$10 DIY Neck Seal v1

[BrinkHouse]

Hey guys! So excited to join this group of passionate and imaginative people, the stuff some of you guys are doing is super inspiring. I decided after some searching around to give making my own neck seal a try, I think it came out okay, considering the whole thing costs about $10 to make. Please let me know what you think, I'd love any feedback. 

 

First I went to Home Depot and picked up a package of this stuff: 

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King-E-O-5-16-in-x-1-4-in-x-17-ft-Black-EPDM-Cellular-Rubber-Weatherstrip-Tape-V25BK/202844545

 

It's great because it's got two round 'tubes' per strip, with adhesive on the back. I then went on a half day long search for a black turtleneck, to no avail. Who knew finding turtlenecks was actually really difficult? Hmmh. So then I had the idea that maybe the arm of a T-shirt would fit over my head! Turns out a 2XL worked pretty damn well. So I cut the sleeve off from the shirt, leaving some material that I could tuck inside my compression shirt later. 

 

Once I had the weatherstrip and the shirt material, I simply removed the adhesive backing and started applying the strips in rows to the sleeve. Surprisingly the weatherstrip stuck really well to the shirt and I didn't have to use additional adhesive. I butted the rows up against each other and cut them with a razor blade. I decided to do four strips, giving me eight tubes. For me this fit nicely up against my chin, and gave me enough room around my neck that it didn't choke or rub against my adams apple. You could adjust this to your preference, obviously.

 

Once I had all the strips installed and trimmed, I cut a slit down the sleeve where the tubes met. This is necessary so you can actually get your head through. Go down only as far as you need to get your head through. Then I e6000'd velcro pieces over the ends of the tubes, which both cleaned up the edges and mated the strips to the fabric, keeping them from separating over time. I wasn't sure how this would look but if you look at some photos of Han in ANH, you can clearly see a velcro or similar closure on his seal. For now it's okay, I may revisit/clean this up eventually. 

 

 

My only little gripe is that maybe the tubes themselves are a little too thick, I'm currently looking for a thinner version of this weatherstrip. What do you guys think? All in all this seal took about an hour to make, and again cost about $10 so even despite some minor issues I think it's a worthwhile build.

 

 

 

[zv288bot[TK]]

Wow, I think it looks awesome!

 

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

[BrinkHouse]

Oh... and MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! 

 

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Edited February 10, 2022 by gmrhodes13
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[Pyrates[TK]]

Great work!

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

I might try this instead of buying a tailored one. Thanks for the post 

[BrinkHouse]

Glad you guys are digging it!

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

Very clever!!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[TK 2759[501st]]

In regards to the excess material about the base of neck... You may wish to reconsider tucking it into your compression suit, if you plan on using the Aker system for talking... I keep the Aker hanging around my neck, I've seen others attach it to chest piece, but either way, the wire goes through top of neck seal, and out the bottom... Just a thought.<br><br>

Great looking neck piece, and will look into this one myself as well. Thanks for sharing!

[SlyFox740[TK]]

Wow, version 1 looks Great! The rubber seal looks nice and shiny when light reflects off it which is screen accurate.  That glossy appearance is actually difficult to find in other materials. I was thinking about stacking some kind of soft rubber hose around a turtleneck and actually sewing them into place, very similar idea. You did an awesome job.

 

I'll have to watch ANH in Hi-Def to check out the back of Han's seal, I never noticed that before. For the closure I was just imagining butting the ends of the stacked rubber hose together with a very fine black zipper buried just beneath the butt jointed hoses so that it's not visible and sewed to the fabric underneath.

Might not be "screen accurate" but what do you think of that idea?

 

-Henry

Edited January 3, 2016 by SlyFox740

[TKRalf[TK]]

damn that's a great idea. will definitely check it out.

[Novak Dimon[TK]]

Very smart idea! <br>

I will try to build one myself.

[BrinkHouse]

On 1/3/2016 at 8:22 AM, SlyFox740 said:

Wow, version 1 looks Great! The rubber seal looks nice and shiny when light reflects off it which is screen accurate.  That glossy appearance is actually difficult to find in other materials. I was thinking about stacking some kind of soft rubber hose around a turtleneck and actually sewing them into place, very similar idea. You did an awesome job.

 

I'll have to watch ANH in Hi-Def to check out the back of Han's seal, I never noticed that before. For the closure I was just imagining butting the ends of the stacked rubber hose together with a very fine black zipper buried just beneath the butt jointed hoses so that it's not visible and sewed to the fabric underneath.

Might not be "screen accurate" but what do you think of that idea?

 

-Henry

 

Here's a grab of Han where you can sort of see the closure. it may not be a velcro setup like I used but it's similar. 

 

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I'm working on v2 now and the big thing I'm trying to polish from v1 is the ends of the tubes. Want to use velcro still but I also want to be able to close off the ends of the tubes, which I haven't been able to find a clean way to do yet. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by gmrhodes13
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[cedron[501st]]

If you can use a shirt with a slight larger arm than you need then you attach the rubber strip to the cloth leaving a small part of extra fabric at the end. Attach the velcro to this area of extra cloth and then you only have to overlap the cloth--not the rubber stip.

Edited January 6, 2016 by cedron

[cedron[501st]]

 

Here is a really rough drawing of what I mean. In this the black is the cloth and the red is the rubber weatherstrip.

[TrooperWitch]

That is actually really awesome. I might scrap my previous plans and try this out. Thank you so much for sharing!

[cedron[501st]]

 

Here is a really rough drawing of what I mean. In this the black is the cloth and the red is the rubber weatherstrip.

 

By the way, I thought about this more, and it doesn't even have to be extra cloth of the shirt. You could attach additional cloth to extend the sleeve with the velcro. Or you could even just sew on a velcro strip onto the overlap area. I'm not sure which way would work better, but either way you wouldn't need a bigger shirt then.

Edited January 7, 2016 by cedron

[fueledbychar]

By the way, I thought about this more, and it doesn't even have to be extra cloth of the shirt. You could attach additional cloth to extend the sleeve with the velcro. Or you could even just sew on a velcro strip onto the overlap area. I'm not sure which way would work better, but either way you wouldn't need a bigger shirt then.

This is awesome addition to what he created. Will definitely try this. 

[TLantMAGNUS]

Wow, this is fantastic!

[fueledbychar]

So I attempted this and its not bad. I have extra material and may try a second one. I actually did this for $5 at Walmart since home depot stopped selling it around me and it was not available online. 

 

Little background on mine. I actually took card stock and kept it rounded for a day or so. Then I sewed fabric around it to it was nice and stiff yet soft. I then hot glued the strips down to the fabric. I then ran a light stitch (by hand) from the card/fabric through the tube just to make sure it was fastened. **If I attempt a second one, I will use an epoxy or cement glue just so I wouldn't have to run the stitch. ***

 

The adhesive the tubing/stripping comes with is strong,  but with sweat and heat (I am in Florida) I am not sure would hold up that is why I added the hot glue and stitch to just make sure I wont get separation between the fabric and the tubing. 

 

Then once that was done, I added Velcro to the fabric that extended past the tubing as well as the opposite side to the end of the tubing on the other end. This works really well but I will warn you the end (no matter what you do) sticks up slightly. I am thinking of adding a hook and round clasp to help keep it down and add fabric to the ends to help conceal this.  

 

All I need to do is sew the part that tucks into the shirt and I will be good to go. I purposely left this off for me personally because I was debating using a turtle neck compression shirt but opted to go the regular route. 

 

**One other note. If your tubing comes with a little indent it it or crease which you can see in my pictures. I just had a heat gun and ran it over a few times while I held the neck seal circular, took the indents right out. Should have taken a photo of after but I didn't plan on posting this until today. 

 

All in all really awesome. I will post better "in progress pics" for the next one I do. Thank you so much for posting this, you saved me $45 bucks. 

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Edited February 10, 2022 by gmrhodes13
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[DroidHunter]

I really like this idea. Way to think outside the box!

[krazytrooper]

That came out really good!

[humperdingle]

This is weird... I've just been looking at this draught excluder stuff for EXACTLY this project! Definitely gonna do this now

[Tiedoll]

Nicely done! Although I do wonder how hot it'll be to wear this compared to other neck seals out there in the market (or even balaclava).

 

And of course we'll eventually stink it up with trooping, so I'm thinking about how well it cleans.

[manyhighkicks[TK]]

I then went on a half day long search for a black turtleneck, to no avail. Who knew finding turtlenecks was actually really difficult? Hmmh.

 

FWIW, I always check Goodwill - where turtlenecks go to die.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gwood1234[TK]]

Definitely going to give this a try. I noticed you can get P shape profile strips which are smaller than the D shape. Once trimmed down it should make it thinner. I'll post pics once I get round to making it.

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Edited February 10, 2022 by gmrhodes13
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