Sunday, July 26, 2009

How to make Dust Goggles.

I made these goggles for the dust in the desert at Burning Man. I am posting these images as instructions for those of you who might want to try making some of their own.

Good goggles for the desert are hard to find and they are very expensive if you do.

These are made from an old leather jacket, and from two pieces of tempered and UV resistant glass that I got from the halogen 'puck style' lights. I popped the glass out of the plastic ring. They also sell tinted circles that can be used for torch brazing which would be great. I wanted these for night also, so I'm leaving them clear.

The whole process took about 3 hours. If you have any questions please email me. You can get the address from our website.




Here is the link to the main page on our site. How to make leather and glass goggles.

5 comments:

Jim said...

What kind of sewing machine did you use?

Tim Elverston said...

light industrial Bernina. A home machine would do too.

Unknown said...

Tim & Wildfire,


Great photograpy and description of very nice craftsmanship.


I fear you will have a problem with fogging if you use these at night: The inside of the lens will be warm and humid; the outside will be colder during the cool desert night. You might need to add screened vents to your design. You might instead (or more likely additionally) apply a scuba/snorkle mask anti-fog spray. Or Google for solutions!


~K

Tim Elverston said...

This is certainly a possibility. I do already have a plan for vents and they are very much as you describe. I don't really expect a fogging issue, simply because the goggles out there that we use are sealed and so far we've not had them fog up.

Your theory about fogging makes total sense. I would totally expect that they should fog up too. Can't totally explain why my previous experience hasn't had my totally sealed plastic goggles fog up already. Perhaps this year I will really pay attention.

To be honest, these are really a prototype. I didn't necessarily expect them to come out as well as they did the first time around. They don't look or feel at all like a prototype, but then again, the more I make stuff the more that happens to me these days.

Vents that are covered with a dense knitted merino fabric, I have several to choose from, would be my first mod. Perhaps several layers of thin silk gauze instead.

Thanks for the interest.
Tim

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