Maker challenge Monday - how would you create a derby hat for a truck - asking for a friend

Off Topic Maker Matters
21

Hire the world’s greatest haberdasher, and tell him that this will be his greatest challege

3 Likes
22

actually, how hard would it be to make an inflatable hat? like a parade ballon or a bouncy castle.

1 Like
23

Pepakura + black plastic trashbags + soldering iron to fuze the pieces = possibilities.

24

Love Magritte…(but not 20 characters)

25

Big block of foam… Angle grinder… start carving. Finish off with fiberglass or just paint it with epoxy.

Or, call these guys… http://dinorentosstudios.com/custom-foam-props-sculptures-gallery/

1 Like
26

That was another thought I had - build a “topo map” of a derby hat, cut slices out of blue or pink foam board along the “contour lines.”. Stack and glue. Shape with angle grinder, chain saw, recip saw, hand saw, whatever.

1 Like
27

ohhh good. Fusion360 and Slicer will create the patterns to cut. Cut the foam on the laser. Could also use slicer to create the shapes for a cardboard “frame” to cover with chicken wire.

1 Like
28

while in general i like the idea, that would take an absurd number of foam sheets. and while they’re not expensive, they’re not exactly cheap either. Currently, I’m leaning towards the Pepekura-out-of-trashbags solution. Just hook up a leaf blower to it, and plug the leafblower into a converter plugged into the cigarette outlet

29

Seems like an absurd project requires an absurd solution. :smiley:

2 Likes
30

Depends on what is considered absurd. The amount of foam, or designing this as whole layers not interlocking/nested/parts that go together like puzzle pieces? May be able to do it in 2-3 sheets.

31

my rough mental math puts the hat at about 2 feet high, and 4 feet wide. Those sheets are sold at home depot as 1" thick, That’s 12 sheets of foam. at $20 a sheet, that’s $240 in foam. And even cutting the sections as rings (something like a topographical map) would take a fair amount of time to arrange all of those pieces for successive layers is a bit mind boggling

32

My rough mental powers rate it at doable. Can work up design and see if our numbers match up. My biggest question is, are we gonna flock it? If so, how many 1lb bags at $30+ each do we need?

33

Nobody said “cost-effective” :smiley:

34

and teachers, for all that they are wonderfull humans beings shaping the future of our nation’s youth, are unfortunately not paid a terrific amount
also

while it probably won’t be heavy, a thing of foam that size might be slightly awkward to move. and storage might be an issue

35

I still am upvoting the cardboard that is Laser cut and then pieced together at the event.

That would be portable by 1 person. It would be pretty elegant and inexpensive too.

2 Likes
36

Same here, although i do want to see if we could make an inflatable one out of trash bags.