okay I'm testing out this hat in the outside outdoors
and it's kind of windy
it's got to be spinning
L: It is spinning
Is it spinning?
Hey everyone how's it going today I wanted
to revisit an old project of mine. This is the flared top hat. It's a top hat
that's flared so I thought it'd be fun to just revisit it, make it a bit more
exciting, add some cool accoutrements. I've got a 3d printer now I can make
some cool parts for it so I was thinking of a theme of sort of like a
wind-powered top hat machine - put like a hole through
the center and some fan blades and maybe a smokestack out the side and some
rivets and other things...wires...and maybe it could look really cool and fun so
let's give it a go, see if we can make a flared steampunk wind generator top hat
Alright so my whole idea was based on a spinning propeller so I knew I needed to
make sure that was working first. I also knew that it wouldn't work very well to
make it out of foam so I decided to 3d print it. I designed all the bits and
pieces for printing in a program called 3DCoat and then sent those lovely files
through my 3d printer. I printed off a curved propeller duct, a flat
propeller duct, a swirly portal, a regulator thing, spindle caps and wire
connector pieces, a bunch of propeller blades, and hubs for four, five, six or
eight blades because I just wasn't sure what would look the best and I wanted to
see it in real life. I decided I liked four blades the best so that's what I
used. I pushed the curved fan duct firmly into
the foam where I wanted my propeller to end up. I planned to put a tube between
the front and back holes so it needed to be high enough that it wouldn't hit my
head when I put it on. I traced the mark and then repeated the process on the
other side using a measuring tape to make sure I had it in the same spot then
I cut the holes out with my super sharp knife. The important thing here is not to
angle the knife blade out as you go around that vertical curve otherwise
when I slide the fan duct in there are gonna be gaps on the side. There were a
couple of options for mounting the fan duct: I could mount it with the flat side
protruding so it looked kind of like an old headlight or something, or I could
have the curved side so it was flush with the front of the hat. My final
decision was a little from column A and a little from column B:
Curvy-sticky-outy.
I applied super glue to the two duck pieces and held them together
until they were glued. I also glued my little wire connector pieces together
and the propeller blades into the hub.
I wet-sanded my parts with 80 grit sandpaper first and then
180 grit. The wet sanding helps keep the plastic from heating up from
friction. It also keeps the dust from out of my nose. Now it's time for some black
paint...on my hand. Actually what I need to do is paint the inside of the prop duct
because once I start assembling things I'm not gonna be able to get in there
very easily. I just want to avoid painting the raised
ring on the bottom of the spindle there, because that's where the propeller is
gonna touch and I don't want to create extra friction which will slow down the
propeller. I also painted the prop but didn't paint the back of the hub for the
same reason. To get an antique bronze look I spread a little bit of metallic
paint on a piece of cardboard or paper. I then used my gloved finger to just get a
tiny little bit of the paint which I then rub onto the black painted surface.
That way paint is applied to any raised surfaces but edges and cracks stay
darker. Now to get my swirly piece to fit on the other side of the top hat I need
to curve it. Happily I have a heat gun and an old plastic container that's the
same curvature as the hat. The swirly piece isn't actually a circle, in fact
it's a little bit of an oval to make up for the curve so it's important to bend
it in the proper direction. Just in case you're wondering, the plastic I use to
print these parts is PLA which I totally love how well it bends with heat.
I made a 26 centimeter wide rectangle of craft foam in order to make the tube
that would fit around the fan duct. I painted one side silver and set it aside
to dry. In the meantime, I cut ten one centimeter wide strips of craft foam
that were at least as tall as the hat. I then glued those strips onto the hat
over top of all the vertical seams. Where the strips overlapped the front and
back holes I trimmed them off flush which was fine for the front hole but
for the back hole it was a little bit of a mistake. I'll show you why in 37
seconds. I cut the excess off the top of the strips and then cut myself a two and
a half centimeter wide strip which I'll use to cover up the top corner all the
way around the hat. I only applied glue to the bottom half
of the strip and left the top half sticking up above the foam. Once I got
back to where I started I cut the end flush. The top is a little bit tricky
because it's gotta compress as it goes around that curve so I actually use the
heat of the glue gun to warm it up a bit to make it more malleable then it's just
a matter of continually forcing it to stay in place until the glue cools. I
patiently glued a small section at a time until the whole top seam was
covered. Now if you remember I mentioned earlier about making a mistake with the
strips at the back of the hat. So I realized when I went to put on the
swirly porthole bit that these strips were in the way and I wouldn't be able
to get it to sit flush against the hat. luckily for me I had used hot glue so I
was able to cut the strip where I wanted, heat it up with my glue gun, and pull
that silly little bit away. That's better. I glued the edges of my silvery tube
together and then jammed the fan duct thing right down inside it. That way I
could follow the edge curve with my knife so the tube would match the inside
contour of my hat when I put it together. Then I pulled it out and pushed it
back in, just not quite as far. I pushed the tube into the hole in the hat and
messed around with it a whole bunch until it was just perfect. I used super
glue to glue the plastic to the top hat and a shot of hot glue to hold the tube
in place on the inside. I took a minute to make sure my head actually fit into
that with the tube installed. It did so I could continue my tube installation by
gluing it and then cutting it off flush with the back of the hat. And I finished
it off with some swirly porthole goodness. I glued the regulator where all
good regulators go, and the three wire connector pieces to the side of the fan duct.
Now that looks like a machine. But this
machine for some random reason also needs a smokestack. Handily I've added
these smokestack pieces to the flared top hat pattern. I did the standard
tracing and cutting moves that I always do and then glued the edges of the
pieces to make two tubes and a cone. You'll notice I actually overlap the
edges of the cone piece just to make it look a little more handmade. I traced the
end of my short green tube onto the hat and cut a hole
I then glued the angled
edges of the smokestack tubes together. Depending which way you attach the
shorter piece, you can have the seam either to the front or the back. I chose
the front for that classic "I just riveted this hat together myself" look.
And of course the cone goes on top now. There's no way this hat could possibly
work without some wires. I cut some 12 millimeter and six millimeter disks from
craft foam and glued them together. these would be the fittings where the wires go
into the hat. I used a skewer to make the hole in the
center and once I had the wire bent how I liked it I glued it into place.
I'm using some leftover telephone wire here but you can use whatever you like.
Just to make sure the wires stayed in place, I also glued them onto the hat
wherever they made contact. I then held up my hat on a ruler and rotated it
around so you could see where the wires went...not sure why the ruler. Now it's
time for rivets and I used five-minute two-part epoxy. This is by far my
favorite way of making rivets although there are lots of others and one day I
plan to make a video showing all of them so maybe just remind me of that. Anyways,
the main key with what I'm doing here is to mix small batches of epoxy and once
it starts getting too stringy stop and mix up a new batch. Once the epoxy had
cured I painted the whole thing black. I used Plaid FX paint on the brim because
it's a flexible paint and if it's gonna get bent somewhere it's gonna be on the
brim. I used regular artists acrylic paints
for the rest of the hat because I wasn't so worried about it cracking on those
parts. Once my three coats of paint were dry I could add my metallic finishes I
made a 50/50 mix of silver and pewter and used the same finger painting
technique I used earlier to transform it from a foam top hat to a metal top hat.
In places where I accidentally got silver and didn't want it,
I repainted it black at the end.
I finished up using vintage brass on all
the rest of the parts. I even made a sweet paper shield so I could do those
foam dots without getting the brass onto the silver.
Smart idea Chris
On goes the propeller and a teeny teeny tiny bit of glue
to hold on the spindle cap. Now all
that was left to do was try it out in the wind
J Buc wind power taught back I
I guess that's it. Fancy top hat. I think it looks pretty amazing and even if you
don't have access to a 3d printer you can still put something cool in here
like a clock...a cuckoo clock. A ball of some sort...a tennis ball, a baseball, globe and
put a little door on there that opens like a hobbit hole... a can of pop... store a
half used roll of toilet paper in there... a little snack... not at the same time probably.
Maybe an instrument like an ocarina... so many things anyways if you
want to grab the pattern for the flared top hat I've also updated it to include
the smokestack there you can get that by clicking a link either here somewhere or
in upper right corner or in the description or in the comments. I'm sure
you can find it. Also the 3d printed parts are available for free right now
on Thingiverse. I'll include links for them as well.
Oh and if you like my patterns make sure to check out my ultimate everything
Super Value Bundle it's all my foam patterns I've ever made and it includes
any future ones I make all for a super good price which I forget at the moment
but it's a good price so check it out. Thanks for watching! See ya.
a tomato
some hot dogs
a bag of small pebbles