Skull Respirator: Chin and Nose

Remember a few weeks ago when I used alginate to reduce a Jello™ mold? I had some of those smaller forms left over, and decided that one of them would make an excellent chin. It reflects the lines of the top skull (also a Jello™ mold), plus it gives a rounded bottom, which I think is preferable to a sharp bony chin.


I just had to saw it in half, and sand it to fit. I was concerned about the overall height of the skull becoming too long, so I decided not to copy the mandible more closely. Besides the chin, I've drilled small ventilation holes in the eyes, and also created the nasal cavity. It gives the look I'm after, plus provides two more ventilation holes so that the wearer can breathe easily.

I've also added a piece of aluminum tubing to help create the cheekbone shape. There will be one on the other side as well, and they will not be part of the casting, but will be added on post-casting. My little robot face is starting to exhibit real character now!

Skull Respirator: Second Casting

The eye goggles have been cast, and separately the skull top. I've placed six white nylon screws around the crown. It's slowly starting to come together.

Skull Respirator: Fabrication

I am using the same Jello™ mold that I used for the anemone canisters to make the top part of the skull. I first cast polyester resin into the aluminum mold which had been sprayed with a mold release. Then I bandsawed the skull in half, and sanded it down somewhat more until the shape looked right sitting atop the existing skull.



After pondering how to make this respirator look less organic and more mechanical I am thinking I need to fabricate the entire skull, and not use any of the original plastic skull.

Above you can see a bunch of acrylic pieces that I've cut out with the laser, ready to assemble. As you might imagine this takes quite a bit of planning and taking measurements from the original skull, to get to this point.

Here are the same parts assembled. I will mold these and cast them in resin to modify. Then I'll add on the gear teeth, and the lower jaw.

Skull Respirator: First Casting

Once the silicone rubber mold was cured I cast the skull in a gray urethane resin.



Next I took the original plastic jaw and reshaped it so it would fit around the gear teeth.



Next I will fabricate the top of the skull, and figure out how best to punkify this skull so that it looks more mechanical.

Skull Respirator: A New Project

I've decided to make a new respirator (I'm defining a respirator as a device that covers the mouth and nose, as opposed to a gas mask which covers the mouth, nose and eyes). Top hats and respirators go nicely together in a steampunk world, and heretofore I've only made the one pictured below, plus the Defender's anemone respirator, both of which have two canisters. I wanted to try something different—a respirator with just a single central canister.


As I contemplated just what that canister might look like, it occurred to me that I had a small skull that was about the right size and shape. I found this partial plastic skull several years ago at a yard sale, without knowing just what I would do with it. This seems to be the right project for it.

To make it look steampunk I will need to punkify it. I want to join the natural with the mechanical, combined into a single integrated unit. I am planning on casting the skull canister in a faux pewter (cold cast aluminum), and attach it to a leather mouth and nosepiece, with leather straps.

Human teeth are laid out roughly in an arc, a shape which allows me to replace these plastic "human" teeth with gear teeth. While I rarely utilize the symbol of the gear in my work—due to its ubiquitous appearance and overuse in so many things that are called steampunk—I do think it is appropriate in this instance. In the photo above I have removed the lower jaw, flattened the back of the skull, and sanded off the upper teeth in preparation for fabricating and installing the gear teeth.