View new posts | View your posts Budget Proton Pack Build - Gareee's 'Plans'

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Not doing anything that can't be removed, at this point. Would probably hollow out the Cyclotron and expand the wiring conduits in the foam I'm already planning. At this point, I'm going for the entire foam assembly being screwed on as we discussed, with some sort of wood block scheme. Not sure how that will work just yet, but It's on the drawing board.

Last status update before I head home for the 4th of July weekend. Little to no Intarweb there, regrettably... I'll be back where there's a shop full of woodworking tools, however! Will take the opportunity to get the bumper done, maybe a few other tidbits. I'd have built the entire pack scratch out of wood if I had that shop available in Louisville .



Everyone, please have a safe and fun Independence Day! Hooray America!

turning out good so far, I'll be watchin to see if this is a route I might wanna take for mine eventually

For more film accuracy, you can replace the crank and gear box with insulation foam blocks instead.

You WILL though need a small wooden block between them, to attach that hose fitting to... the tension on that hose will probably tear that foam up over time.

Back from the holiday, slowly getting some work accomplished.

Completed my bumper while in the comfort of the family woodworking shop - I'm relatively happy with how it came out. The old wood we used will need some more filling before all is said and done though, I'm afraid. Only suitably sized piece we had handy.


The Beginning...


The Middle...


The End!


More ending.


AND, I finally finished dremeling the electrical boxes. I forgot to pre-adhesive the large stack of boxes, however. Those will get their first coat of primer on the next round.

Also, got some preliminary electrical stuff in from AllElectronics. Two LED Chaser kits and a flashing light kit. Some light, friendly modifications should get them working in no time.

Primer? Bah!

I just washed them well, and used cheap walmat paint on them, and they came out perfect! LOL!

Bumper looks VERY nice!

Working on Electronics as I come to post this... Should have an update tonight/tomorrow!

Paint is on the electrical boxes, and I grabbed an HGA at lowes. Also need to finish up the Booster. After that, I think, the primary 'body' is completed. Then the fun begins: The hunt for detail parts!

Planning on getting the lights in, and getting everything attached in one way or another before starting the detail work.

Its been a while.. how goes it?

Essentially, School started and this thing went into boxes and the closet. ACK. Now I have no time left before Halloween, but I'm determined to get something/!. I'll post some pictures ASAP, but I essentially have been on a blitzkrieg of work. I'm doing some dremel/electronics magic to the Walgreens wands, attempting to make it fit inside a PVC pipe and run the controls out to switches on the gun.

I got a partially finished gun from GBrob... No Instrument Bar or Trigger Box, though. I'm hoping to rig some up out of foam in the meantime or leave them off entirely if need-be.

I picked up some strobe-light-pumpkin-things at Wal-mart for the cyclotron light and to add some flair to the inside of the gun - not at all screen accurate, but should look pretty cool. Strobe lighty-thingy for the Power Cell light (as suggested elsewhere on this forum) - Only issue is it might be so bright it blinds people looking at the pack. May tear it down and lower it's power some. Also hoping to run its controls out to the gun...

Anyhow, that's probably the best status report I can give at the moment without pictures (Which will come!). Right now I'm having trouble finding the following items... Any suggestions?

Hanger to mount Gun to Pack (ACE had none. Will try different ACE)
1/4" Vacuum Hose (Some came with the hose kit I bought, but not long enough )

Beyond that, just need some assembly time for the pack details, and lots of fabrication work on the Gun. And the lighs, oh the lights.

Alright, here's some quick pictures..





And a shot I took of the 'wands' at Walgreens, as I spent a good while looking for them. I took the last clear and did not think to put it back before taking the shot, though... Feel free to use this if you need to help others find them!

Nice!!

Yep, those are the wands we used for our guns last year.

I'm now on the hunt for a Trigger Box. Any suggestions? I'm worried about running wiring through something that small made of foam... And I'm somewhat doubtful of being able to get a Resin one in time for Halloween (MMM is out) - but I might!

Still need to find the gun mount hardware and some 1/4" split hose.

the super bright stick is used where? on the wand? they are clear but light up what color?

The wands are clear, and have a colored platic shimmery insert in them. pop or cut the end off, and just remove it. The lights are dual brightness clear white LEDs.

walgreens huh? hopefully mine in town has them its a great idea

I got two, one clear and one blue... The tubes themselves appear to actually be colored on the non-clear ones, with the shimmery fabric inside being the same white color on both of these. Don't know if perhaps its a re-engineering thing from the past or what... Make sure to get the clear/white one!

I think I made foam trigger boxes, but they are glued with dowels right to the gunbox, bot attached by pins. The switches on ours are just for show, and have held up fine.

If you are planning on working switches, I'd just make them out of a solid wood block, and dremel/drill out holes for the hardware and wires.

Found a MUCH better Ace in the area... Actually organized!

Here's a picture of the flush-mount hangers as they appear on the shelves. These pictures always help me find stuff, as it gives me packaging to look for! These were specifically in the "Picture Hanging" section. i almost missed them, as I spent most of my time looking in the general hanger/fixture section.



Also ended up only finding 3/8" split tubing... anywhere. So I got some of that, will try to make due.

I was on the hunt for 3/4" as well and ended up finding some at Radio Shack after checking EVERYWHERE! just a heads up!

She's almost done, just needs an N-Filter and a few details. (Some sort of clippard and knobs on the Gun, and my stickers to come in the mail on the pack, plus a few other litte things).

I'll post more pictures a bit later, but here's how she looks at an overview. I'm really happy with the lighting, though I want more on the gun... At present, I have three toggle switches and one push-button. The two toggle switches to the right of the rear handle turn on the cyclotron lights and the strobes I placed inside the gun (They sort of add light to the cliplites, as well as lighting through the top grill). The ACTIVATE toggle turns the Walgreens wand on, and the INTENSIFY push-button makes it blink. I also took the potentiometer from the strobe light and ran it down to the gun - I'm going to try to make it look more like one of the actual gun knobs. All lights are ran via gun, which was one of my goals.

At this point, I a have no clue how/if I'm going to add some of the gun details. Many bits of it I may just settle for not having at this point...


Note: I've added cliplites, among other things, since this picture was taken.

Updates...

Still need an N-Filter, and stickers (which should be here ASAP!)




First test-fit of all the gear... Still need to attach MT-500 to strap.

Woah. That's actually pretty cool what you did with the gun.

Looks great....

Thanks! . All props to Gareee, though - I just took his idea and took a soldering iron to it. The little black cap will come off the end eventually. I've got gobs and gobs of glue down there to keep the LED tube centered.... The cap is just holding it till it dries. I have no clue what to use for a trigger tip, probably won't have anything by halloween.

By the way, how do you people keep your hoses looking so darned neat?! Every one I see is a nice arc over their back, or to the gun... Mine is a crinkly mess. Perhaps I just bought the wrong stuff.

Yoiu can run 1/2" clear tube through the split loom to firm it up. I'd liek to see where you tapped into the wand to solder up real gun switches to it, just to tinker with it.

I'm pretty sure you can just clip off the last led on the wand, and shorten the tube to get more proportionally screen accurate.

To make the gun tip hook, I found a fitting in electrical at Lowe's that fits over the tube. It has a outward lip on it as well. I just make a hook out of plywood, sanded it, and used a generour amount of hot glue to make it look welded, and then painted the whole thing with krylon silver chrome.

I made the front banjo from a square 1/4 inch dowel with rounded edges, and painted that with krylon chrome brass.

Looks great, and its good to be able to give back to the community that helped me along last year as well!

I'll take some pictures (Or draw some diagrams, since I'm not sure I can get to the wires anymore if the glue dripped a bit ) as soon as I get a chance .

Could you post a bit more of an up-close shot of your Banjoss and trigger tip? I /play/ banjo, but when I started gluing it looked a bit funny.

Thanks!
-Travis

How'd your Halloween go?

(I've been following this build in the shadows but the suspense is killing me... lol)

SELF THREAD NECRO!!

It's been quite a few years since this build. The poor pack has seen better days - It's been used every halloween (and a few interspersed charity events) without fail and is missing quite a few bits and bobs that I haven't been replacing properly. Thankfully I'm now out of college and properly employed, so I'm going to start (slowly) rebuilding the pack with a little more accuracy. Step one, I think, will be to rebuild the thrower. I never finished it properly in the first place! I can also use the new thrower in conjunction with my existing pack until I find enough discretionary income to buy a shell. Building a budget pack and scouring lowes, flea markets, and piles of metal fittings was an extremely fun experience, though. Can't beat it.

Step one is to reaquaint myself with the community - I've turned into a lurker since the build! So, Hi! I'll get some updated pics of my poor pack up soon (looks like the old ones have fallen to the linkdead gods) and use this thread to log the rebuild. Looking back through the old build log has been awesome .

Time to see what the latest and greatest innovations in pack building are - I love working out gizmos. Arduino or Mighty integration is an absolute must for the new build! I want something extensible for future evil plans.