Posted January 5, 2019.
Of course Barbie® needs a welding helmet so she can work on her racing car or motorcycle! With any 3D printer you can make your own “Mini-Eva” engineering action figure complete with a welding helmet. All needed files and instructions are found below. It will fit Barbie® and similar fashion dolls.
I think welding is one of my super-hero powers! I can fuse metals with my hands, and create things that have never existed before. However, welding creates a very bright arc, and the light will damage your eyes if you don’t have a special welding helmet with a dark lens. Kind of like really dark sunglasses, but even darker, because normal sunglasses cannot be used as eye protection for welding. My “Mini-Eva” action figure has already a racing suit and racing helmet, and I wanted her to also have a welding outfit. You can download it below and make your own!
Who is who? Is that Eva? Or is it Eva the doll? It is impossible to know; we can’t tell them apart.
Instructions how to make the welding helmet
Step 1: Download the files for the welding shield and head band here (.zip folder) and save it to your computer.
Step 2: Right-click on the folder and select Extract All to un-compress the folder. The folder includes the STL files for 3D printing, drawings, CAD renderings, and photos of both the real Eva and a doll version of Eva.
Step 3: Select the correct welding helmet for your doll. Two different sizes are included – one for the regular Barbie® (to the left in the photo below) and one for the “Divergent” collectible Barbie® that has a slightly smaller head (to the right in the photo below). You will need to find the correct STL file for the “headband” and the correct STL file for the “welding shield”. These are the files you will load into the slicer software (such as Cura) for your 3D printer.
Step 4: 3D print the welding shield and the head band. If you want two different colors, you have to make it two separate prints. If you are OK with the same color, you can print both at the same time.
Both the shield and the headband are designed to be printed without support. However, I would recommend a small brim (like 3-5 line widths) for the headband to make sure it stays securely on the bed.
I used PLA filament, which is a bio-based, compostable plastic made from corn starch. PLA comes in a toughened version called “PLA+” or “PLA Pro”, this is preferred since it will make a much more rugged toy. I used a layer height of 0.2 mm for the shield and 0.1 mm for the headband. The shield took about 1 hour and the headband about 20 minutes.
The shield needs to be printed with the flat face downwards, and the headband needs to be printed as shown below.
Printing position for the welding shield.
Printing position for the headband.
Step 5: If you use a brim, trim it off.
Step 6: It is now time to make the lens for the helmet, and this is the trickiest part. It needs to be made from a piece of thin, flexible, transparent or translucent plastics. I used the side from a plastic strawberry container. The Divergent Barbie® needs a piece that is 24 x 30 mm, while the regular Barbie® needs 27 x 33 mm.
The size needs to be fairly exact, and it might take a few attempts to get it to fit. You can either draw the size with a ruler and a fine point permanent pen directly on the plastics. You can also print the PDF drawing that is included in the ZIP folder, cut out the “lens” and use it as a template to draw around. Make sure to pick the correct drawing – the red helmet is for Divergent Barbie and the blue is for the regular Barbie. The drawing is in A4 format. If your printer only has letter sized paper, don’t worry, just make sure you print it in the original size (don’t choose “fit”).
Slightly bend the plastic piece, insert it into the small groove on the inside of the face shield and let go. If it is too large, take it out again and trim of a tiny bit. Expect it to take a few attempts to get it right.
I added a piece from an anti-static bag between the stiffer transparent plastics and the shield to get the tinted effect.
Step 6: Assemble the two parts by gently squeezing the headband and inserting it into the shield.
Done!
Don’t miss the racing suit and racing helmet as well!
If you haven’t already made Mini-Eva’s racing suit and racing helmet – you can find it here!
The blue coverall/overall on the cover photo is made using the racing suit sewing pattern; I just picked another colour fabric.
These products are not endorsed by Barbie® or Mattel®. They are not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts.
The welding helmets, racing helmets and racing suit are licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike license.