Steampunk Goggles

I wanted to make a pair of goggles myself, and not spend too much money on them.
This is the result. I spent under 10 Euros, and had hours of fun. They took me about 5 hours to make, including taking apart and putting together again many times, to make sure everything fitted correctly before the next stage.

I recommend every beginning steampunker trying a pair of goggles, it's fun! And you end up with something unique.
I'm not 100% happy with these, but they'll do for this year's Elf Fantasy Fair. Now I need to make the rest of my outfit.

 Stuff:
- 2 small candy (sweet) jars with metal lids and transparent inserts (1,38 for 2 at Xenos), use the lids, recycle the glass;
- M4 bots and nuts, bolts 10mm long; M4 blind nuts;
- aluminium strip, 10mm x 2mm x 2m long (I still have a lot left);
- leather (I bought an old, worn leather jacket at the flea market, great texture, I've still got lots of it left for other things);
- some rings cut off a round syrup bottle that was almost the same size as the jar lids;
- rusty old rings from a backpack that I threw away;
- old clock parts (bought at the flea market, it's amazing what people sell, and what people buy!);
- brass wood screws;

Tools:
- hammer, pliers, screwdriver;
- drill and drill bits, steel nail;
- scissors, hobby knife;
- leather needle and thread;

Step 1: Basic shape

When deciding the design of the frame, I considered my nose. What would sit comfortably and be relatively easy to make. I decided on a strip across the tops of the 2 eye pieces.
I first measured the distance between the eye pieces when over my eyes, roughly 2,5cm. Then I estimated the length of the strip required, plus a bit to be sure, this was 13cm.

I cut the aluminium strip and bent it by pushing and hammering around a wooden pole. Luckily aluminium is easy to bend, so this wasn't too difficult.
I then drilled holes in the strip, then tried to drill in the eye pieces. As they are very smooth and have grooves for the screw cap, I had to hammer a steel nail in the correct position first, then drilling was easy. I used a piece of wood to prevent the drilling squashing the eye piece.

I tried the basic goggles on for size and found I needed to bend them out a bit to fit comfortably.

Comments

[rjessup]

Very nice steam punk garb.

[anibioman]

very nice very simple this is something i really might achieve

[zen of zappa]

Whoa! So cool! These goggles will be my first steampunk item to make, but I was wondering if you can possible alter them to make them glasses? And use a darker lens to make them sunglasses? Heck, I might even wear these as I would any normal sunglasses during summer. Looks like a time travelled right to the beach...

[Mage and the machine]

I'm sure you could. The lids are round and any glass cut to fit would work fine. Getting round prescription glasses may be expensive, but really cool! You could get some really fun tan patterns from wearing these goggles on the beach!

[zen of zappa]

and where would you find lids like that?

[Mage and the machine]

If you're in the Netherlands, try Xenos. Otherwise you'll have to hunt around, I'm afraid.

[Yitzki]

I found very similar lids at my local DeSerres, so I would imagine they would be at most art stores.

[zen of zappa]

i happened to see another instructable for goggles and they use the two ends of a coupler. i am guessing it will work the same way, plus i can unscrew the thread part to put in new lenses. my goal is to get a slightly modified version of these done for halloween, so hopefully i shall post pictures then!

[ilpug]

Very nice. Am thinking about making some of these. maybe you could show us the completed costume?

[Mage and the machine]

The completed outfit is now instructabled (I don't call it a costume, that would sound like it's not real :-). Hope you like it, or are at least inspired by it.

[Mage and the machine]

Thanks to all for the compliments!
When I have the costume complete I'll post a photo, or maybe even a few instructables.

[zazenergy]

Gorgeous!

[lemonie]

Nice.