My Backup Mask-New View Refurb Project

[Majordave]

My main mask is a low profile/New view Wilson Ti.  I recently traded my Diamond iX3 silver backup mask with traditional curvature frame to acpar72 for a brand new, unused black Wilson low profile/new view.  Which, by the way, was my first mask style when I first started umpiring.

 

I wore the backup a couple of games and did not like the width of the wires/bars nor the weight of the mask with the thick vinyl coating on the wires.  I decided to refurb the mask and try to lose some weight and thickness of the bars by removing the vinyl and going to a flat black finish with paint.  Doing all the work myself.   Why should the powder coat guys have all the fun?

 

I started today since I was off and will be off tomorrow for Easter.  (Not much baseball around here on Easter weekend).  

 

I first reviewed several of the mask refurb and mask powder coat topic threads on this site.  I then asked our good friend (who knows metal and metal finishing/welding) Jocko for some advice.  He came through and gave me some pointers.  So, armed with the knowledge and wisdom gathered from this site and Jocko I started my project.

 

Step one:  Remove the vinyl.  A powder coat guy would sand blast it or something like that.  I don't have access to a sandblast device so I took Jocko's advice and burned off all the vinyl (or most of it) using a whole propane tank for a handheld soldering/brazing torch I bought specifically for this task from Walmart for $16.

 

Wow!  it was fun but took over two hours.  Mostly due to my lack of specific technique.  Once I got the hang of it I enjoyed holding the mask with welding gloves and a pair of long-handled channel lock pliers while holding the torch to the vinyl and watching it burn and melt.  Wires/bars are noticeably thinner and lighter without the vinyl coating.  Trick will be to not add too much weight with paint.

 

Pictures of the completed burn process below.  I still have some sanding and possibly steel wool application to get the mask down to bare metal before I apply a coat of primer and a coat or two of flat/satin black paint.  (Don't worry Jocko, I will inspect all of the welds and call in proper experts if anything looks suspicious).

 

More pics as I pursue the process.  If it looks bad after I am finished I will have it powder coated professionally.

 

[catcher]

Interesting... I know literally nothing about metal, but I expected the bars to be silver.

[conbo61]

The heat from the torch probably left the bars black.  You can see some silver on the one cross bar.  As the major note, a little steel wool and he will be down to a bright metal finish. (SSPC-SP2 - Hand tool cleaning)

[Majordave]

@catcher

Yep, they are silver. I just was letting it cool and trying to have some normal, non-umpire related life activities last night. I spent all day applying leather luster to my 4 year old reebok plate shoes and burning all the vinyl off that frame.

Single life is good sometimes. No honey-do's. Just whatever-the-F$@k-Dave-feels-like-do's. Almost every day.

I'll get it finished up this week and post updates and a before and after pic.

[Majordave]

Update on refurb project.

 

Pics of semi-bare metal after sanding and steel wooling the frame.

 

 

[Majordave]

After Primer Coat.

 

 

[Jocko]

Nice work Dave. I love working on my gear. Making it truly mine. Not customizing just for the hell of it, but making it better and more to my specs/liking.

[Lala]

That looks great! What did you use for the primer coat?

[Majordave]

@Jocko. Thanks. I have enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.

@Lala. It's Rustoleum brand black primer in spray can. I finished it off with two coats of Rustoleum satin finish black spray.

Final pics later today.

[Majordave]

Final Product-I'm very happy with it.  Lighter, thinner bars/wires.

 

 

 

Side-by-Side View with my New-View Ti.  Twins?

 

 

 

Ti is slightly lighter than Cro-Mo.  No more than 3 or 4 ounces by my guess.  I want to weigh them sometime.

[Lala]

They are beautiful...I might have to take on a project like this.

[Jocko]

@Majordave - I really dig the insignia. Very cool

[BigUmpire]

Final Product-I'm very happy with it. Lighter, thinner bars/wires. NewViewRefurbFinalProduct.jpg Side-by-Side View with my New-View Ti. Twins? NewViewsSide-by-Side-Twins?.jpg Ti is slightly lighter than Cro-Mo. No more than 3 or 4 ounces by my guess. I want to weigh them sometime.

Without question the BEST looking masks posted to date ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Majordave]

@ Jocko

Thanks for all your help and kind comments.

 

@ Lala

 

Thanks man.  Can umpire gear be beautiful?  Hell yeah it can!

 

@ BigUmpire

Thanks man.  Weren't you a Commander or Lt Cmdr?

 

 

So I bought a digital food scale tonight.

 

The Cro-Moly rig with harness, doeskin pads and 4" Honigs TG weighs 27.1 ounces.  (1 lb. 11.1 oz.)

The Ti rig with harness, black calf? leather pads and 4" Honigs TG weighs 23.5 ounces. (1 lb. 7.5 oz.)

 

I believe my calibrated head/neck and my hands predicted/guesstimated that the Ti is 3-4 ounces lighter than the Cro-Mo.

 

("Ti is slightly lighter than Cro-Mo. No more than 3 or 4 ounces by my guess. I want to weigh them sometime.") *-Post #10 above

 

Wow!  I am amazingly close in guesstimation versus actual weights.

(3.6 ounces is the actual difference according to my scale that I zeroed between weighings and weighed three times each with same weight each time for both.  Scientific, I am!)

[Majordave]

Wore the new refurb mask in an NAIA JV vs JUCO game today.  Only went 5 innings due to the JUCO kicking the living doo-doo out of the NAIA JV. 

 

Took me a couple of innings to get the harness adjustments correct so it sat on my head the way I like it.  No hits to the mask but I don't expect any issues as this is virtually the same setup I have in the Ti and the same set up I wore when I started ten years ago.

 

Until I tried Team Wendy's I never (I say again, NEVER) had a headache from a foul ball to the mask.  Yesterday I took two in the face during bunt attempts in bottom of first and again in top of second innings while wearing my Ti New-View with the TW pads.  Had a headache the rest of the game and all night.  No problems today. So I don't think I had a concussion.  But, I am done with TW pads.  They are not working for me with the way I wear my very loose harness.  It felt just like being punched in the face, hard!

[BigUmpire]

@ Jocko

Thanks for all your help and kind comments.

@ Lala

Thanks man. Can umpire gear be beautiful? Hell yeah it can!

@ BigUmpire

Thanks man. Weren't you a Commander or Lt Cmdr?

So I bought a digital food scale tonight.

The Cro-Moly rig with harness, doeskin pads and 4" Honigs TG weighs 27.1 ounces. (1 lb. 11.1 oz.)

The Ti rig with harness, black calf? leather pads and 4" Honigs TG weighs 23.5 ounces. (1 lb. 7.5 oz.)

I believe my calibrated head/neck and my hands predicted/guesstimated that the Ti is 3-4 ounces lighter than the Cro-Mo.

("Ti is slightly lighter than Cro-Mo. No more than 3 or 4 ounces by my guess. I want to weigh them sometime.") *-Post #10 above

Wow! I am amazingly close in guesstimation versus actual weights.

(3.6 ounces is the actual difference according to my scale that I zeroed between weighings and weighed three times each with same weight each time for both. Scientific, I am!)

Lt Cmdr

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rcjhyman]

Looks great.  But wondering if the heat applied has any effect on the metal or the welds.  I'd guess there won't be any catastrophic failure, but you never know.

[Jocko]

@rcjhyman - as a matter of fact, I do know. And the answer is no. The process of burning off the finish won't harm either the metal or the welds. After I finish welding on my masks (or almost any other project) I do what is called stress relieving. That's adding post weld heat to the project to open up the molecules and allow everything to relax naturally. Letting it 'find' itself.