Metal Iron Man Mark 1 Welding Helmet (Fully Functional)

What seemed like a simple idea at first, snowballed into a multi-year exploration of metal-working techniques in my spare time. The task was to transform some used camping pots into a movie-accurate Mark I helmet made from steel.

In the beginning the helmet was only supposed to be a simple cosplay prop. As the build progressed I kept adding features and decided to integrate auto-darkening welding lenses into the helmet's front mask.

The goal is make the helmet all metal (as much as possible), yet light enough to wear comfortably and kinda resemble the movie version (Iron Man 2008).

2008? Geeze how old are we getting? 😅

The thickness of the metal will have to be pretty thin but still look like it has some heft to it. I'm not an experienced metal worker so I like the fact that the helmet is beaten up and there's some artistic license if it doesn't turn out perfectly. It was a fun and challenging experience to try out some different metal shaping techniques!

In the spirit of this Instructables Metal Contest, I used as many metal working tools that I could get my hands on, and I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model the 3D printed lens and sensor mounts.

1. Angle Grinder
2. Angle Grinder Cut-Off Wheels (Metal Cutting Discs)
3. Grinding Face Mask/Shield
4. Angle Grinder Flap Discs
5. Ballpeen Hammer
6. Chainsaw
7. Chasing Hammer
8. Large Metal Vice
9. Metal Shrinker & Stretcher
10. MIG Welder
11. Sheet Metal
12. Metal Shear
13. Pneumatic Hole Puncher
14. Flux Core Welding Wire
15. Metal Vice Grips
16. General Purpose Grinding Discs
17. Dremel-type Rotary Tool
18. Oscillating Multi-Tool
19. Multi-Tool Carbide Blades
20. Pneumatic Die Grinder
21. Die Grinder Cut Off Discs
22. Sand Blasting Cabinet
23. Oxy-Acetylene Torch
24. Plasma Cutter
25. Metal Pliers
26. Nozzle Welding Gel
27. Metal Files
28. Propane Torch
29. Stainless Steel Torque Hinge
30. Metal Chop Saw
31. Metal Milling Machine
32. Drill-Mounted Ball Scouring Pads
33. Buffing Wheel
34. Polishing Compound
35. Suede Faux Leather Cap
36. Leather Liner
37. 2-Part Epoxy
38. Locktite Thread Locker
39. Contour Profile Pin Gauge Tool
40. Auto Darkening Welding Glasses
41. Countersunk Neodymium Magnets

One day I was just browsing in a local thrift shop called Value Village (similar to a Goodwill). In the cookware section I came across these blue/teal camping pots. They were well used and their coatings were wearing off. I placed the pot on my head that is when the idea occurred to me - let's turn these pots into a Mark 1!

Why camping pots? No particular reason. I think I paid $5 for both pots and I thought it would be funny to use them to make something cool 🤣

In hindsight, it probably would have been easier to trace paper-craft type shapes on to sheet metal and cut them out!

I also thought about using a mini propane tank that I have as the base shape of the helmet, but after it lifting it I think it would be wayyy too heavy to wear on your head comfortably.

There's also something I love about taking somebody's junk and transforming it into something of value.

The teal pot is going to be the "cap" of the helmet and the dark blue pot is the base. In order to fuse them together, I needed them to be about the same diameter. To do this, I just put the teal pot inside the blue one and drew a line!

I cut the line with an angle grinder and metal cut-off wheels (discs).

WARNING: Angle grinders can be extremely dangerous. At the very least, wear eye protection. I recommend A full face mask and thick clothing. Cut-off wheels spin at thousands of rpm and if they shatter, the grinder can send knife-life shards flying everywhere! 😫

In order to start thinking about welding the pots together, I had to remove their hard enamel coatings to reveal the bare metal.

I tried grinding off the coatings with a grinder flap wheel discs, but that didn't work at all! The coating was too hard and baked on.

The best way I found to remove the coatings was to bang on them relentlessly with a ballpeen hammer. 😆

During the coating removal process, I decided to try and shape the teal pot from it's conical form into more of a spherical dome.

I didn't have much in the way of metal-shaping dies or fancy tools, so I decided to use a log stump! I carefully used a chainsaw to carve out a concave impression into the stump.

I flamed the carved-out section of the stump just to make it a bit easier to smooth out. The wood is very soft compared to the metal, so it will be a nice sacrificial medium to bang the pot against and help shape the dome.

With a little perseverance I finally got the rough shape of the dome and most of the coatings removed!

The enamel coatings were now removed but the surface of the metal was very uneven and bumpy. I needed a way to smooth out the bumps.

Using the underside of the same stump, I bolted a large metal vice to the stump and clamped in a thick metal pipe.

This setup acted like a makeshift anvil with a rounded surface to bang the metal against. All I needed to do was continuously rotate the metal and bang on it until the desired smoothness was achieved.

I used a lighter weight chasing hammer to have a little more control as opposed to brute forcing with the ballpeen hammer.

The result was a much smoother surface with an acceptable weathered look.

Following the success of the stump forming, I decided to make a wooden "form" to help me achieve the exact dome radii that I was looking for in the helmet "cap".

I cut out a scrap 2"x4" and cut curved the corners in a couple different radii to give me some options when shaping the metal.

The result of using the form was a much smoother dome - the helmet was starting to take shape!

Now that the coatings were removed and I had the basic shape of the helmet, I sliced off the base of the dark blue pot with the angle grinder / cut off disc.

I noticed the base pot circumference was was a tiny bit wider than the top cap. To fix this discrepancy, I used a metal shrinker and strecher.

Shrinking and Stretching

These shrinking and stretching tools are really neat. The blue shrinker jaws push the metal inward to shorten and thicken it (ideal for tight inside curves), while the yellow stretcher jaws pull the metal outward to lengthen and thin it (perfect for outside curves), allowing precise shaping without heating or extensive hammering.

So where the metal is "shrunk", thinking of it as most crumpled and compressed together. When the metal is "stretched" think of it as thinned out and expanded and almost torn laterally but still visually in tact.

I used the yellow stretcher on the top cap to expand its circumference outward a bit. I shrunk the base and stretched the cap, meeting them in the middle until the fit inside each other perfectly.

Reinforcing The Seams (For Welding)

These pots were made from very thin metal - that's good for shaping and comfort, but it makes it very difficult to weld.

There are many different kinds of welders out available, and for this project I'll be using a MIG welder (Metal Inert Gas) to fuse these pieces together. I'm no welding expert by any means! While it is possible to dial in the power settings and weld very thin metal (with the help of shielding gas), it's still an art that requires a lot of experience and practice. It's very easy to use too much power and blow holes through thin metal - potentially ruining the part or making extra work.

Why MIG? In my opinion MIG welding is the most approachable and affordable welding for beginners. While the inert shielding gas can be expensive (gas consisting of Argon / Carbon Dioxide), MIG welders can still be used without gas if you use a gasless Flux Core wire. Flux core wire has a flux chemical embedded inside the center of the wire. When the wire arcs, it ignites the flux and the reaction creates an instant shield of gas around the weld. Flux core welding is super easy and convenient, but it's very messy! Lots of clean up is usually required after (sanding, grinding, etc).

To mitigate the chance of blowing holes through the pots, I cut out thin strips of sheet metal to act as structural backings for the places I am welding the seams together.

I used a metal shear to easily slice off thin strips of the sheet metal.

The metal strip will be placed in between the two halves of the helmet.

To achieve a better interface with the metal strip and the pots, I punched holes into the pots all around the circumference edge (at the seam) using a pneumatic hole puncher.

The punched holes will allow me to deposit metal from the MIG welder to the metal strip underneath and fuse (tack weld) them together more easily.

Enough prep, let's make some sparks!

I used all-metal vice grips to clamp the pot metal to the sheet metal strip. I like using all metal clamps when welding because they are much more resistant to damage. If the vice grips have rubber grips or handles, they could melt or catch fire.

I placed the clamps as close as possible to the hole location to ensure the two different pieces of metal were squished together as flat as possible.

I continued tack welding all around the pot metal and filled in all the punched-out holes.

Once the lower portion was tack welded I repeated the process for the cap and punched out more holes.

I then press-fitted the cap on to the lower portion of the helmet (now with a nice lip to grab on to).

Welding the cap seam shut!

Once the punched holes were all filled in, I proceeded to weld shut the center seam. Now that there was a bit of a thicker backing, welding the two pots together was much easier.

I was careful to only weld a few millimetres a time - letting each weld cool a bit before continuing. I sometimes rotated the helmet 180 degrees between welds to ensure the previous weld had cooled down enough to continue. Allowing the welds to cool on opposite sides minimizes potential warping and pulling of the metal.

Two pots are now one! All the seams and holes are welded into a new permanent helmet shape. Now it's time to grind away the welding "zits" to make the surface smooth.

I used the angle grinder again, but this time a different type of disc. Instead of a "cut off wheel", I used a thicker general purpose grinding disc to progressively shave down the excess metal deposited by the welder.

This process can be very time consuming depending on how thick the extra metal is!

I eventually grounded off all the excess metal in this first stage of welding, leaving a somewhat smooth helmet-shaped pot!

Sometimes I like to mock things up on the computer before I make permanent changes to a project. Planning things out first almost always pays off in the end. I snapped a few photos of the helmet with a ruler in frame so I could make to-scale measurements on the computer. Having the ruler in there helps me to quickly judge approximately what the sizes of the features should be.

I also drew red sharpie reference marks on to the helmet. This will help me cross refernce feature placements later on.

I used various reference photographs and Photoshop to superimpose the helmet's facial features on to the helmet. I tweaked the features around until I could get them as close as possible to the helmet from the movie.

Once I had my sketches, I printed them out and compared the reference marks to the prints and drew the features on to the helmet.

With all of the face features sketched on it's time to get back to the welder!

Since this metal helmet will open like a clam shell, the hinge on the top cap will be under a lot of stress - more than the thin pot metal can handle.

I cut out a small piece of thicker sheet metal and punched holes in it to affix it to the inside of the helmet cap. Once the helmet is sliced into two halves, there will be lots more "meat" to bolt a hinge on to.

I also welded in some internal side strips o add some support to the clam shell borders of the helmet mask (these will come in handy later!

In the movie version of the helmet, the borders of the helmet have massive weld beads all along the perimeters of the mask. These beads are supposed to look like natural welds (maybe from a crude stick welder). These beads are not really that functional (other than to maybe add structural support to the helmet).

To reproduce this weld bead look with metal, I needed to carefully deposit a LOT of metal with the MIG welder. Think of it almost like slowly building up the mass of a part with a 3D printer. I had to continuously deposit metal until I achieved the desired thickness of the beads.

I don't think I could use a stick welder for this because it would be much too hot and burn through the pot's sheet metal.

This process was mostly for cosmetic appearances and was maybe the longest step in the project!

With the weld beads added it's starting to look more like a Mark I (kinda 😅).

The simulated metal beads I built up with the MIG welder were quite bumpy and not smooth enough to be similar to the movie helmet.

I clamped two angle grinders to a table and ran them continuously. A bit of a kluge setup but it worked out for me 😅.

One grinder has a cut off disc and the other a more general purpose thicker disc. This allowed me to switch between the grinders depending on the bead I was shaving down. For example the cut off disc was better at cleaning up tighter, sharper angles, while the thicker disc was more for brute forcing metal removal.

For finer details, I used a several different tools. A dremel-style rotary tool, an oscillating multi-tool with a carbide blade (carbide tipped are more suited for cutting steel), and a pneumatic die grinder with a smaller cutoff disc to help get inside those nooks and crannies.

After a few hours of this, the simulated beads started to look a lot cleaner!

I then used a sand blasting cabinet to gave it a blast to get rid of any welding burns and slag.

Using the die grinder and cut off disc, I cut out any straight-line cuts - starting with the eye holes!

I then proceeded to carefully cut out the mouth holes. I tried to be conservative and cut a bit smaller than the hole outline. I can open up the cuts later. It's a lot easier to cut away metal than it is to add it back in!

In the spirit of the movie, I decided to try using an oxy-acetylene torch to cut away the two halves of the helmet down the center. The torch is a portable, high-temperature gas tool used in metalworking to cut, weld, or braze. By combining compressed oxygen and acetylene gas, it produces a highly controllable flame that reaches temperatures up to 6,000°F (3,300°C) - easily melting through steel like butter.

Embarassingly, about halfway through the cutting I ran out of acetylene gas!

As a backup tool, I broke out the plasma cutter to finish dividing the the two halves of the helmet. A plasma cutter is a powerful tool that uses a high-velocity jet of superheated, ionized gas (plasma) to slice through electrically conductive materials like steel, aluminum, and copper. It works by forcing a gas—such as compressed air or nitrogen—through a small nozzle and using an electric arc to turn the gas into plasma. The intense heat melts the metal, while the pressurized gas blows the molten material away, leaving a clean cut.

In dramatic fashion, the two halves of the helmet fell apart with a little help from the angle grinder.

When I cut the helmet in half, it revealed some voids in the simulated weld beads. I proceeded to fill in the voids and clean up all the perimeter beads.

There are three certainties in life: Death, Taxes, and GRINDING. Once I filled the voids I had to grind them down again to make them pretty.

Upon closer inspection of the reference images from the movie and other online sources, you'll notice there's a few 'garnishes' on the helmet that are subtle, but really add a lot to the final look.

I started with the eye holes. If you look under the eye holes on the movie helmet, there's a raised horizontal ridge along the base of the eye, and then an inset recessed eye frame inside the main eye hole.

To build more mass for the eye ridges, I scored the eye base with the die grinder and folded them over with some metal pliers. I will then weld on top of the folds to build them up!

Here's a little tip...When welding (with flux core MIG especially), little beads of molten metal slag/spatter that flies off the arc can get stuck to to the work piece and are sometimes a pain to clean off.

Since I wanted to minimize any more filing or grinding, I slathered welding nozzle gel all over the helmet mask. Welding nozzle gel (often called "nozzle dip") is a protective, anti-spatter compound used primarily in MIG welding. It prevents hot metal splatters from sticking to the tip and nozzle of your welding torch, keeping your equipment clean and ensuring proper shielding gas flow.

Not just for the dipping the nozzle, it worked great as a 'non-stick' coating for the helmet too!

To minimize the risk of damage to the eye-openings, I reduced the amps and feed rate on the MIG welder and carefully deposited metal under the eye sockets.

I then ground down the eye ridges to make them a bit smoother and straighter (more rectangular and less bumpy).

Next for the recessed inner eye frames, I cut out some small sheet metal rectangles and used the same punched-hole technique to weld them in behind the eye sockets.

I then made quick work of the eye holes with the die grinder / mini cut off wheel

I cleaned up all the sharp edges with some metal files and the dremel, and then gave it one last sand blast to make the surface more uniform. And now we have finished the basic helmet shapes!

I wanted to recreate the movie scene where he is hammer forging the helmet and quenches it in oil to heat-treat it. Since this helmet does not really need to be impact-resistant (for now 😅), this step was totally unecessary but fun. 🤣

I super heated the face of the helmet until it was red hot using a propane torch.

Then I quenched the helmet into a Home Depot bucket. Not all movie props can be accurate, the budget wouldn't allow for it. 🤣

Fresh out of the oven and steamy!

Since this was a metalworking project, I knew I needed a metal hinge - but what type of hinge? I liked how other welding helmets stay open when you lift the visor.

After a little research, I came across something called a torque hinge. The hinge is manufacture with a certain amount of friction so that it maintains its position either open or closed.

I decided on the Sugatsune HG-TS03 which was the perfect for the helmet, it's small yet strong and robust.

I found a thicker piece of sheet metal that will act as the mounting support for the hinge.

I measured the thicker sheet metal and then cut it out on the metal chop saw.

I cut out the two little rectangles and cleaned them up on the mounted grinder. I'll be welding these supports on the underside of the helmet at the apex of the cap.

I traced holes where I need to drill the supports to mount the hinges. I decided to make the holes extra wide to make the hinge placement adjustable. Just in case the helmet squishes my nose, I want to be able to widen the opening so it fit comfortably.

I milled out the hole slots using a metal milling machine. A milling machine is like a glorified drill press that is much more sturdy and allows you to make multi directional (x y z) cuts in metal using various type of "endmills". Endmills are like drill bits but they are designed to move side to side as well as plunge into the work piece. You can also drill with this machine if you wanted to!

I drilled some extra holes in the the final hinge mounts so I can tack weld them into the helmet caps.

I then tack welded the hinge mounts on the helmet shells, cleaned up the welds and then sandblasted again.

Before assembling the hinge, I wanted to buff the helmet into as close to a mirror finish as possible (I'll settle for a dull matte with a bit more reflectivity 😅).

I mounted some ball-shaped scouring pads into the drill press and started progressively smoothing out the sand blasted surface. After the first pass with the scouring ball, it already started to shine up!

Next I got out this homemade buffing wheel machine that my dad made using an old treadmill motor (yes it's probably as dangerous at it looks 🤣).

I added some polishing compound to the buffing wheels and got to work! You can really see the difference in surface textures comparing the inside of the helmet (sand blasted) to the outside (polished). I won't be polishing the inside for reasons you will see in the next steps.

Because this helmet is metal, it doesn't look very comfortable! Imagine putting this thing on your head and having angular pieces of metal resting on your scalp - no thanks! I needed to come up with a comfortable internal head cap to wear that interfaces with the metal helmet.

I studied some screenshots from the movie and tried to match how they did it as best I could.

I found this faux leather baseball cap that might serve perfectly as a wearable head cap. I decided to mount the cap backwards so I could keep the head size adjustable (in case anyone else wants to wear it).

I used an xacto knife to rip the seams of the beak and pulled the beak off!

I stitched up the opened seam where the beak was removed and popped out the smartie by squeezing it in a vise.

I then needed a way for the cap to hold its shape and not flop around when putting it on. I found some scrap strips of aluminum that I hand-bend and formed to the shaped of the cap, then concealed it behind the internal fabric lip of the cap.

This aluminum strip will act as a hidden rigid helmet head strap and keep the cap open and firm so it's easy to put on and take off.

To mount the cap inside the helmet, I used another similar aluminum strip that the cap can bolt into from the sides. This u-shaped strip will allow the cap to pivot a bit and will prevent the cap from touching the top of the metal helmet.

I screwed holes into the aluminum straps and fastened the hidden cap strap to the u-shaped helmet strap with small small stove bolts.

In some scenes of the helmet you can see there is some parts of the interior lined with leather. The raw sandblasted surface should be ideal rough surface for epoxy-gluing the leather to the inside of the helmet.

I found some squares of genuine leather online got started!

I cut out a rough shape of the leather and made some triangular cutouts to try and conform the thick leather to the concave shape of the dome.

I used 2-part epoxy to adhere the leather directly to the helmet's metal surface. Once the epoxy was applied, I clamped all around the sides to help the epoxy bond to the metal. Once cured, I removed the clamps and burnished the edges of the leather with a small rotary tool.

Before assembly, I decided to add a little piece of foam to the apex of the head cap - a little insurance policy for comfort. I cut out a small circle of foam and sewed it directly into the suede cap.

When assembling all of the components, I applied a little bit of red locktite thread locker onto the bolt threads to keep them nice and snug.

At some point during this build, it occurred to me to make this into a functional welding helmet, complete with light-detecting auto-darkening shades. In order to achieve this goal, I'll need a fully custom internal lens mount and light detection system.

The first step was to trace the inside profile of the front helmet visor. To do this I used a couple of contour profile pin gauges.

The larger red contour wasn't deep enough, so I just used a second smaller blue gauge to get the full radius of the helmet's interior.

Now that I have an accurate contour drawn on paper, I can now scan this image into the computer. Once scanned in, I will trace it and create a vector outline of this contour known as a "DXF file". A DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) file is a universal vector-based file format used primarily in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software.

It's very important that you set up you program to set your program up to scale with respect to your original sketch. Any designs we create from this point forward should be 1:1 to-scale with real life. I like to work in millimetres for these types of high-detail projects.

I traced the pencil-drawn contours in Adobe Illustrator and created a vector version of the helmet's interior cavity (the green shape). I then cut a circle shape out of that in order to make my base shape that I will design to house the internal electronics.

I can now import this rough shape into Autodesk Fusion 360 and start modelling a 3-Dimensional shape that will fit inside the helmet like a glove.

Fusion 360 is my preferred program for designing 3D models. As with most 3D design, this was an iterative trial and error process. I went through several iterations and 3D prints before I arrived at the final "production" version. I will try to briefly walk through some of the iterations (this Instructable is already too long! 🤣).

Most of my 3D models are based initially on constraints. Constraints are real world measurements, obstacles, parts, etc that will need to be integrated into or accounted for in the 3D design. In this case, my constraints are the helmet's interior dimensions, and some of the electronic components that I will be "repurposing" 😆.

I found this pair of sunglasses-goggle-style auto darkening welding glasses. My plan is to take them apart and re-wire the individual components inside the Mark I helmet.

After dismantling the glasses, I took note of the lenses, solar panels and how everything was wired together. I measured each individual component/module and used those measurements in my Fusion360 drawings.

You may have noticed that the lenses in one pair of the glasses are round, and in another pair they are rectangular. This is because the first pair broke while working on them - they are extremely delicate! I had to order a second pair and unfortunately the lenses were a different shape inside. But no big deal, we made it work!

If you want a more detailed explanation of this blunder, check out the youtube video on my channel when it comes out!

Iteration Mark 1

This first iteration was more of a 'test fit' 3D print to see how well the contours fit inside the helmet. So far so good!

Iteration Mark 2

This iteration was a little more refined and included holder cavities for the auto-darkening lenses as well as slots for protective sacrificial lenses that sit in front to protect from spatter.

Iteration Mark 3

This version included more easily accessible slots for the sacrificial lenses, a large space for more nose room, and improved magnet holders on the sides.

Sensor Mount

Next I needed a place to put the solar panels and light sensor. I didn't want to drill holes in the forehead and ruin the look of the helmet, so I decided to make use of the helmet's mouth holes!

Now it's time to wire everything up!

Now that we have the 3D-printed parts installed into the helmet visor, plugging the electronics in shouldn't be too hard!

I hot-glued the lenses on to the eye mount and removed the light sensors from their original plastic housing. I then carefully de-soldered the light sensor and the wires connecting the solar panels.

Next I installed each of the components into the 3D-printed parts using good ole hot glue.

Once each of the components/modules were in place, I wired them together using wires that were a bit longer than the original ones, being careful not to mixing them up!

And that's it for the electronics! I like how the sensor and solar panels are kind of hidden in the mouth holes.

We're almost there! Details are important in my opinion, and we've already come this far right? 😆

Magnetic Clasps

I first installed some fairly powerful neodymium magnets on the sides of the helmet to help keep it closed during use and also give it a satisfying 'thunk' when closing it.

TPU Eye Gasket

Next I didn't like how the rectangular lenses were sitting in the printed holder, the edges were kind of sharp. I quickly modelled an eye-protector/gasket in Fusion 360 to place on top of the rectangular lenses. I printed the eye gasket with a TPU material so it can be soft and flexible.

Opposite Magnetic Clasp Mounts

I wanted a very firm grip on the magnetic clasps, without having to rely solely on the helmet's sheet metal. In Fusion 360, I modelled some unique custom mounts that will fit inside of the helmet next to my ears. These mounts will house opposing magnets and grab on to the visor magnets when the helmet is closed.

Front Visor Leather Trim

This time I put a little more effort into adding leather to the front visor (compared to winging it in the back). I covered the area with painter's tape, drew sections on to the tape, numbered them, and then cut out the sections and pasted them on to the leather sheet. I cut out each section individually and then glued them on to the visor in their corresponding order. Worked out much better than the first time and much cleaner! The reason I left a triangle in the center of the visor blank is because I want as much nose room as possible. Nose room comes at a premium these days!

Weathering

Tony's first helmet was not clean metal. It was rusty scrap metal found in the depths of a cave in the desert. It looks too good right now, so let's mess it up!

A little black shoe polish and some diluted black acrylic paint help to add some contrast and make the features pop. I sparingly brushed on some vinegar and salt to do some accelerated corrosion. Wow it really worked and rusted almost instantly!

All done! Let's test this baby out in the field.

It's been a long journey. Let's put the helmet through some tests and see how well it holds up to real-world metalworking!

Welding

Grinding

Plasma Cutting

This project was a long time in the making - the first photos of choosing the pots at the thrift store were from 2015! I've worked on the helmet off and on since then, shelved it, and now I've finally decided to finish it in time for the Instructables Metalworking Contest.

I hope you enjoyed this exploration of metalworking as much as I did. When I started this project, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just kind of winged it. For me this project is a reminder to "just start" and figure things out along the way.

If you'd like to see the full video of this project, consider subscribing to my "ShareAHack" YouTube Channel! Thanks for reading, and happy making.