I’ve finished off the steampunk goggles now.   I’ve added a light in the goggles and (not pictured) the fan on the power plant now moves.

Today was spent taking pics of my brother in full steampunk get-up.

There will also be a vid so I’m not quite done with this one, but the build is all finished at least.

Update: having thunk about it for abit I reckon these could be called ‘Geist Goggles’, for spotting specters, spooks and spirits ;0)

Here’s a photoset on Flickr.

Quick update on the steampunk gear.  I’ve finished off the power plant with a plaque and a battery to make the fan rotate.  I’ve also added a light to the goggles.  I’ll have some proper pictures this weekend, but for now here’s some pics of the power plant:

Been having a go at adding various photo effects to images in preparation for taking some pics of the steampunk goggles  this weekend.  I don’t have much of a background to shoot against so I figured trying to stylise some of the images might be a good bet.

I’ve also been trawling for various steampunk images.  Ophelias Overdose on Deviant Art has some good ones.  I particularly like this one.  My brother isn’t quite that attractive unfortunately, but we’ll do our best ;0)

Image from Ophlia's Overdose, Deviant Art. http://ophelias-overdose.deviantart.com/

Also check this out.  Wow.

So here’s a quick update on the steampunk project. I’m really getting into the whole steampunk thing, wanna make some more stuff – I’ve been wandering through the shops buyiong various bits of objet d’art!

99p stores are a godsend – I managed to buy a load of belts for a quid each so the powerplant can now be strapped to the arm.

I’ve also been working on the goggles.  I’ve been putting some padding in so they’re more comfortable to wear.  They’re not too bad now and you can balance them on your forehead so you don’t have all the weight pressing on the bridge of your nose.

This is a small steam powered generator that will ‘power’ the goggles.   This will be worn on the upper arm.

This isn’t quite finished.  It still needs some straps to attach it to your arm.  There’s also going to be a sign just below the octopus:

I’ve been buying some more pieces of crap off ebay.  These’ll all be incorporated into the Steampunk Goggles.  This old pressure gauge will form  part of a mini power plant that will ‘power’ the things.

I also bought an old belt which will serve as the head strap.

Finally another old pair of binoculars.

These are quite battered, but the eye piece has some interesting engraving on it so that might do as an additional lens or something.

Someone on a forum asked me how I went about putting together the steampunk goggles so I thought I may as well reproduce my response here.

Basically I typed ‘old’ into ebay and bought a load of different bits and pieces that came up!

First off I got some plastic welding goggles

I painted them brass and covered them in material from a leather effect table mat.

Then I got some old binoculars and dismantled them.

These formed the large lens on the left and the lens on the right. I had to file down the screw thread on the interior of the goggles and the metal frame of the binoculars to make them fit.

Add a few bits and pieces like cogwheels from old watches and press studs to look like rivets.

I also got some old medical probes and other bits and bobs like an old pair of glasses

These formed the lens extension thing on the right. The green movable lens thing was made from clock parts, a stand from a miniature action figure machine gun and some bent and shaped brass to form a hinge.

Other details on the left are made from some plate brass cut to shape, some varnished wood, bolts, a weird hinge thing I got with the medical probes and some old clock parts.

If you want to make this sort of stuff it’s worth hunting round and building up a box of interesting junk parts. I can recommend old clocks as having billions of interesting looking mechanical parts.

I continue to work on the steampunk goggles.  I’m trying to make these as rugged as they can be: the lenses which I’ve taken from a set of old binoculars are quite heavy so I’m making sure as much of this is bolted together as well as being glued in case it pulls itself apart.

I’m also trying to make it look as functional as possible; i.e. that all the extensions and mechanical parts look as though they have a purpose in the context of the overall piece, even if they don’t really.

I’ve pretty  much come to a standstill at present.  The cog wheel mechanism on the left hand side of the goggles will support the small telescope I’ve ordered but I can’t go any further until it arrives.

I’m making some steampunk goggles for my brother.  This was kind of going to be a secret but the desire to tell people was getting too strong and he emailed me earlier and suggested doing a steampunk music video for one of his songs, so it seemed like a good opportunity to mention it to him.

They’re made of various bits of junk:  the main body is a set of plastic welding goggles covered in leather effect material from a table mat that I got from a pound shop.  The main eye extension thing is one half of an old set of binoculars that I got off ebay and there’s half a pair of old glasses attached to a medical probe on the other eye.

The final piece will have alot more mechanical gubbins on the left lens – I’ve got a small 3 inch brass telescope on the way, also from ebay.  I’ve also ordered a pressure gauge which will be part of a small power plant that’ll be worn on the arm.

This’ll connect to the googles via  a bunch of cables (probably a silver shower hose) to make it look like there’s a kind of steam powered generator powering the thing.