Respirator #4 with Canisters

Last month I started on respirator #4, then had to set it aside while I filled all the Halloween mask orders coming in.


I have at last had time to get back to it. I redesigned the ventilation holes, and constucted the canister, making it smaller than my previous respirator. Pictured above is the undyed leather mask and canister prototype.


Here is the respirator assembled (except for the straps) and dyed and antiqued. I'm hoping to be able to retail this piece for under $100.

Olifant: Tusk Completed

The first tusk/canister is now complete, and is shown below on the right. The piece on the left is the casting with the aluminum powder straight out of the mold.


To finish it I sanded, buffed and polished it, then gave it a coating of antiquing. After it dried I screwed in the eight black steel bolts, and attached the coiled wire thingamajiggy on the right. Now it kind of looks like a bomb!

Olifant: Tusk, Take 2

While going through my collection of yard sale finds, I came across the flashlight shown below. I bought it because I loved its Buck Rogers futuristic look.

Since I've been working on the new Olifant tusk canister, it ocurred to me that the missile end could make a good finial for such a canister. And as I wasn't feeling all tingly inside about the versison I had been working on I decided to begin again with the flashlight as my starting point.


After molding the flashlight in RTV silicone and casting it in urethane resin, I cut out a series of acrylic discs and stacked them around the "missile".


The flashlight has nine vertical grooves spaced evenly around its circumference except for one place, which is wider than the other eight. I decided to add a piece of hardware there above the discs, bigger than the other eight screws which will be added to each finished casting. Then I coated the acrylic discs with urethane resin to seal them and smooth them out so that the canister will rotocast more easily (that's the white stuff in the picture above).


As it was difficult to see what I really had with the white and black and gray all contrasting, I sprayed a coat of white sandable primer, which makes it much easier to view.

Olifant: Tusk Construction

In addition to giving Pachydermos' offspring a new set of tusk canisters, I have decided to also give him a new trunk hose. To celebrate that differentiation I have named him Olifant, a variation of the word Elephant.

I have molded the assemblage of brass parts (on the left) and cast it in a gray urethane resin (on the right).

Here I have sanded irregularities, filled cracks with Bondo™, and engraved the cap to match the hex acorn nut that will sit on top and hold the canister against the mask. I've also drilled and mounted twelve brads, which are meant to simulate rivets holding the top to the case.

Rhino Gas Mask: Finished Canister

The Rhino canister model with the finished cold cast aluminum one.

The model weighs 392 gm, while the hollow cold cast version weighs a mere 91 gm (3.2 oz)! The wearer won't even notice it's there.

Rhino Gas Mask: The Canister

I was feeling really stuck on how to build the canister. The primary problem in my mind was getting it to fit with the look of the eyepieces and horn. Those two are both strong designs with little subtlety and no detail.


I decided that while I could keep the basic bulky shape of the canister, that I would need to build it from scratch (and not simply modify the original one), in a manner similar to the nose horn, and in the same material. Here is the acrylic and resin model, and the engraved bottom part (made of acrylic and Bondo™), which will be attached before molding and casting.