DIY Acrylic Lenses

[MisterC]

Evening folks,

 

I've recently been considering making my old Czech M10 gas mask airsoft ready, which would mainly involve replacing the glass lenses with something bb-proof.

 

My main idea was replacing them with acrylic plastic, so was wondering if anyone knows whether the plastic would hold up and not shatter, and what sort of thickness would be required to prevent impending blindness.

 

I've scoured some other sites asking the same questions and some seem to say it would be fine, others that it wouldn't hold up.

 

Alternatively, would 1mm polycarbonate be a more suitable option?

 

Cheers

[geoffreym]

Acrylic will not work, used 2mm in my DREDD helmet and had a piece I tested on, 280fps cracked it quite thoroughly, did not go through but I don't think it would've survived a second shot.

[Samurai]

Use polycarbonate. 2mm thick at least.

[Airsoft_Mr B]

You want Lexan polycarbonate. IIRC, you can get an A4 sheet thick enough for under a tenner, an A3 size piece is something like £12-£13.

I have seen thickness go up to 10mm but I'm not sure what thickness would be best myself.

[MisterC]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Seems like polycarb is gonna be safer option, so i'll probably go with either a 2 or 3 mm sheet

[BrightCandle]

My Bolle Raider spare lense seems to be about 1.2mm thick. But its also worth noting its curved which may very well impact its effectiveness at stopping BBs. The Desert Locust ones I have are 2mm thick exactly and they are also curved. The desert locust is covered to a much higher standard, it can stop shotgun pellets whereas the Raiders are more like a 280m/s (50/50 chance of penetration point) steal pellet. Both are well in excess of the necessary strength for airsoft even with 500m/s snipers firing point blank which is your worst case.

 

So I suspect the answer lies somewhere around 1-2mm assuming the curve isn't a significant factor.