Face Shield Space Helmet

Intro: Face Shield Space Helmet

I have the wonderful job of teaching elementary art for students in grades K-6. Most years my work attire consists of a button down shirt, tie, slacks, and an art smock that comes in very handy for keeping paint, clay, and ketchup of off me, (I have lunch duty too.) This year, like most of you, I added a mask to my work wear. Knowing that the kids would be a little scared/unsure about returning to school I wanted to have a little fun with my mask to give them a reason to smile and see that masks can help to keep us safe while being awesome at the same time.

This is a very accessible project. Although it involves lighting and battery packs, the only wiring you need to be able to do is plugging in a USB.

My space helmet started as a handful of different elements including a heavy duty workshop face shield, strip LEDS, an old battery bank, and some spray paint. Check out the list below to find links to the tools and materials I used as well as a rough estimate of prices.

STEP 1: Disassembly and Painting

Take apart the Heavy Duty Face Shield by unscrewing the adjustment knobs on either side of the helmet. With the knobs undone, you can remove the head band assembly. To remove the lens of the face shield locate the small indexing pin on the bottom of the shield that holds the lens in place. Simply apply outward pressure and the lens will unseat from the indexing pin and come free of the helmet. Set the head band assembly and lens safely aside as they will not be needed until we are ready to reassemble the helmet.

With the goal of keeping the inside of the helmet in its original black unpainted state I applied masking tape over the opening where the lens had just been removed from. If you want to paint everything white then you can skip masking, but I think the black interior of the helmet fits the aesthetic better, and helps to hide some of the LEDs and wiring we will be adding in upcoming steps.

I used 3 coats of Rust-oleum Flat White to cover the outside of the helmet. A great tip to help with adhesion when painting plastic is to apply your first coat of paint as a "dust coat" which means that you don't go for full coverage on the first pass, but instead go for a light dusting of paint and allowing it to try before moving on to your next coat. The "dust coat" gives subsequent layers of paint something to hold on to which helps with adhesion and works to keep drips from forming.

STEP 2: Adding Decals

With the White coats of paint applied and dried the next step was to add the "NASA" and "YEOMANS - 1" decals to my helmet. I found a great free font package on Fontspace.com entitled "Best Tease" which matched the standard NASA logo very closely so I utilized it to create my graphics. Then I uploaded my graphics to my vinyl cutter, adjusting their size so that they would fit along the jaw lines of the helmet.

Once the vinyl stencils were ready I carefully removed the letters leaving the outline. I then applied the outline of the letters to the helmet and used red spray paint to paint in the letters as you can see in the photos above. If you didn't have a vinyl cutter I'm sure you could free hand this step with good success, but the vinyl cutter was and easier and faster option for me so I made use of it.

STEP 3: Creating the Side Mounted Flashlight Holder

The side mounted flashlight mounts directly onto the threads used to join the head band assembly to the face shield. To make the flashlight mount I used a thermoform plastic called Kydex which is most commonly used for making things like holsters. Using a straight edge and a utility knife I cut a 1" wide and 6" long rectangle of kydex. Then I popped the Kydex into an old toaster oven that I keep specifically for the purpose of heading Kydex and other types of plastic, setting the temperature to 325 degrees, and the Kydex often. When the Kydex bent like a cooked noodle I removed it from the toaster oven using gloves to protect my hands from the heat and quickly wrapped it around the body of the flashlight as shown in the pictures above. After the Kydex cooled into shape I used a drill with a 5/16" drill bit of drill a hole for the purpose of mounting the light to the helmet.

Although I added the side mounted flashlight for aesthetics and for cool factor, it has come in ridiculously handy. Power outage during lunch duty where the lunch room has no windows? No problem. Heading home in the dark with your hands full of art projects and supplies? Boom! Instant hands free light.

STEP 4: Adding the LEDs

I'm aware that lights inside a space helmet are super impractical. And I know that the only reason they do it in movies is so you can see the actors face more clearly. Never the less, they look cool and I wanted them. Adding the LED lights was amazingly simple. Inside the face shield there is a lip created by the channel that holds the face shield lens. This lip was the perfect place to mount the LEDs. It was wide enough to provide the LEDs a solid surface to mount onto, it was situated in such a way as to hide the LEDs from view, and it's orientation allowed for the LEDs to wrap neatly around the inside of the helmet without pleating or puckering in the corners. I did have a bit of LED strip left over after wrapping it around the inside of the helmet so following the instructions included with the LEDs I trimmed them to length with a pair of scissors.

As for powering the strip, I considered adding an old fashioned battery pack. In order to get enough volts to power the LEDs I would have needed a 4 AA battery pack and the bulk/weight of such a large battery pack did not sound appealing. Rummaging through my old tech bin I found a power bank rated for the correct voltage, (5V) and gave it a try with success. The power bank was an awesome solution as it was lighter than the alternative, Offered the ability to recharge, was a more manageable shape, and didn't require me to buy additional parts as it was something I already had and wasn't using. I mounted the battery bank to the head band assembly using a zip tie as shown in the pictures above. This section of the head band assembly sits slightly under the top of the face shield while still providing easy access to the power banks power button which allows me to toggle the interior lights on and off with ease.

STEP 5: Reassembly

Reassembling your helmet is pretty simple, just do what you did to take it apart in reverse order. Take note of house the side mounted flashlight assembly attaches to the threaded shaft that is used to join the head band to the face shield.

STEP 6: Finishing Touches

To finish this project off I added a bit of light weathing around the channel that holds the lens and then carefully added an American flag decal to the top center of the helmet as shown in the pictures.

Thanks for taking a moment to check out my Face Shield into Space Helmet Instructable. I hope you all are finding fun and creative ways to stay safe and make awesome things no matter where you are in the world. Keep on making!

Comments

[FredericHerbots]

Amazing project! Just found it (and this site) and fell in love with it.

Will try to make this for my son. Bit scared for the stencil part, as I'm not as equiped as you. :-) Going to print it first on paper, and cut it out of plastic/ and a layer of double sided painters tape. And paint with a brush (?) Or would you do it with a spray can?

[Matt Makes]

If you using a stencil that adheres nice and tight to your helmet you could absolutely use a brush. I do like this brake and better as I feel it gives a more even coat. But I've brushed stencils plenty of times. I'm lucky enough to have a snow day today, and I happen to be playing on the cricket maker, if you'd like I'd be happy to whip up a stencil for you and pop it in the mail. If you have a second share your son's name with me and I'll whip up a stencil.

[FredericHerbots]

Already started with the project. Ordered all the components, and already received the helmet.
Applied masking tape. The paint would be here on monday.

I have a powerbank, the size of a big wallet. So, I made a "respirator" cable to attache the LED's. Added two extra cables in there, to make it a bit thicker. :-)

[Matt Makes]

Awesome! it's so cool to see your project with my project on screen in the background. Your upgrades sound really cool and I hope you share your finished work when you're done. Happy building!

[FredericHerbots]

Painted the mask today. 3 layers + a finishing layer…
The mask is already looking better in white.

[FredericHerbots]

Hi Matt, thanks for the reply.
If it isn’t a problem, wouldn’t mind a vinyl stencil, would save me a lot of stress and do-overs. :-) I was thinking of printing Lou-2011 and of course NASA.
However, I’m living in Belgium. I’de gladly pay for the costs of course.

[Matt Makes]

All cut and ready to go. Private message me an address and I'll pop it in the mail. I looked up the rates to post a letter from the States to Belgium and it'll only be a few bucks so I'll cover the shipping.

[jorge leonel]

Great job. Congrats!!

[Matt Makes]

Thank you!

[Capt Zen Petabyte]

Though the mask isnt available here in Australia and it will cost me about $270 (mask + post + $ conversion) this is the most amazing & creative looking prop I have seen in a long time. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Matt Makes]

Oh man, sorry about the difficulties of sourcing the mask. I feel your pain in relation to finding the perfect parts of a project only to be shut down by overseas shipping costs. Best of luck sourcing your parts and thanks so much for your compliment and comment!

[Pagan Wizard]

I am a semi-retired DIY hobbyist wood worker and I have been looking for a face shield like this. I saw your instructable, and clicked on it just to see where you got the face shield, and decided that I am going to attempt this one. Great job!!!!

[Matt Makes]

Awesome! Thanks for your comment. I'm also a bit of a wood worker as you might have noticed if you checked out my other Instructables. The face shield I used for this project is a little on the pricey side, but I had the same train of thought as you. I can use the shield for Covid, and once the world stops being crazy it'll still be useful to me as eye/face protection while wood working. Best of luck on your project! I'd love to see pictures when you're done.

[Stevens Workshop]

Loving the project, looks super effective. The correct font and colours really make it.
However, I'm much more intrigued by your steel ruler with the holes, I'm now off to find one. 👍

[Matt Makes]

Thanks! It is a cool little ruler. Not sure where I picked it up at though, I've had it for years. Thanks for your comment!

[Stevens Workshop]

Very useful, I've done some searching and I can pick it up from Amazon but they have a problem, all the metric rulers only have imperial fractions for the drill holes... Odd.

[jaimieblagg]

Great idea, think I'll go make one

[JohnH955]

I can see this being added to the Cos-play area too ! Great project ! Wished I saw this before Halloween !

[alfadog67]

This is AMAZING! I would wear it all day if a face shield was a viable replacement for a cloth mask.

[seamster]

Very nicely done. I've been toying with the idea of getting a vinyl cutter just for stenciling like you've done - what machine do you have, and do you like it?