Another way to mount a lens

[spyder918]

The lens on my RS helmet recently cracked and needed replacing.  Instead of just gluing a new lens back in, I wanted more of an industrial look so I did something similar that I did with my TK helmet a while ago and swore I would never do it again because it’s quite a bit of work.  But since we’re still on lockdown here and I have time why not.  

I know this may not be for everybody, but just thought I’d share how I did all of this just in case you wanted to try it also. 

I’ve stolen so many ideas from all of you talented people on this forum so it’s my turn to contribute my 2 cents. 

Below are some shots of what the final result looks like.  I’m pretty pleased how it turned out.

Below is a list of everything you’ll need to do this mod.  Some of these things you probably already have and some things I chose because I wanted a particular look for my helmet.  Obviously you can sub in any color and style of pieces you want.  In regards to measurements, please use these only as a guideline as every helmet is different and how big or small you make your frame/bracket is going to be different as well.  Of course, let me know if you have any questions.

• JB Weld PlasticWeld putty – 2 tubes
• Glass bottle
• Mask and goggles
• Dremel with sanding drums and cutting bits
• Drill
• Sheet of styrene .30
• Sandpaper – Fine – 400+ grit
• Paint/Primer
• Vaseline
• Q-tips
• Welder’s shield or equivalent
• Sharpies – 1 silver and 1 black (small tipped) or equivalent
• E6000
• Standoffs (Mcmaster-Carr) – Aluminum threaded round 1/4” length, 6-32 thread size
• Black Pan Head Torx Screws (Mcmaster-Carr) – 6-32 thread size, 3/8 length

First you’ll want to make what I’m calling the bracket.  This is what the lens and frame bolts on to and holds everything in place.  This is what you will use the JB Weld PlasticWeld putty for.

I forgot to take a few pics of this, but you’ll want to take the Vaseline and spread it around where the bracket will be placed on the helmet.  Be generous with it because the Vaseline is what will keep the JB Weld from sticking to your helmet as it dries.  I’ve outlined the area below of where you want to spread the Vaseline.  Spread more than you thnk you’ll need.  You can see I didn’t spread enough because that’s why you see areas of white where the JB Weld stuck to my helmet. 

I used 2 tubes of  the JB Weld, so go ahead and take them out and just follow the directions.  You want to roll, knead the putty in your hands for a bit just to make sure it all mixes well.  I use a few drops of water as I roll it to keep from sticking to your fingers. 

So I shaped the JB Weld into fat roll and just laid it across the brow of the helmet.  I then took a glass bottle and just gently rolled it over the putty to smooth it out a bit and to also push the putty into the grooves as well.  Obviously this is a post pic as the bracket at this point has already dried and I’ve already shaped it with a Dremel, but just so you can see the technique.  Don’t worry about how it looks at this point because it’ll be a globby mess.  The important thing is to make sure you cover enough and that it sits well on your helmet.  I saved a little bit of JB Weld just in case during the shaping process I take too much off with a Dremel.  That’s the beauty of this stuff, if you take too much off, you can always just put more back on and start over.

I left the JB Weld on my helmet for a few hours and then pulled it off.  You can then wipe off all the Vaseline from your helmet.  If you covered it well with Vaseline you shouldn’t have any residue like I did on mine.  Again, yours won’t look like this at this point, but it should keep it’s shape on its own.  I left it over night to dry completely before shaping it.

After a day of drying, the bracket should now be pretty hard and solid.  You can now take a Dremel and start cleaning up the bracket by taking off all the extra material.  I used a cutting bit to cut off big parts first to reduce having to sand so much with a sanding drum.  After you can then switch to a sanding drum to finely shape the bracket.  I had my helmet next to me and basically would Dremel, then test fit, Dremel, then test fit, etc.  After all of the shaping, you should have a bracket that now looks something like this.

After you’re satisfied with the bracket, you can now start working on the lens.  I already had an extra Bell motorcycle visor so I decided to use that.  I took a piece of paper and roughly traced the shape of the eye opening including the bracket as well.  I didn’t want any of the frame to cut into my field of vision, so you’ll want to make the cutout a bit bigger than the actual eye opening.  Once I got a clean cut out on paper, I taped it to the visor, outlined it with a Sharpie and cut out the shape again using the Dremel.

Next I moved to making the frame that will go over the lens.  I used a sheet of black styrene .30 thickness that I got off of Ebay.  I took the lens and again roughly traced the shape on the styrene using a Sharpie. 

I used the Dremel to clean up the rough cut of the frame.  I ended up making 2 of these because the 2^nd one really helped me to trace the lines to cut out the middle.  You’ll see what I mean in the next few steps.  I marked one with x’s so I knew which one was the actual frame I was going to use.

I clamped the frame to the lens and using the Dremel I shaved down the extra areas so that the 2 pieces could be exact.

I then had to measure how much of the center of the frame I was going to cut out.  So I started at the top by measuring how tall the bracket was and making the lines for the top portion of the frame.  This is where the 2^nd frame cut out helped as I used this to help me trace the line for the top portion.

I then marked the rest of the frame with a Sharpie.  The rest of the frame didn’t need to be as thick as the top part where the bracket was.  Here is where your measurements may be different than mine which is why I’m not listing exactly how wide of a cut out you will need to make.  You just need to know how much bigger you made the cut out and then measure the edge of that with where the eye opening is on your helmet.  Hope that makes sense.   

 

This is what you should have after all of your measurements and tracing.

Using a cutting wheel on the Dremel, cut out the inside.

You can then clean it up by using the sanding drum.

Your frame should now look like this.

 

You can put it up against the eye opening of your helmet to make sure everything lines up to your satisfaction. 

Once you’re happy with the frame, you can mark where you want the bolts to be.  Again, there’s no exact measurements here.  For mine, I decided to use 5 Torx screws across the top and then 6 Torx screw tops for the rest.

You can certainly use more or less to your liking.  You really only need to mark the top holes at this point because those are the only ones you will actually drill out.  The other screws are just glued on tops so you won’t be drilling holes for those.  I have them marked still in the pic, but you don’t need to.

 

After marking the holes, I carefully used an Awl to start a small hole with each marking to make drilling them out easier.

I then took a drill and drilled out the holes.

I then clamped the lens to the frame to mark the holes that will need to be drilled on the lens.  I put masking tape on the inside of the lens so that it wouldn’t get scratched from all the measure, cutting, etc.

Once marked drill out the holes.  I made the holes on the lens a bit bigger than the ones on the frame because at the end when you screw everything in, having the bigger holes on the lens gives you some wiggle room and also alleviates some of the pressure on the screws since the lens is curved. 

Now you want to mark the holes on the bracket.  Do not just clamp the bracket to the lens to mark the holes!  I made that mistake and the holes were all off.  Put the lens on the actual bracket and line it all up correctly, then make your marks for the holes.  Have someone help you if need be.  This is harder but it makes the holes more accurate as you’re actually putting pressure on it and forcing it to curve as it should. 

Once marked, you can now drill out the holes on the bracket.

Take one of the standoffs and do a test fit of each hole.  This is a standoff.

Do a test fit of each hole.  You want it snug but not too tight nor too loose.

You can now cut the tops off the Torx screws for the bottom portion of the frame.  These obviously are just for looks to complete the look.  You will E6000 these to the frame.  I used a metal cutting bit with my Dremel.

I then sanded the bottoms with a grinding stone bit to make sure they were all even.

Using E6000 I glued them on the frame and let them dry overnight.

I lightly sanded both the bracket and frame and painted them black to match my interior.

Now it’s time to put everything together.  I used E6000 and glued the bracket to the helmet using a combo of earth magnets and clamps.  I used both because earth magnets alone weren’t strong enough since the plastic on that brow area is pretty thick, at least it was on my helmet, so I used clamps to put a bit more pressure.

 

After allowing this to dry overnight, I glued in the standoffs.  I used a Q-tip and swabbed each hole with some E6000.  I tried to get the sides verses just at the bottom of the hole.  You don’t want too much glue on the bottom of the hole because then the glue will make it’s way up the middle of the standoff which will prevent you from being able to screw in the Torx screws.  This is why I also used a Q-tip instead of the actual E6000 tube so I can better control how much glue to put.

 

This is what it should look like with all the standoffs glued in.

I allowed everything to dry for about a good day and a half before trying to screw anything in.  Go easy with the Torx screws.  I tightened mine with just enough force to hold the lens and frame.  There’s no need to overtighten with a lot of pressure.  Keep in mind the standoffs are only glued in.  You’ll notice the force of the curvature keeps the bottom of the frame on with no issues.

Once everything has dried, I test fit all the pieces and voila! 

DONE!

[Dragon_a]

That is very cool.  Thanks for sharing

[Vmax1974]

That is very cool think I will be trying this

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[order-66]

So cool. Thanks for sharing