New Gas Mask: First Steps

All of my commmissions are complete, so I have time to make something new. While at my local army surplus store I found this new German-made gas mask, and thought it would make a good pattern for a leather steampunk version.

The eyepieces, intake and exhaust vents will all be fabricated from scratch to fit the openings in the leather.


After thinking about where to put the seams I covered half the mask in the curiously named masking tape. Then I marked the lines with a red felt marker.



This mask will be mostly riveted together (something new for me), and I've marked every half inch on the seam lines with a black marker to indicate where each rivet will go. Using an X-acto™ blade I cut the tape off of the rubber mask and laid it down on a piece of heavy cardboard.

To check my pattern before going any further I've cut it out of card stock, and taped it together. The edges and rivet holes should all line up at this point, and I have a few corrections to make (marked in red). Next step will be to add a seam allowance.

Cow Gas Mask: Step One

I was commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium to construct a leather steampunk gas mask for a fiberglass cow, as part of an upcoming exhibition on global warming. Here is how I went about making it.


This was my initial drawing as submitted to the aquarium.


And here it is somewhat altered after receiving their comments on the design. This drawing was approved.


They sent me this foam copy of the cow's head, from which I could make the pattern. The ears and horns are indicated by the red plastic cups, so I could figure out where to put the straps.


Here I have covered the head in duct tape, and marked the individual pattern pieces to cut off and transfer to leather. I've also indicated what type of stitching I'll be doing on each piece. More to come.

Brigid Ashwood's Mr. Hyde

Here is Brigid Ashwood's beautiful rendition of one of my gas masks in her drawing of Mr. Hyde.

Defender: Gas Mask is Done!

At long last, the Defender gas mask is complete. The helm was finished earlier, leaving only the gorget with a few remaining details to take care of.



Here are the final "sea anemone" respirators in cold cast aluminum. Now that they're done they look a bit like cuttlefish (with a nod to the cephalopod lovers out there).




And here is the completed mask. The eyepiece on the right has a tinted lens; the one on the left (with the camera-like lens) has only a ½" opening. The two eyepieces together effectively hide the identity of the wearer, while allowing him or her to see out moderately well.

Defender: How I Make an Eyepiece

I thought it might be interesting for some of you to see what goes into creating one of my resin parts. For the Defender mask I decided to make one of the eyepieces similar to a camera lens, with a stepped conical inside. I built the prototype in layers of 1/16" (1.5 mm) thick clear acrylic sheeet. The drawing below shows part of the file I created in CorelDraw.



As you can see, the outside dimension of each piece stays the same, while the inside hole decreases in size as we move down the page. Some of the outsides are zig-zag while others are smooth. The red lines are the cut lines, while the blue lines are just for planning. The tiny red circles are for alignment pins.



Here are the pieces after being cut out with the laser. The parts on the left were extras I didn't use; the ones on the right were put together with three pins, and sprayed white to seal the cracks.



I then molded the prototype with blue silicone rubber and let it cure overnight. The next day I cast it in a charcoal urethane resin. I drilled holes around the perimeter (that had already been marked with the laser) and inserted twelve rivets to make it a bit steamier. I then remolded it and cast it in black.



Here is the finished part with pewter Rub N Buff™ added to the surface to keep with my black and silver color scheme. I'm not sure yet if I will use this one or recast it in a cold cast aluminum.



The small ½" (12.5 mm) diameter hole at the bottom of the lens sits fairly close to the wearer's eye, allowing him or her to see out, while keeping others from looking in.

Defender: Starting the Mask

With the helmet nearing completion, I have begun on the mask. These two parts—the helmet and mask—could be worn alone, but they are designed to be worn together.



This is a variation of the gas mask, with two respirators on the sides of the snout replacing the single central one, which gives it an eerie alien look.



Each of the two eyepieces will be different. One of them will resemble a camera lens, and the other a porthole.



Here is a photo of the mask after the major leather pieces have all been stitched together.

Underground Explorer: Oxygen Canister

I have had a good response to my writing competition. Seems like there are a lot of writers happy for an excuse to create a short steampunk story.

The final piece of the undeground explorer helmet is the oxygen canister which connects to the leather snout. Pictured below is the antiqued canister with rubber tubing and the connection at the other end.


Still to construct is the leather strapping which will allow the canister to be worn on the back or over the shoulder. Brownie points to anyone who can identify the original item from which the canister was made.

I leave for Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA exactly one week from today, and the finished helmet will be the centerpiece of my display.

Underground Explorer: Designing the Goggles

These giant sized paper glasses are my beginning attempt to work out the pattern for the goggles. This is going to take a lot of trial and error to get it right.

Underground Explorer: Lamp Comb is Finished

After focusing on the whale tooth for awhile I have returned my attentions to the Underground Explorer's helmet. Yesterday I reworked the comb pattern and remade it to fit properly, then I cut out the leather and hand-stitched it over the acrylic comb form. Today I painted it black, and antiqued it brown to give it that old look. After drying, I bolted and riveted the comb to the leather helm, and attached the lamp to the front.



I have decided on all of the design elements of the helmet, and have just two more to complete: The eyecover/goggles, and the oxygen canister which will hook up to the snout. With this equipment our intrepid explorer will be protected from extremes in pressure and temperature, as well as falling rocks. They will also have a bright light to see what lies before them, and have a fresh supply of oxygen to weather the pockets of foul air. Hopefully this will protect them from all unforseen dangers that might lurk ahead.

Life's Latest Lesson

Today I learned that if you take an elephant and make his ears round and move them to the top of his head he turns into a large rodent. A cartoon mouse even. Who knew! In the illustration the drawing on the left represents the original pachyderm gas mask concept. The drawing on the right is what the mask currently resembles. Clearly I need a model of a full-sized human head on which to make my patterns. Guessing—the technique I have been using up to this point—doesn't always work. OK, there is any easy enough workaround for this, and that is to take the strap that the ears are attached to and lengthen it so that the ears hang a bit lower. Hopefully, the elephant will then return!

Pachyderm: Making the Eardrums

I blogged about making the copper steampunk gasmask pachyderm ears here http://tombanwell.blogspot.com/2009/01/copper-pachyderm-ears.html , but I’m still missing the center piece which I’ll call the eardrum. I am just about done with them, and here is how I went about doing it.



My first thought was to make a resin piece that would just fit into the opening of the copper ear. My concerns were how to attach the ear and the eardrum to the strap which will fasten to the mask itself with snaps, and how to keep the weight down. A mask of this size can get heavy pretty fast, and be uncomfortable to wear. I was planning on bolting the eardrum through the ear and through the strap, but this presented the problem of hiding the bolt head on the front of the eardrum, and also on the bottom side of the leather strap where it could rub against the wearer’s skin.

After deciding that a resin piece would be too difficult to attach and too heavy, I considered a wire screen or other thin metal dome. Given that I don’t have many metalworking skills, I eventually opted for making the eardrum out of formed leather.

I knew I wanted the eardrum to be domed to give it a little class, so all I needed was a form over which I could shape the vegetable tanned leather. I looked around my shop for a suitable something—I was thinking of a bottle lid—to no avail. I thought perhaps a drawer pull would have the right shape to it if I could find one with the right diameter. Going to my local hardware store I quickly found just the knob I needed. The first picture shows the copper ear, the knob, and a piece of plywood ready for attaching the knob to.

I carefully measured the opening in the copper ear, and cut a hole the same size into a piece of ¼” acrylic plastic. I added a second piece of wood on top of the plywood to reduce the height of the knob, thus completing my forming jig, as shown in the third picture.

I then cut out a circular piece of oversized leather with the ventilation holes already cut, and soaked it in water to make it plastic. I laid the damp leather over the knob, and forced the acrylic piece down over the leather and knob, stretching the leather and conforming it smoothly to the knob. I held the forming jig together with two clamps as shown, and let the leather dry.

The fifth picture shows the before and after of the leather circle. After dying the eardrum black, I inserted it into the copper ear. Now I just have to attach them both to the leather strap.

Pachyderm: Covering the Trunk Hose

To Elizabethan costumers, trunk hose means something totally different. Here it refers to the part of the steampunk gas mask which resembles an elephant's trunk, and consists of a vacuum cleaner hose covered with leather. The top picture shows the before and after. I chose lambskin for the leather as it is very fine, and conforms readily to what it's wrapped around. I put the suede side showing, as it seemed more 19th century to me. The leather was stitched onto the hose, then wrapped along its length with waxed thread. One end of the hose will attach to the leather mask, and the other to a pressure gauge.

The Leather Upper Trunk

Here is what the upper leather trunk looks like. The eye openings will have lenses and steampunk surrounds. Notice the worn appearance of the leather finish, and the ventilation holes for breathing. The leather folded back over itself was inspired by Chinese paper masks.

Pachyderm gas mask plans

Here is my concept of the pachyderm gas mask. I have most of the leather parts handstitched together. I'm still working on the copper ears and the eyes. And I'm waiting for my pressure gauges to arrive. I've dyed the leather dark brown, antiqued to look like an old bomber jacket.