£13 DIY fan goggles

[t-j-b]

Being the sort of person that over heats easily I naturally fog up my goggles after 10 mins of game play, hot or cold weather it doesn't matter!

 

I've tried a few types of goggles, thermal ones, mesh (find it hard to see properly) and even a Wide-i magnetic wipe, which is fantastic but once I'm fogged I'm wiping every 30 seconds.

 

Got fed up playing like this and went looking for another solution, proper fan goggles are expensive and the cheap ones don't carry the ANSI z87.1+ rating I wanted.

 

So I made my own;

 

Tools needed:

Hot glue gun

Super glue

Razor blade

Shrink wrap

Lighter

 

Parts:

ANSI z87.1+  Rated safety goggles, I bought two and tested one at point blank with a 500fps sniper.

Clear safety goggles, just for some spare rubber to graft onto into open areas.

Evercool 25mm 2.5cm 25 x 25 x 10mm 3 pin 12 Volt PC Case Fan

PP3 9V battery connector clip

 

1. Remove vent from top of goggles

2. Cut a 25cm x 25cm hole where the vent was

3. Place fan in this space and using super glue task the corners, allow to dry. ENSURE FAN IS EXTRACTING AIR BEFORE GLUING.

4. Measure the connector and fan cable length to ensure it's the correct length to reach the battery

5. Slide the shrink wrap over the longer cable and connect the terminals, positive and negative connect to to their respective colours, if in doubt connect up before finalising.

6. Connect wires and move the shrink wrap over the connections, using the lighter heat the shrink wrap.

7. (optional) use more shrink wrap to cover length of wiring

8. (optional) Cut small squares from the cheap safety goggles and place these over the vent holes

9. Using the hot glue gun fill in any open spaces, pay attention to edges of the fan, screw holes in the fan

10. Tack wiring in place

11. Place 9v battery in left strap loop

 

If anyone attempts this please post your results  

 

[MisterG]

Nice one.

 

I have all the parts, been meaning to do this for a while now.

 

Cheers

G

[Druid799]

Got any photos of it finished ? 

[t-j-b]

[EDcase]

Looks good.  I presume fan pulls air out?

[t-j-b]

Yup it's setup to extract through the top, actually a step I missed out was cutting larger vents in the bottom which improves the airflow upwards through the goggles.

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, MisterG said:

Nice one.

 

I have all the parts, been meaning to do this for a while now.

 

Ditto to both.

 

Then I wussed out and bought a commercial pair.  Fan goggles really do work, particularly for those moments when you're not moving around and everything starts to go blurry awful.  Also, I double-glazed them, but that's a show-and-tell of my own.

 

These look like a great job, and I'm freshly inspired to take a swing at DIYing my own pair.  Thanks for sharing.

[T5dogz]

looks good will try it myself have loads of fans from my 3D printing machines 

[t-j-b]

Great opportunity to 3d print a proper mount for the fan. I've seen people attach scoops to the bottom vents but can't them for sale, would also be a great job for 3d printing!

[MisterG]

I was going to use Sugru for the fan mounting.

[Rogerborg]

2 minutes ago, MisterG said:

was going to use Sugru for the fan mounting

 

Interesting idea. Would it stand up to the sort of knocks that airsoft goggles are likely to take?

 

"S" hopping with Sugru is still only my list to try.

[MisterG]

I was planning on fitting 20x20 fans on top my goggles.  As they already have holes, I would have put the Sugru trhough them to make sure they stay tight, not sure on how long it would last.

 

I need to get on and do it 😉

 

I'm also looking at maybe S Hopping, though supposedly a Maple Leaf bucking is nearly there, so I may not get much benefit.

[Adolf Hamster]

Nice job, must confess i'm debating doing it myself with a pair of 10mm fans. Maybe i should finally do it.

[Rogerborg]

7 minutes ago, Adolf Hamster said:

a pair of 10mm fans

 

One 25mm fan has over 3 times the area of 2 x 10mm fans.  I'd go as big as you can fit on the goggles.

[Adolf Hamster]

3 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

One 25mm fan has over 3 times the area of 2 x 10mm fans.  I'd go as big as you can fit on the goggles.

 

They're bolle raiders so not much room sadly

[Rogerborg]

Hmm, that will be tricky.  That's the problem with fan goggles, they tend to be bigguns.

[Adolf Hamster]

1 minute ago, Rogerborg said:

Hmm, that will be tricky.  That's the problem with fan goggles, they tend to be bigguns.

 

hence 10mm, but a pair, one each side between the base and the legs, doesn't take much ventilation

[tasum]

Very interesting post.

 

I'm new to this and was looking at the bolle x1000. Are the ones you've bought for a fiver just as highly rated for impact and protection as the £70 bolles?

[t-j-b]

I don't think they have the same rating as the bolle goggles, they seem to be rated to a higher military spec.

 

The goggles I suggested are z87.1+ rated, here's an article giving some info about exactly what that means https://nationalsafetyinc.org/2010/04/27/ansi-z87-and-z87…-what’s-the-difference/

 

I've shot them at virtually point blank range with a 500fps sniper (chronoed) multiple times and they performed well. It marks the plastic but that's about it. I'm happy with that, most shots are with lower fps guns at 10m+

[tasum]

Thanks t-j-b, very impressive performance. Thanks for clarifying. Well done on your project

[t-j-b]

Tested these yesterday @ Tech Brigade in Hertfordshire, must have been close to 30 degrees. A few other players had fogging issues. The goggles were flawless, bone dry even with all the sweat and heat. I cannot recommend these enough, so glad I've found a solution to fogging that doesn't involve mesh :)

[Jester_UK]

I know this is an old post but I was just wondering how the goggles have performed. I am thinking about going down this route and was wondering how they held up in varying temperatures.