NifSkope Woes: How can I give a Protectron a custom hat?

[Testudini]

I've spent about three days tearing my hair out trying to get a Protectron to wear a "custom" hat. I say custom because the mesh I'm using isn't technically custom, it's vanilla. I'm attempting to have a Protectron wear KitchenPot.nif but no matter what I do it's either invisible in-game or flat out crashes the game. At the moment, I'm trying to accomplish this by using Takahashi's Chef Hat, but nothing I do works. I've followed about four separate tutorials to completion, read ten separate threads with the same issues (albeit for Skyrim, FO3, and FNV, not FO4) and tried their solutions, tried messing with random values, everything. The bounding spheres completely encase the mesh. I've tried using both the regular KitchenPot.nif and a .nif I ran through Outfit Studio. The Outfit Studio'd mesh has the same exact shader flags as the Chef Hat. I'm at my wit's end here and I've completely run out of things to try. Does anybody have a solution to this problem?

[usaf9211]

I think I might actually be having a similar problem, but on a larger scale. I've tried attaching models through 3ds max and nifskope and followed several tutorials as you have, still with no luck. I would ask you this, does the hat show up in the CK preview? For me the part I added shows in the preview but is never visible in game.

[Testudini]

Nope, mine doesn't even show in the CK.