View new posts | View your posts Gareee's Budget Packs: Halloween alternative build ideas

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Well, except the emergency room visit and the kidney stone.. LOL!

Nice to see someone else following in my footsteps:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21977

There's a horizontal pipe just below the crank box. I assumed you glued the pipe in between those lectrical boxes? What glue did you use?

I used the good liquid nails from walmart. (There are thrre progressive better grades.) It takes a week to really be rock solid. After a year it's literally like steel.

If you want a quicker solution, gorilla glue will also work, but do NOT use a lot, since it WILL expand!!!!!

Gorilla glue takes practice to use, and figure out how little you can get a away with, but it's my go to glue now because it is safe for every material and paint.

Usually, I'll put a small amount of superglue on something to get a quick bond, and then when the gorila glue sets, I have the stronger bond I'm really after.

Plus the combo is cheaper then jb weld. since you get a LOT more for your money. I still have the original bottole of gorilla glue i bought two years ago to build our packs.

So, let me understand. So you put a small dab of superglue to start it, and then follow up with Gorilla to get the final bond?

Yep.. I'll usually put some superglue at a few points.. that way when the gorilla glue expands, it doesn't create a gap in the two parts being joined.

Thanks for the tip on the glue. I broke some ground on my particle throwers, and your tips were a great help.

After reading your thread, you said your pack was wider after using the electrical boxes. How much wider was your pack, and did you ever think about using a narrower power cell box??

My problem is that I bought a pre cut motherboard, but I'm going to use your idea of electrical boxes. If I had time, I would scratch build boxes, but the big day is just around the corner.

Best bet is just use mdf for your motherboard then, and save the one you bought for a proper shell. I never saw any power cell replacement electrical box closer to the size and shape than what I used. Keep in mind my crank and gear boxes are also not the exact size either, so you have to make visual adjustments as to what looks "right" to your eye.

I did a few minor repairs today,m for our second outng at the Cold Mountain Corn Maze. Last night, the boxbox lights on teamhair's gun failed, and my damned thrower wand failed. Not that the guests there would know, but it bugged me.

Teamhair's fix was easy.. the wires insde them were not soldered. and the wrapped connect was just letting go. I wasn;t doing soldering back then, and when i rebuild her a new gun, it'll be done properly, but its fine for now.

My wand's issue was more problematic...onme of the batteries had corroded, and there was actuall rust on most of the battery terminals.

Since I picked up extra wands JUST in case last year, I decided to just replace mine.

Here are two WIP pics, so you can see closer how it was put together.. I'll also detail this a bit more, since I know at least a few people are duplicating our wands.








I wrapped electrical tape around the base of the wand for compression, since its black it matches the base of the wand well incase someone sees inside the wand. That has a thin thicker strip of duct tape. Since its thicker, you don't need to have several wrap arounds for the proper compression. I leave it a little adjustable, for when I replace batteries, or do repairs.

For the silver ring next to the base assembly, (I probably referenced the unlock ring on the original guns), I just use duct tape, since its silver, and matches the ring. Put the cut edge close the the base, and press it down with your thumbnail.. that way when you put the ring on, you won't get light leaks.

I used white electrical tapre originally when I did the wrap for the end assembly. With my replacement wand, I just used electrical tape, which matches fine, I think.

The "frosted" rings around the barrel are just a simple single wrap of scotch tape, and they achieve that frosted look very well!

A word of warning, BTW... you need to of course remove the stickers before you can use the wand.. I always use Goof Off to remove sticker residue.. BUT Goof Off eats the cheap plastic of the battery compartment now!

I just used enough to get the goo off, and then wiped the rest off.. after a few minutes, the tackiness will go away.

A few other observations:

I make the wand portion about 1-2" shorter, to closer match the proper barrel proportions. You can cut this with an exacto, or razorblade. First remove the inner led protector barrel, and cut that to length with a sharp scissors.

Cut the outer barrel end off to length. Apply some elmer's clear drying gel glue to the inside of the end of the led protector, slide it carefully down, and reseat it. Why?

It gets loose over time, and will fall out! The glue dries clear so you cannot see it, and will hold it in place. if you DO need to remove it for repairs, you can still pull it out with a needle nose pliers.

Gareee,
I'm making "Gareee Themed" packs for this Halloween. I just need to verify the pipe sizes on the pack.

I assume the pipes coming off of the power cell are 1"?

The large vertical pipe is 2"?

What about the small pipe just above the clyo?

Lastly, is the horizontal pipe in between the gear box, 1"?

I looked at the plans and some of them leave the reader a bit confused.
Thanks!

This is from the archives here (Norm's plans) and identifies parts so you know what to reference properly.



The pvc coming down from the power cell (Injectors) is 1 1/4 od (outer diameter).
The pipe between the crank box and gear box (Vacuum pump) is also 1 1/4 od
My Booster measures at 2 1/4" Also buy a test cap for it as well in plumbing by the pvc. In the center of that goes a coke zero black cap at the top.
The verticle pipe below the Booster is 1 1/4 " od (Capped with the Filler Plug.)
The Beam Line pipe is 1" od. (because thats what fits inside a coke zero cap), which caps mine.

I loosely followed "Norm's Plans" here in the proton pack section. Since I had issues either locating specific parts, or things didn't matched up to the electrical boxes I used, I used alternates to try to get the closest proportional look to the real packs. Use the other more accurate plans for exact measurements.

If you can, use that pic I posted for reference, because it will help others know what part you are talking about quicker.

I HIGHLY recommend printing out Norm's plans, and taking that shopping with yu.. the worse issue building packs is the number of trips to the store that eat up build time.

Create a new build thread, so people can follow along, and point out mistakes you might make before you make them. Dry fit everything several times BEFORE glueing!!! And if yer not sure about something, ask.. everyone here is always more than willing to assist!

Good luck!

I already built the wands and belt gizmo, but I guess I could post my pack build. You don't mind if I use the term "Gareee pack" to describe the build?

Not at all. It helps other people identify what "look" you are shooting for. Otherwise they will point out inaccuracies to the movie packs, which you are intentionally deviating from.

Gareee,
Another question...
Looking at Otto's plans, it says the EDA is 3" thick. Norm says it's 2 3/4". I notice it looks like you used 1/2" foam.
First, am I correct about the material you used? If so, why didn't you make it thicker?

Nevermind. I saw you thickened it later in the build. My bad.

Yeah,, make sure you check the later pictures.... you can see electrical boxes changed, and numbers of them changed as well.

If you look at more recent pics of our gear, you'll also see that I fixed the thickness of our sync generators, and corrected other things that were off.

You never had any issues with the pieces of wood falling off the bottom of your sync generator? If not, what glue did you use?

Oh, and did you prime the electrical boxes?

Nope, and nope. I didn't prime the boxes, and used that cheap walmart flat black paint. We originally used hot glue on the sync decorative plates, but hot glue's heat WILL melt insulation foam. Now I use a few small dabs of hot glue just to keep them in place quickly, and in the center use a small amunt of gorilla glue in the center for the perm bond.

We've never lost a piece though in either case. They are shielded by the bumper, which takes the abuse.

I love that Walmart spray paint! It goes on so thin, so it's hard to make it run. I used the gray flat for my elbow pads and they turned out great!

The bumper doesn't shield the bottom of the sync generator, so I figure that's where a casualty may occur.

Does the gorilla glue expand causing the plate to push away from the sync generator?

Sorry for all the questions. Time is of the essence, and I want to reduce potential, time-consuming mistakes.

Yep, the gorilla glue expands, which is why I partner it with a few drops of hot glue, to keep it in place while it expands and cures. Since the sync gen is round, the expanding gorilla glue will give it a larger glue "footprint".

The bottom of the sync gen doesn't really ever get touched, other then when you are gearing up.. keep in mind its down by yer butt...LOL!

I did use a screw with predrilled holes though to hold the bottom most thicker plate on though. My motherboards also have a extra bit that extends down for that one as well.

If you put a rubber bottom on that bottom most plate as well, your pack won't slide when you prop it up against a wall with a non carpetted floor. You can just use a small cut off an old tire inner tube, and tack it on with thumbtacks, and then just paint the heads black so they don't show.

(Something I learned and did after the original builds.)

Gareee, you are indeed an innovator.

No, I'm a cheap bastard who'll do anything to save a buck, and use the materials at hand.. LOL!

Seriously, working with insulation foam has issues especially with glue. Some glue eats it, so that really limits whats available to use. Gorilla glue just doesn't cure fast enough for my tastes, BUT once it does, its perfect for most jobs. I just needed to find a way to tack parts down so they wouldn't have a gap when the gorilla glue cured.

For small stuff, I use a superglue/gorilla glue combo. For bigger things I use the hotglue/gorilla glue combo.

And today I'm being fur fru, stringing colorful beads for my Zombieland hat.. LOL!

Someone was just having issues building his sync gen out of insulation foam. Here's my recent replaced on on my pack. The sync gen probably took 2 hours tops to rebuild, but I still had the original template, and only really needed to add another layer to the top to make it closer to the proper thickness.

This is awesome. I wish I could build something like this but I'm completely retarded when it comes to building things. Anyone know where I could get a budget pack like this built for me? I'd be willing to pay the full load for one as long as I didn't get ripped off.

I'm sure you could build somethinbg like this, with all the advice available here. It really is more a matter of just breaking down the work into palatable chunks.

You'd spend alot less money building one from scratch. I'm sure most anyone here would give you any advice you'd need to get stated.

Yeah I may have to do that. I just don't really have a place or the tools to even build it. I just can't seem to have any luck saving money to get one from ebay or anything. I always end up having to spend it on something. Mostly my car apparently.

I hear you about car repairs.. seriously!

Just buy parts as you need them. Once you have a few, you'll be more eager to save and aquire the rest of the parts you need. You really don't need many tols at all to build a pack. Most are common things you already have, and again, you can get them as you need them. Probably the most expensive thing was a dremel, and those are usually on sale for the holidays. Its a good time to pick one up, if you don't have one.

I built this...



with these...


PVC Pipe, UHU Por and a Hot Glue Gun.

And of course Stefan's Plans.

This is not to take anything at all away from Gareee his builds have been a great inspiration to others. I actually planned on building a Gareee style pack myself until I heard about Foamcore .Then I figured that walking around dollar/hardware stores trying to find all the parts that look similar would take just as much time as drawing and cutting the whole thing out myself to Stefan's plans.

As you know, the amount of knowledge and information shared on these forums is incredible. If you decided to build it yourself you'll never be short of people willing to help you out.

Good Luck.

this post i am quoting following this thought is the route many people should go for their first pack. if you're patient and careful cardboard, foam core and styrene, can be cut with an x-acto and you can get a very accurate pack, as accurate plans are all over the place.

search for "cardboard build" and you'll find a very recent, BEAUTIFUL cardboard build, which is damn near accurate to norm's plans, and very much so "on a budget." that will require zero repairs after each use.

This post was deleted by mburkit on December 18th, 2010, 7:26 am. Reason: Arguing with another poster.