Leather Nose Sunshade

This Instructable will show you how to make a simple nose cone to protect your skin from the sun.

If you're someone who is always outside, it could be anything from flying paragliders to gardening, then you probably notice that your sunglasses intensify the sun that hits your nose.

I have burnt my nose many times while flying.

There are products on the market that you can buy.

I had some old venison leather from a deer that my father hunted maybe 10 or more years ago (guy with fancy socks in first image is my dad back in the day, climbing.) I have carried it around with me from apt to apt, always intending to do something with it.

A couple years ago my father died, and using the leather took on a new richer meaning.

I remember a pair of ice climbing glasses he had when I was growing up that had soft leather on the sides to protect your eyes from the light reflected off of the ice.

I set out to make a leather nose shade for paragliding. This is my journey.

As I left Pier 9 for the night I wanted to turn around, run back and jump into this project.

Instead I ran all the way to catch the train to save myself additional hours of travel by waiting for the next slow train.

Out of breath, I found a seat and looked for any scrap of paper I could find to start ripping into the shapes that would become the nose protector.

Let the prototyping and stares (from other train riders) commence!!

When I got home from the train ride, I took the best ripped version and made a nice one with scissors and paper from the printer.

I used my calipers to measure the paper version so I could dimension the CAD drawing.

I didnt have a way to measure the angles so I held the paper version on the screen and approximated the angles.

I think it worked out well.

I used the dxf to laser cut the pattern

It can easily be hand cut, but I wanted to figure out how to make a bunch of them so I went for laser cutting.

Also sharks with lasers on their heads!!

I choose to use a snap that is press fit into the leather.

This makes it a little tricky to be adjustable, I am collaborating with a fellow artist on some other ways to make simple closures like a slot and tabs.

The clasp works well but can easily be misaligned.

In the next step Ill show a method I found to make it easier to add the male side of the snap.

Mark locations for the Snap

Start with the female side.

Make sure you have a punch that touches the outer ring of the snap.

Gently rock the punch to make sure that you are square on the snap.

Give a good solid, but not smashing tap to the punch with a hammer.

Now. In order to not damage the male side of the snap I placed the male side in the female side.

This method seemed to work really well to make sure the snaps were secure and not damaged.

Finally, Snap it to your sunglasses and GO!

Keep that Nose Cozy and out of the sun!