Steampunk Goggles Iris With Interchangable Lenses

Intro: Steampunk Goggles Iris With Interchangable Lenses

I built these for the shop bot challenge if you like them please vote!
From the start I would like to acknowledge Gogglerman for his exceptional work it was the basis for my desire to make these.
The whole process took at least 4 weeks at about 6 hours a day, I will not attempt to show all the work, but hope to explain how I made the super thin Iris in the goggles, the final product has an additional lens and filter which was not needed if you only wanted an Iris pair of glasses.

STEP 1: The Iris Construction

These shots show me thinking through the way to set up a thin iris, there are two rings one inside the other, as the outer turns it pushes the posts on the bottom of the shutters. The outer ring must have elongated holes because the pivot points move slightly away from the outside edge as the shutter closes.

I did not use an eight shutter design as I tried in the cardboard test model.

the pictures are proof of concept they are straight in the picture but will end up as circular in the finished product.
you can see from those pics the iris need only be 3 layers of metal thick. about 1/4 inch including the pivot posts.

STEP 2: Iris Set Up

These show me cutting out the relief areas in the inner ring made of aluminum the outer is copper.

The second picture shows how it works the rest is just getting a good fit and making the case to hold it all.

The last picture is of a degree checker, I got tired of trying to use dividers to figure out points on the circumference,
if you notice there are six holes in this peice the iris I used in this project are actually rejects from the real goggles I should have done next month.

STEP 3: More of the Process..

Lay out cut out, the second pic is the knob before then installed, stick the plug in a drill and shape it with a file.
You can see the half washers I soldered to the shutter posts to keep them in place, also look and see the small brass shims soldered to the outer coper ring to keep the action tight, they remove all slop in the copper slots I cut.
In this set up you get no room for lose tolerances the sheves will wander all over if tolerances are kept very tight.

STEP 4: Still Here?

I made the sides by stacking tubing cut at a bevel the rest is self explainatory.
The larger lens I took off because I did not like it, (another 3 hours of work)
The top one is a tube to hold the ear peice, the 3 lowers are solid wire.
The lens assembly is getting a back cover, half is rough sanded the other is just after soldering.

STEP 5: Final Photos

Just some different angles to show I'm not hiding stuff.

Comments

[Pagli]

How much did these glasses end up costing?? Thank you!

[CraftedRandom]

Very professional finished product

[nerd7473]

pretty cool longwinters you did a great job

[Lefty_Link]

Your design is what I hope to achieve later along the line! So beautiful! So clean! Such art! Thank you for inspiring!

[longwinters]

Thanks Lefty I love it when people comment on projects almost forgotten, I've got them on a book shelf where I can see them everyday, I can't help but think what was I thinking when I built them...

[Lefty_Link]

Well no matter what, I still appreciate this design and really enjoy the skill you put into it! I really should look more into some of your other work :)

[aslaven]

technically, could you use nearsighted lenses in these???

[longwinters]

sure you could, one lens is a magnifing glass to make your iris look huge, no reason you could not have a prescription lens set made.
Thank's for having a look.

[aslaven]

sweet,looks like i have myself some EPIC new glasses

[aslaven]

BTW, this is EPIC!!!! Just what ive been searching for,Now if only i could find those steampunk headsets

[justjimAZ]

Really beautiful craftsmanship.

[thomasthetankengine]

Vote! *ding*

[alicyn.wonderland]

Good Luck on your contest!

[robotjim]

Nice work, very cool! My vote as well. There's just something fascinating about an iris...

[JBZG]

Duly voted for...Thanks for the patch!

[agis68]

excellent work, very professional too,

Bravo!!!!!

[mduhamel]

Is there a place that you mention the tools needed to do this? You say in here somewhere that "it should be self explanatory" but I don't think it is for DIY noobs.

[longwinters]

A drill press would be required, tin snips, soldering iron, a disc or belt sander helps greatly to size the parts, a fixed style, (bench) the sander helps because frequently you will need to adjust a peice by a small amount, cutting with snips leaves a rough edge the sander does not.
the second pic in this step shows how the shutter action works.

Two protractors glued to a rotatable board greatly improved the accuracy of placing my noches in the rings and getting the shutter over-lap right.
I also used it to determine the 5 hole positions for the base plate.
I tried using dividers going around the circumfrence but could never get an accurate position for all five holes.

a thin sharpie is mandatory for layout, the card board mock up is very helpful in getting your dimensions and feel for the final product.

The way I used the protractor was to place a circular blank of brass sheet with a 3/16 hole in the center, then rotate the blank until I had the desired shutter length.

I will soon be posting a second iris which is simpler to make and easier to adjust.

[mduhamel]

Thanks for this. Sadly I remain a poor DIYer so this will have to wait.

[longwinters]

I would like to thank everybody who has commented, these were truly a labor of love.
My moniker is longwinters and it's a massive snow year here, so there was time to sit in the shop and built these monsters, you always wonder when you are building something like these, will other people like it? It is good to hear I got the asthetics pretty close.