knurled bushing (right) glued in place.

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25mm knurled bushing (left) and 25mm corrugated adaptor (center and right) with paint applied

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Left lens assembly. 20mm female adaptor (silver) pushed into 25mm knurled bush, then glued into 25mm male adaptor (black).

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Left lens screwed into bushing glued to front lens plate, thumbscrews added. (see this thread for thumbscrews: http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15756 )

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Middle section of corrugated adaptor fitted, with a car wheel nut conical washer glued to the top for an ‘adjustment ring’ look.

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Top portion of corrugated adaptor fitted and thumbscrew added.

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Front lens plate fitted to flip up section of goggles (green tinted lens sits behind your modified front clear lens assembly).

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Location of strobe speed pot, cut into one of the goggle vent caps.

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Strobe kit PCB held in with double sided tape and epoxy resin.

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Strobe pcb and speed pot location, was a tight fit!

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Strobe LED location in front lens plate, showing cable routing. LEDs will need plastic clips to hold them in place through the front clear lens, you then have to open out bigger holes in the green lens to fit it over the backs of the LED clips.

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I have linked to this post from the tutorials section, I guess I should have put it there in the first place but I didn’t want to sound like I was a know-it-all as I’m new here! :walterpeck:

Thanks to all the other gbfans members and builders for all the excellent info and tutorials, I just wanted to give a little something back, if you know what I mean… !

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I really dig the strobe idea,I have a set of GBDan’s resin frames,I want to buy a second set and put in some green LEDs in a ring that will fit into lenses to give them the cool green glow.

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I had the same sort of idea, fitting green LEDs into the lens tubes themselves, am waiting on some superbright ultra-green LEDs to arrive from China as the ones from Maplins were too expensive and not bright enough, and with too wide a veiwing angle. Will hopefully be able to graft them into the goggles, maybe with a slow ‘pulsing’ effect? Not sure I have any more room in the goggle frame to fit another PCB though!

I would love to see how your resin frames look with LEDs added, the welding goggles do the trick but are obviously just that - welding goggles with paint and pipe fittings! Some screen accurate ones with a bit of artistic licence applied should look ultra-cool.

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You can check out my goggles in my profile,I’m working on getting the LEDs and what not and then of course another set of resin frames.

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Mate, it’s the quality of the posts what matters, not the quantity! And that tutorial deserves to be there.

Fantastic work!

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Cheers JT, thanks for the positive feedback, I just hope I get a similar result when I put my pack together. I have a lot of the parts already thanks to nick-a-tron and Sevv. I’m eagerly awaiting some goodies from Colin at MMM and sound board from Bob at replica props, and have made my own light kit using some butchered Velleman kits and a stack of LEDs and EL lightwire, but looks like work is going to keep me from doing anything significant until the last week of October. Scary stuff as I am working on the front door at my mate’s club night on 31st and need everything finished and ready to show! It’s going to be a busy week, will get some pics posted as I go.

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Some more info to add, firstly regarding painting. I used no primer on these, but took some 180 grade wet & dry paper followed by 400 grade to all the surfaces intended for paint. Then I used Humbrol Model and Craft Acrylic Hobby Spray, the colour code is Light Olive 86 and the product code is AD6086, it is matt finish and it dried with no tackiness, and does not crack if the goggle body flexes, as welding goggles undoubtedly will. Worked well on all the parts including the front clear lens, just make sure you hit it all with the wet & dry paper first.

Secondly, and following on from what UGBfan said regarding green LEDs in the lens tubes, I have now pulled apart one of my relics from my days as a DJ and now have myself a green laser module, I intend to fit it either inside the longer of the two lens tubes or make a hole for it in the top centre of the lens frame assembly and have it as an ‘aiming’ or ‘ranging’ device, again this is not screen accurate but I’m going for visual impact as I’ll be wearing them at a nightclub event!

I’ll post pics of the laser fitment if it goes to plan, if it doesn’t then I’ll find a way that does!!!

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LOVING the left eyepiece. What a greeblie that thing is!

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Some final pics of my Ecto goggles, now with superbright narrow-angle green LEDs in the eyepieces.

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And a shot of my goggles ready to go out on Halloween along with my flight suit (RAF spec, not USAF, it was all I could get!) complete with my own name tag, GB logo patch and GB Tshirt. I also had the belt, gloves, elbow pads and Motorola walkie-talkie (a GP340 that actually works on the PMR446 band here in the UK, just stuck MT500 labels on it!) to go with it all, along with my lovely Proton Pack. A good night out was had on Halloween!

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12

Hello,

at first sorry for my english (iam from germany :wink:

i have a question about the wielding goggles. it seems that ive bought the same as go. are they also out of soft plastic? im just wondering cause you goggles loook well-proportioned and mine are always bent on one side. have you anything done to prevent this? or is there any kind of paint that makes the plastic steadier? i`m thinking of getting another goggles out of hard plastic but if you have some tips this qould be great.

greetings,

Sowbug

13

Hi sowbug,

Try using the Humbrol model paint detailed below, it worked first time for me and my goggles are still flexible and wearable.

“Some more info to add, firstly regarding painting. I used no primer on these, but took some 180 grade wet & dry paper followed by 400 grade to all the surfaces intended for paint. Then I used Humbrol Model and Craft Acrylic Hobby Spray, the colour code is Light Olive 86 and the product code is AD6086, it is matt finish and it dried with no tackiness, and does not crack if the goggle body flexes, as welding goggles undoubtedly will. Worked well on all the parts including the front clear lens, just make sure you hit it all with the wet & dry paper first.”

Hope that helps!