Thursday, October 13, 2011

How to make your own Deadmau5 !

Love Deadmau5? Enjoy house music? Want to go to raves in style? Deadmau5's iconic Mau5head would surely turn some heads. I decided to go with the original red Mau5head, but you can choose any color your heart desires.


Things you'll need:
- 13" hamster ball
- A yard of red felt
- Hardhat
- White silk (make sure you can see through it)
- 6 sheets of stick on red felt
- 2 12" 3mm BIRCH BALTIC wood plates (NOT BALSA)
- Hard styrofoam ball
- Steel mesh
- Dremel rotary tool with cutting wheel
- Safety glasses
- Hot Glue Gun with sticks
- Spray on Tacky glue
- Regular Tacky glue
- Duct Tape
- Masking Tape
- Sandpaper
- Cutting Board
- Hobby knife
- fabric scissors
- Philips screwdriver
- Paper
- Dark colored sharpie
- Compass


Step 2Mapping everything out

Take out one of the panels of the ball so it won't roll away from you (don't throw away the panel, you'll need it later). Take two sheets of paper and sketch out a the shape of the mouth. take your styrofoam ball and slice it in half. Take your two plates of birch baltic wood and slide them in two the holes of the ball. tape everything with masking tape and predict how everything will turn out. The top of mouth should be at the equator of the ball and it should be spread side to side.









Step 3Eyes and ears part 1

Take your compass and make 12" circles on your birch baltic wood. Take your Dremel and cut out them out. Sand the edges to avoid splinters. These will be your ears. Now take your stick on felt and start applying it on the ears. Take your hobby knife and cut off the excess felt. An ear uses up 3 sheets of felt. Make sure you cut on a cutting board so you don't ruin any surfaces. Now take a piece of sandpaper and start concaving the insides of eyes until it sits flush on the surface of the ball. Do this process outside because it gets really messy. 







Step 4Cutting the ball

Use your screw driver to disassemble the ball. Trace the paper mouth on to the plastic. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it should give you the general idea. Now use masking tape to trace the drawn line. The masking tape will ensure you a straight line. Put on you safety glasses and use the Dremel to make the hole for your head bigger (make sure you don't cut too much or you'll cut into the part that holds the bottom of the mouth). Once your head will fit through the hole, begin cutting out the mouth. Take your top half and widen the slots where you ears will go (the felt will make the birch baltic wood ears thicker). smooth out any rough spurs with sand paper. Once the mouth is cleanly cut, reinforce the other panel and mouth area with duct tape. When satisfied, reassemble the ball. Take the eyes and ears and check if everything fits perfect before moving on.

Step 5Wrapping the head in felt

Lightly sand your head so the glue can stick to the surface. Use your fabric scissors to cut large strips of felt that would cover large portions of the head without crinkling. Spray on some Tacky glue an stretch the fabric nice and tight. Cut the excess felt leaving an inch of extra felt. Make cuts in the excess felt. start folding and gluing the felt inside your head. Make slits on the sides for the ears to fit.

Step 6Mouth piece

Cut out a piece of silk and steel mesh. Make sure both are big enough to cover the inside of the mouth. Hot glue the silk to the steel mesh. Adjust the mesh until it fits perfectly. When the mesh properly fitted, hot glue it into place. Trim the excess silk inside the head.


















Step 7Eyes and ears part 2

Place the ears inside the slots. From the Inside, hot glue the ears into place. Reinforce the ears with duct tape. Glue the eyes with regular Tacky glue into place. Apply a generous amount of glue.




Step 8Hardhat

Trim your hardhat as much as possible. try not to trim off the mounts that hold the head brace or else you're going to need a new hard hat. Once you have trim your hardhat, take the panel from the ball that you have not used. Trim the panel until you can trace the finger slots. trace the Shape of the finger slots with a sharpie and cut it out with your dremel. make sure the finger slots are in the top of the hardhat( there's a "dot" from the plastic molding right in the center of the hardhat and the panel, match those up, and you'll have it perfectly on top). Fit the hardhat in the head and apply lots of hot glue. To be safe, I put duct tape over it for a stronger bond.

Step 9Finished!

Now you're ready for raves and what not. Have fun and be safe!

OPTIONAL STEP:
You can choose to put in LEDs to light up the eyes. Simply drill small holes into the head where the eyes should be BEFORE gluing on the eyes. Run the wires between the hardhat and either mount the battery pack inside the head or have long wires and run it down your shirt. I personally like running down your shirt so you can turn the LEDs on and off from your pocket.

No comments:

;