NASA ACES Helmet

[adamszki427]

whoooaahh dude that tinted visor makes the whole thing come to life. looking really nice..... i spy a nice little car in the reflection there too but cant quite identify it, a triumph possibly?
as for the tape i really love that detail but of course its your project so go with whatever you like.

 

[Hughes]

whoooaahh dude that tinted visor makes the whole thing come to life. looking really nice..... i spy a nice little car in the reflection there too but cant quite identify it, a triumph possibly?
as for the tape i really love that detail but of course its your project so go with whatever you like.

I'll probably try the tape to see if I like it. Worst that can happen is I just peel it back off. Yeah the car is a 67 Triumph Spitfire, my parents bought it brand new along time ago and passed it along to me a few years back.

On the tinting I started with it pretty light and then just kept going darker and darker, because I thought it looked better. Plus it was still relatively easy to see out of even that dark.

 

[Hughes]

I forgot to upload a couple videos of the visor pulls. The first is one that failed, I don't think the PETG was heated long enough, the second worked really good. The wet towel was an attempt to cool the PETG to reduce damage to the PLA visor buck. It did seem to work in minimizing the heat transfer to the buck without causing issues to the visor. I also attached a picture of the damage that one of the visor bucks sustained before I used the cooling. You can see the PLA shrinking down which required sanding and filling to prep the buck again.

 

[lmgill]

I forgot to upload a couple videos of the visor pulls. The first is one that failed, I don't think the PETG was heated long enough, the second worked really good. The wet towel was an attempt to cool the PETG to reduce damage to the PLA visor buck. It did seem to work in minimizing the heat transfer to the buck without causing issues to the visor. I also attached a picture of the damage that one of the visor bucks sustained before I used the cooling. You can see the PLA shrinking down which required sanding and filling to prep the buck again.

Looks good.
If you have other projects to vacuum form, you should make your frame, bigger than the box or make the box smaller so it's closer to your visor pattern size.
This way you can push the frame past the box and let the hot plastic make the seal. Your current seal has a lot of surface area and you have to make sure the frame is aligned and flat to get a seal. If you put a 1/4" radius on the top edges of the box, then you can push the frame past it and the plastic can stretch over the box some, which will help reduce webbing.

Another trick is to pull a piece of styrene over the pattern and trim it to the base of your pattern. (styrene is much easier to pull, as it stretches much easier than PETG) Then pull your other plastic over this. The styrene will smooth the pattern some and also offer some heat and stick resistance to your pattern.

The pattern damage looks to be the paint being affected by the heat. This is happens with rattle can paint.

 

[Hughes]

Looks good.
If you have other projects to vacuum form, you should make your frame, bigger than the box or make the box smaller so it's closer to your visor pattern size.
This way you can push the frame past the box and let the hot plastic make the seal. Your current seal has a lot of surface area and you have to make sure the frame is aligned and flat to get a seal. If you put a 1/4" radius on the top edges of the box, then you can push the frame past it and the plastic can stretch over the box some, which will help reduce webbing.

Another trick is to pull a piece of styrene over the pattern and trim it to the base of your pattern. (styrene is much easier to pull, as it stretches much easier than PETG) Then pull your other plastic over this. The styrene will smooth the pattern some and also offer some heat and stick resistance to your pattern.

The pattern damage looks to be the paint being affected by the heat. This is happens with rattle can paint.

Thanks Imgill for the advice, the vacuum forming process was pretty hit and miss, but after several attempts I did get some fairly good results on a couple visors.

Tinting the visors was a whole new experience too. Fortunately I had a few junk visors to test on, because I ruined them by not letting the dye completely dissolve prior to dipping the visor. This resulted in speckles of thick dye on some portions of the visor (see pic). I might do another round of visors in a thicker PETG and then try another round of tinting.

 

[WTCreations]

View attachment 1547691
2 of my outside visors came out really pretty nice. It wasn't without issues though. Apparently you need to wait for the dye packets to completely dissolve or the tinting is really uneven. Luckily I did all the dye work in the garage with plenty of protection on everything around me, because the dye gets EVERYWHERE. Super excited about how it turned out so far. Now thinking about if I'll put the reflective tape on the back of the helmet. Part of me says do it, but the other part that spent about 20 hours sanding, priming and painting it until it was like glass says not to. ;-)

Oh My Goodness. That helmet is looking super clean from these photos. How close are you to finishing this helmet? As far as I can see, it's done.

 

[Hughes]

Oh My Goodness. That helmet is looking super clean from these photos. How close are you to finishing this helmet? As far as I can see, it's done.

Thank you. Yes it is mainly complete, I might give a go at some reflective tape on the back and some interior visual details could be added. I also
have a couple neck rings so that I can add one to a suit in the future. I'll put a video on shortly that shows all the parts articulating with visor movements.

 

[Deetz]

Stunning work, those visors really turned out nicely!

 

[Hughes]

Stunning work, those visors really turned out nicely!

Yeah I actually surprised myself a bit on the visors. I think I did 4 inside visors and 3 of the tinted visors in total. A couple had some issues, but a few really turned out well.

 

[Hughes]

These pictures give a good reference for the size of the helmet when it's on and shows a bit better the clarity of the visors. The neck ring isn't attached here, so airflow is not horrible, but I'm thinking I'll need some sort of air movement blowing up into the helmet if I'll be keeping it on for more than a few minutes.

 

[Hughes]

whoooaahh dude that tinted visor makes the whole thing come to life. looking really nice..... i spy a nice little car in the reflection there too but cant quite identify it, a triumph possibly?
as for the tape i really love that detail but of course its your project so go with whatever you like.

Were you able to make any progress on your ACES Helmet?

 

[adamszki427]

Were you able to make any progress on your ACES Helmet?

other than acquiring a few small pieces not really.... i havent really made progress on anything much on my workbench recently for many reasons.... im starting to consider outsourcing the 3d printed parts because im just literally fed up with having issues with my 3d printer again.

 

[WTCreations]

Hey Everybody!

It's me the maker of the 3d print files used here for this project.

I am relieved to announce that Version 3 of these 3d print files are live on my online store!

Here is the link for those who are interested.

https://wesleytarr.artstation.com/store/VGP7K/nasa-aces-helmet-3d-print-files

I have revised my old 3d print files for the helmet to be as accurate to the real thing as I could. The package includes a 10 page assembly instructions PDF, a parts list, a screw setting guide, and links to online resources for making at home.

Let me know if anybody has questions about the files
W.T.
Wesley Tarr 3D

 

[Hughes]

Hey Everybody!

It's me the maker of the 3d print files used here for this project.

I am relieved to announce that Version 3 of these 3d print files are live on my online store!

Here is the link for those who are interested.

https://wesleytarr.artstation.com/store/VGP7K/nasa-aces-helmet-3d-print-files

I have revised my old 3d print files for the helmet to be as accurate to the real thing as I could. The package includes a 10 page assembly instructions PDF, a parts list, a screw setting guide, and links to online resources for making at home.

View attachment 1702787View attachment 1702791View attachment 1702792

Let me know if anybody has questions about the files
W.T.
Wesley Tarr 3D

I've got to reach out to Starforgeprinting he did a great job printing out my last helmet from you Wesley so really interested in building this one too.