MK V Dive Helmet – construction begins

Ok, so here’s how it starts. The helmet looks basically like a ball, on top of a sleeve/collar.

Blue inflatable bouncy ball

I’ll start with a kid’s rubber-ish ball. I started by trying to stick the ball on a piece of cardboard tubing used for making concrete forms (it’s available at home improvement stores). But the cardboard cylinder does not “flare” out correctly. I tried to cut a ring of cardboard, then slit it and fold it in on itself. But it’s just not right.

The shape from the “globe” of the helmet, down to the base where it connects to the collar, is not a cylinder, it’s a conical section. I think a different approach is in order. If I pick point on the helmet where I think the sphere starts to flatten-out to the conic, and get a diameter there, then measure the base of the helmet, and those two diameters will form the top and bottom of my conic section.

MK V Helmet Plan

Navy MK V drawing

I need a plan for building a Navy Mk V dive helmet. Ask, and the internet delivers. Found in various places, this drawing is to-scale. I’m going to use this as my general plan for getting the size correct.

I found on seajunk.com this photo of the front viewport protector (the grill):

It gives the dimensions of the viewport glass (4″) and shows the overall width (7.5″) of the front viewport. I’m going to use this information to enlarge the blueprint in Photoshop to match. Then, I should be able to pull measurements off the blueprint and stay reasonably close to the proper proportion when I make the components of the helmet.