Old Fools Journal: Steampunking my Goggles

February 18, 2009 Wednesday
While casting about looking for something to do that wouldn't be useful so as to avoid work I went into the “Workshop”. That was a mistake. That was not the place to look. The “Work” in workshop was a dead give away. It looks like a two work day job just cleaning that place up enough to be able to tinker on stuff.

I remember the day I worked in there last. It turned off cold and I dropped everything, turned off the light and left. That was months ago. Today I took a picture, grabbed some tools and left (work depress me). The tools were to make a farm repair to a 100 year old table that came apart in my six foot tall 15 year old (baby Huey) grandsons hands. It wasn't his fault. It looks like someone had made a temporary repair 20 years ago and it didn't hold up. I made another with sheetrock screws and I'll bet it will outlast me.
That didn't take near long enough so I got out these goggles I bought in January. I have already found them useful riding in cold windy weather. Not that I do much of that. The will be used when working with the Dremel and at the grinder. I will be doing a lot of that in the spring.
See goggles here .










They're just plain plastic glossy black welders goggles and that ain't near good enough for a long haired old man who wears aloha shirts with a camo kilt and “cat and the hat” socks so I rummaged around in the lamp building box and come up with some magic brass goop that I use to touch up brass and not so brass stuff. Here are the results.

For now that's enough. I have some antique copper paint that on this kind of plastic looks like dark maroon leather and I may do that later. They need a led light(red) too and a swing down magnifying glass. Maybe I could add a smokestack and a steam whistle as well. See how it can get away from you? Needs a leather strap too. Oh my. And a gear somewhere.

Oh yeah, the gun is a world war 2 vintage 36mm flare gun that was carried on merchant ships. It's bronze and weighs 1.9 kilos (4 1/8 lbs). Who needs a ray gun. Looking down the barrel of this thing is like looking into a cave.



Here is a picture of the goggles in transition. The buckle is 40+ year old brass. The round thing next to it is the magic brass goop. You don't get much for 5 bucks. It's literally a cap full. Says gold but in small print it says 3050 Brass. Applied with the high tech applicator next to it (Dollar General tissue paper or what we all call Kleenex). I could have covered the plastic completely but it really looks old and worn letting the black show through. Artsy fartsy stuff you know.I got this idea from MRX Designs . Check him out he does some really nice work.