My First Helmet

This is my first helmet. It is being made out of 24 gauge sheet steel, the same steel used by ford for car bodies, and it has some kind of oil or rust resistant coating on it. I am using the WOF templates. I cut out most of the parts already and I am welding stuff together. Once I'm finished welding I will grind down everything nice and smooth.

A warning, I am a beginner welder so my welds look very bad.

Looks to be a very nice start. Like to see how it progresses. How are you planning on doing the dome?

I am still thinking about that. I want to make the entire helmet out of the same material so I'm thinking about using the WOF dome template and just hammering it until its smooth.

wow it looks nice mate

Thanks for the compliments.

Here is an update, I got the cheek parts welded together. Everything still needs to be cleaned up a bit.

Cool. I've always wanted to know how to weld, I'm jealous. It looks like theres a bit of excess material on the upper cheek corners sticking out over the visor area. I know you haven't cleaned it up yet but I wanted to make sure you saw it. It's a nice helmet, keep up the good work!

Thanks. ya I really need to take a grinder to it and make everything flow better, thanks for pointing it out though.

I finally got around to working on my helmet again today and thought I would post a quick update. All I had time to do was blend the cheek parts and the face together. I think it looks pretty good. It is not at all perfect but it'll do.

Nice job on the upper cheek area. Looks great.

Thanks, it was a little bit easier to blend the parts together than I thought it would be.

Today I had a couple of hours of free time and decided to work on the left ear piece. The first layer of bondo I had already applied a couple of days ago to hold the parts together. Today I sanded the extra bondo off and put a second layer on to fill in the gaps. It should turn out looking pretty good once it's all sanded down.

Another quick update. I finished the left ear piece, I think it turned out pretty good. There are still some small spots around the edges that need to be fixed but I will take care of that when I attach it to the helmet.

I always admire people who take the time and have to know-how to make metal helmets. Love yours!

Hey thanks a ton. It does take a lot of time, the worst part is that I'm learning how to do most of the fabrication stuff as I go, so it's taking me a lot longer than it would somebody who knows what they are doing.

Quick update (unfortunately no pictures). I started on the dome today. To make it easier to fit I cut the 3 sections of the WOF dome template into all of the separate triangle parts. They need more shaping before they will fit good enough to be welded together. I will post some pics after I get them to fit together right.

I'm no metal worker myself, so maybe Novall could enlighten us better, but, for the dome, wouldn't it be easier to dish it out of 1 piece of metal instead of welding small pieces together?

Or, if the metal is thin enough, perhaps you should mould it around a template, like a skateboarding helmet?

Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing, Saz.

Ears look good Joelight!

Thanks Ordeyn.

Yes dishing out a single piece of metal would be easier, but I didn't have enough material to do that. I could fit all of the pieces on the sheet metal I had though like a puzzle. I'm just short on cash at the moment and didn't want to go buy more stuff if I didn't have to. So I'll figure this out just to save money.

As a piece of advice, I know money is tight, but if you want it done properly, I urge you to splash out on a small sheet of metal.

I appreciate tight budgets, but this is your bucket man, done right it will be your companion for life.

It is your project and entirely your decision and I'm sure some would say loads of weld marks might look cool. I have a slight love affair with making helmets and if you are putting effort into those earpieces, the dome should look just as awesome

Would perhaps going to a scrap merchant and seeing if you could get some on the cheap help?

I LOVE THIS, The work is Excellent....... Except your missing a dome, Can we get Manda'lor up in here STAT!

Thanks Zuka.

Saz, I actually started a little bit on forming the pieces to thier right shapes this afternoon and I think it will turn out good, especially after I grind it smooth and bondo the thing up nice. If it turns out that it just doesn't look right I will go and get more of the steel I'm using but I'm going to at least try it this way first, it can't hurt anything but time, and to do it right I'm not in any hurry.

I've been working a lot on my helmet. And I haven't updated in a while so I thought I would post a bunch of pics.



The first 2 are the dome that I have been working on. I doesn't look very good in the picture but in person it turned out really nice. I still need to take a grinder to it an smooth out the outside before I attach it to the helmet, I need to cut off about 3/4 of an inch off the bottom, and some bondo will take care of the rest. Could be made a little more symmetrical too.

The right ear piece is half way complete. The top part is done, not shown is the guide for the stalk, cut out of some 1/4" thick Plexiglas in 2 pieces to be layered together.

The range finder is almost done. 1 more layer of bondo to fill in the smaller holes and it will be finished. The stalk is cut out of the same 1/4" Plexiglass. The range finder parts are made from some thin aluminum.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy with school and some other stuff. I will try to update more often. Thanks for looking.

Quick update. Sorry I haven't kept my promise to stay consistent with my progress. these pics are a few weeks old, I haven't gotten much further though. I did get the left ear piece attached and I am working on getting the lower part of the right ear piece stuck on. I'll update when I finish that up. Oh and I bondoed the face of the helmet too, almost forgot.



Thanks for checking it out.

New update. As you can see I finished the dome, finally. The rangefinder is done. The lower right ear piece is done and attached. The upper right ear piece is almost finished. And the last thing that I need to do before pre-paint sanding is to finish the key holes on the back. I'm going to work my rear end off on labor day, but I think that I might be able to prime this thing either tonight or tomorrow.

Ummm.. wow Joe, that looks really really good! A metal Bucket!? Awesome.
Mike

Sharp, very sharp. You are doing a fantastic job. Got any bondo spot putty filler for those little holes on the dome?

I wish that I had the time and materials to make a metal bucket, maby in the future. First i have to finish my plastic bucket wich isn't looking as good as yours. Keep up the good work.

Ruben

Thanks everyone for the good comments, it's very encouraging. Ordeyn i don't have any spot putty but I can just mix up a very small batch of bondo to fill in the holes. I was thinking of keeping a few of the little holes for some battle damaged spots. But I'm not sure it that will look good or not, what do you guys think?

Quick update of what I did today and yesterday. I finished filling in holes and sanding the bondo. I primed everything yesterday and today I put the first coat of chrome paint on. Sorry that one of the pictures is blurry, I didn't notice until I put the chrome paint on today that the pic was no good. I also primed the inside so that I wont rust.

I finished painting. I am just waiting for the matte finish clear coat to dry and the tint to dry on the visor I made and I will put everything together and take some pics tomorrow.

Well here it is all painted and the visor is installed. It is not perfect but I like the way it turned out, it's better than how I thought it would end up. The masking tape peeled off some of the paint but I liked the way it looked so I left it, there are still a few very small bubbles on the tinting after the 3rd time I tried to tint the visor but it's close enough for now.
The symbol on the top is one that I designed a while ago and I plan on getting a tattoo of it. Sorry the pictures aren't the best but it was with my cell phone and in my bedroom, bad lighting. If anybody wants better pics to see I can take more later. Let me know what you guys think of my first helmet.

Thanks.

Very, very nice. It's so cool you did that with metal! I'm so jealous.

Hey thanks Ordeyn.

Hey, that looks great! I hope I can make something THAT good . Now I feel lazy...

hey thanks. it just takes A LOT of time and patients.

Very cool! Great metal smithing!

Once again, thank you for all of the compliments.

And here is an update, I thought I was done but I couldn't pull myself away from this thing for very long. I padded the inside of the helmet and added a wire mesh over the inside of the key holes. I know that the padding isn't very pretty but I fit it to my head so that it feels like my motorcycle helmet, I'm very happy with how it turned out.



I think I will eventually cut out some kind of fabric, that is less scratchy than the foam, and glue it tight over the foam to keep it in place and from ripping out when I put it on and take it off, it's a very tight fit. But that's more research and more time that I need to spend on school right now. So for now I think I'll take a, unwanted, break.

Alright I know that I said that I was finished, again, but I can't step away from this thing without thinking of some way to make it better. I think that I am going to remove the range finder. It looks cool but I want something functional. I am going to make an attachment for a small tactical flashlight. I think that I will just detach the cap on the right ear piece and keep it so that I can just unbolt it from the rest of the helmet so that I won't have to repaint anything but the cap.

What do you guys think about that before I go any further?

I say go for it.

nice idea you should also add a smallish antena on top of that flashlight to make it look like it has a com link in the helmet,or add an actual com link like i do with mine and my friends bike helmets

Ya I like the antenna idea, I think Ill try that too.

lol i have tons of ideas...i am actually hoping to be able to do a helmet my self that will be highly customized but im kinda low on budget atm and will have to wait with that particular build for some time until i get more funds,hope your turns out great

Alright well I finished the changes that I decided to make to my helmet. And I really like it A Lot better. I did not put an antenna on it anywhere but the flashlight clamp turned out really good. I'll post some pics later.

Wow I can't believe that I waited this long to retake the bad pics I had. Well here is the finished helmet. Pics still aren't the best because it is a cell phone camera. Thanks for looking!

Very nice, very nice. wonderful paint job and such and I'm liking the light on the helmet.

Wow, this is looking great. Just a thought, but are you planning on using this for paintball/airsoft or anything like that? It seems like it should be sturdy enough. Just curious.

Hey thanks for the compliments. No I didn't plan on using it for paintball at all. I have a couple reasons for that... 1) the visor is just glued on at the moment, and I plan on changing that, and 2) The visor really cuts down on my visibility I think people would be able to sneak up on me from behind really easy with my peripheral vision cut down so much. I think it would hold up just fine for paintball though. its all metal. I would just be worried about the paint job getting ruined.

WOW! that is one great looking helmet.

Impressive!

Great job!! I'm starting on a metal bucket myself and you have given me some ideas for the dome.

Thanks everyone for the good comments. CarudAkinolos, I just used the WOF template for the dome. If I was to do it again I would have done it a different way. Leave all of the triangles attached at the top of the dome and then weld them as I bend everything to shape. It would just be easier than trying to bend every individual piece and then welding them together like i did. If that makes sense.