• Tag Archives learning process
  • Steampunk Top Hat weight reduction

    One of the things I learned wearing my vented Steampunk Top Hat for 3 days at Wild Wild West Con was that it was darned heavy! 

    The hat weighed just over 15 ounces (426g) and I had a sore spot on my forehead after wearing it all weekend. Brass is darned heavy!

    To reduce the weight, I removed all the brass nuts and aluminum washers from the inside (where no one sees) with nylon nuts (foregoing the washers, I don’t think it needs them):

    Brass nuts and aluminum washers removed from the hat
    Brass nuts and aluminum washers removed from the hat

    This reduced the weight by over 1.8 ounces (53g to be precise)…more than 13% less! Already it feels dramatically lighter…if I still have issues I may reduce the weight of or remove the goggles entirely…