#4884812
Happy Halloween!!!

Just got some work done on the pack and was going through pics to post and realized I forgot to post progress from October 8th. Oops, so this post will be that days work and the next post will be of Saturday October 29th. Let's get on with it!


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Got whatever this beveled top corner piece is called all nice and cleaned up. Came out great.

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Rubbed down the welds with scratchy paper.

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Did the same for all the thrower welds.

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Had to knock down the underside of the rear handle weld so the instrument bar could fit flush.

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Drilled the hole in the gun body for the top knob. Threaded the hole with the screw that'll secure the knob.

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Applied Vaseline to the screw so the glue and apoxie sculpt wouldn't adhere to it. Glued the knob post on and screwed the screw in to keep it in place.

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Filled in the underside and then added the weld.

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Filled in the gear box gap below where the corrugated hose connects.

That's all for progress on that day.
twmedford23, EJLambert liked this
#4884850
Happy Halloween, post two.

Saturday, October 29th's progress:

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Started the day by making some tabs out of scrap and gluing them to the inside of the cyclotron/sunchronous spacer.

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This makes it super easy to place the cyclotron. When I'm ready I can just run a bead of glue around the base as it gets covered by the cyclotron ring step thing. I planned this from the beginning so the height of the cyclotron is exact to the plans once in place.

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Made pilot dimples with a bit for the hole saw.

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Cut out the cyclotron window holes with a hole saw on the drill press. Was nervous a bit as this piece took the most effort to make. With much caution paid, it came out great.

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Cleaned up the flashing from the hole saw and glued on the cyclotron window rings. Later I'll clean up the inside of the holes, epoxie if needed, and then a final clean up.

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I put the main parts of the pack together and traced where they connected. Then I marked areas contracted in by about 3/4" for removal. This reduces weight and also allows for running of wires. I used a hacksaw blade. Cut fairly quick by hand and didn't need to be precise as these will all be unseen.

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I hacksawed the side cuts, and for the top horizontal cut, I used the score and snap method. Quick and easy.

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Power cell, gun mount, and that booster tube/ppd/ion arm base/spacer thing all relief cut.

I also cleaned up the crank generator area under where the hose connects, but didn't get any up close shots.

And know, the return of MONEY SHOTS!

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twmedford23 liked this
#4884929
White is only it's first and weakest form!

Lol I keep thinking it looks like a storm trooper pack.

Thanks for the nice words everyone!
Last edited by Batfly on November 1st, 2016, 8:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
OCP_Model-001 liked this
#4886799
Wow! I go away for months and come back to this!!!! killer work!!!!!!
#4886826
Thanks for the words! Ew iProtonPack lol. Not a Mac fan. I think of it as a storm trooper pack lol.
nastynoah liked this
#4892197
Alright, this is not an April fools post. I actually worked on the pack yesterday! Felt good getting back to it. Sometime in November of 2016 I forgot to make a post. I basically just shoved apoxie sculpt into any crack, crevice, pit, and dimple I could find. I didn't get to the cyclotron spacer as there is a bunch there and I got overwhelmed with all the tiny areas around the plating. I'll post now the pics from that forgotten day of work. Then the next post I'll cover yesterday's progress, four and a half friggin months later. What's wrong with me?! So much slack daiquiri!

Ok, November 12rh, 2016. Started the hopefully final clean up process.

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So the process I used was to mix up a small amount of apoxie sculpt. Then I rolled it out into a tiny snake, or worm, or noodle, or toothpick, or twig, you get the idea. I applied that to an offending crack/gap. Then I just took my finger tip and pulled it over the crack area while pushing down with medium force. Roll another miniature bread stick, apply it with a slight overlap, pull while pushing and repeat.

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There's all the pieces I shored up. I set them aside to cure ( for 4.5 months [emoji14] ). Then I noticed this...

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Those are the pencils to the booster frame ladder. The styrene glue basically adhered to the paint on the pencil. The paint then separated off the wood of the pencil. So I scraped the paint of the side to get adhered.

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I rolled some apoxie sculpt and laid it on the frame and attached the pencils. Then I clamped them down. They aren't going anywhere now!

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I read somewhere on this forum about cutting nubs off the house barbs on the thrower. So I decided to give it a shot. I wrapped a little plastic parts bag aground the hex end of the barb, gripped it in a channel lock pliers, and cut off a couple barbs on each one with a hack saw blade.

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I wanted to fit all the thrower greebles on to play... test their fit. Yeah. So I had to scrape out some epoxie to let the screw go in for the front facing knob.

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Test went well. I also filled in spots on the thrower but didn't document it. That's it for the lost post. Stay tuned for yesterday's progress on the next post.
Last edited by Batfly on September 10th, 2017, 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
#4892200
Continuing on the non April fools posting, unless you count me as the fool for taking such a long break, is yesterday's progress (actually April 1st). It was just a bunch of lateraly scrapping away the apoxie sculpt I filled the cracks, crevices, dimples, and pits with from the last post. Exceptions being cleaning up the cyclotron window holes and ppd resting area.

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There are the before pics of the 4.5 month cured apoxie sculpt. Lol

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Mid abrasion. Starting to clean up!

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I used a rounded rasp followed up with gritty paper swirled around in there.

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Finished and almost ready for priming. Going to fill and clean the window insides. So many pits!

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They are 3/8" deep in case you were wondering.

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Most of the pieces finished.

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I even got in between the ribs and where some glue oozed out using a flat jewellery file.

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I used some pretty heavy grit paper and wrapped it around a filler tube and rubbed away the sloppiness of the ppd placement area.

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Came out rather nice. Very pleased.

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Lastly I attacked the angled top of the ppd. I need to drill and tap the top for the house barb and then fill in and clean up the hole in the bottom.

That's it so far. 6 hours that day. I might get some done tomorrow . I might do editing for my girlfriends YouTube channel. Who knows. Her channel is Milano Dynamite if you want to check it out. She does a fun nerdy variety channel. There's a few Windy City Ghostbusters events on there. I like to put in sight gags and special effects. It's a shameless plug, I don't care. Like, comment, subscribe, and share if you are so inclined. :)
Last edited by Batfly on September 10th, 2017, 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
twmedford23 liked this
#4892707
Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Happy Easter, and if you aren't of that ilk, happy day. Got some work done yesterday. On to it!

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I held the injector tubes up to the power cell and marked the center of the tubes. Then I traced that to their converging points in the center of the power cell bottom side.

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I drilled the holes and transferred the position to the top plate of the injector tubes.

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I drilled out the top of the injectors and got ahead of myself and screwed up. So I ripped off the top plate after an expletive storm.

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Cut a new top, transferred hole positions, and redrilled. Didn't mess up this time lol.

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Widened the power cell holes and put in beefy machine screws.

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Test fit the injector top plate. All is good!

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Glued top plate to tubes and set aside. Will have to redo the front spot weld since it popped off when I ripped off the top plate.

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Evened out the bottom welds of the ion arm. Sits nice and flush now.

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Lined up the ion arm carefully and traced around it. Then I marked where the epoxie nubs were. I marked where I wanted screws to go.

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Oops! Too close to the edge. No room for screw heads.

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Relocated some new holes. I then realigned and taped into position the ion arm. I transferred the pilot holes to the epoxie nubs with a drill bit.

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Drilled out holes in spacer thingy.

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Drilled and tapped ion arm nubs. Fit it to spacer thingy and am super happy with the result!

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Drilled and tapped iron arm end block for its greebles. Going to have to put Vaseline on the threads of the barb fitting and glob epoxy in there with it. Vaseline will let me be able to remove the fitting when epoxie is cured while retaining the threads. I couldn't get it to thread and stripped out its hole.

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Measured out, drilled, and transferred holes in end block to ion arm.

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Drilled and counter sunk holes into cap. Drilled and tapped receiving holes in ion arm. Went a little too fast by accident making the top counter sunk hole and the bit binded, taking out a chunk. It's not to bad though. Had to use flash (on the camera, not the superhero) to catch it. Will be a good unique identifier of my pack along with the copper rod.

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Assembled and looking good!

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By this time the injector tubes' glue cured enough to attach it to the power cell. Oh yeah!

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Money shot on new desk. Graduating from the couch! Woo!

Stay tuned. :)
twmedford23 liked this
#4892943
Had a rather productive weekend. Worked on the pack both Saturday and Sunday. Woo!

Going to separate the days into single posts. On to Saturday's progress:


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I spent a good 45 minutes just shuffling around the separate parts. I was trying to get the best arrangement to allow for proper alignment while also trying to get the gaps from imprecise craftsmanship to where they would be easiest to gap fill will apoxie sculpt and clean up. This time taken paid off and eased anxiety immensely. Always feels good to take time to plan.


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Using a straight edge I lined up the gunmount to the crack gen and traced it. I ticked alignment marks for gluing ease.


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Glued and clamped the two together. Ran a bead of glue along the outer edge.


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Glued the EDA part together. Used my drill bit set to weigh the angled edge down to the EDA base while drying.


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I marked on the n-filter attachment shelf where the epoxie nub on the inside was. I then made alignment ticks on the cyclotron to be able to transfer the position of where I want the screw hole to be.


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Converged the ticks marks on the cyclotron to where the screw hole is to be and drill a pilot hole through it. Used the same bit to mark the hole positron to the n-filter. I use this method a lot as you've probably noticed by now. Why do I still describe it? Lol.


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Drilled and tapped the n-filter shelf. The epoxie nub came off after a few chirps while tapping it. Oh well, glad I used all eighth inch styrene for construction. Plenty of material for the treads.


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Drilled the cyclotron and attached the n-filter forgetting that I am going to make another screw hole on the synchronous generator for the lower n-filter attachment shelf.


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Added some internal bracing to the EDA. Had to use a credit card to get it in the proper alignment because harbor freight clamps.


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Decided to implement an idea I had rattling around for attaching the cyclotron to the synchronous generator and allowing it to be removable. For some reason I thought it'd be cool for the cyclotron to be removable with the n-filter as the key.

I'm not sure how to explain it. Just rotate to latch the styrene "L's" on the tabs. Then screw the n-filter on to keep it from rotating off. Reverse that to take it off. Then I realized you have to remove the whole shell to access the n-filter screws. I guess this'll be good if anything happens to the cyclotron and I need to replace it. Whatever.


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Here's the part where I remembered I needed to make the second n-filter screw hole. Did the thing I always describe to make two holes that line up on adjoining pieces. Again, the epoxie nub came of when tapping the threads. This is why you rough up surfaces before epoxieing, people! Heed my words!

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Put some screws in some holes and tightened them down.


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Whew doggy, look how good that turned out! You can see how strong just an eighth inch of styrene threads can be when I hold it by the n-further. 0.125" styrene allows for you to tighten down pretty well, but be careful, a few turns past tight and you can strip out the threads.


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Puzzles are easier when you glue large swaths of pieces together. Lol. Checking alignment of glued parts.


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Cool exploded shot of what's attached together so far and what's not. Does this count as a money shot?


That's it for Saturday's progress. About 4.5 hours. Next up is Sunday funday!
twmedford23 liked this
#4892975
Sorry for the wait, here's Sundays progress:

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I didn't know where to start, so I just grabbed a piece at random. That piece was the clippard valve base discs. I made a pilot hole in the base of the base. Positioned it where I wanted it and traced around it. I then transferred the pilot hole to the cyclotron. I did the same for the vac hose tube, just didn't document it as much.


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I sliced the little side nub off the bottom post of the clippard valve.


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I drilled the hole in the upper disc of the clippard base and then placed the valve in it. Made two pilot indents for it's screws. I also widened the lower base disc hole as well but no photos of it.


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I laminated the discs together with the drill bit used as a spindle to keep them aligned. Clamped them together and removed the bit. Can never have too many clamps I sways say! Seriously, ask my girlfriend, lol, I say it whenever I use them.


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Drilled and tapped the injector tubes and screwed in the hose barbs.


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Cleaned up the little corner overhang from Saturday's gluing of the EDA sections. Came out nice but will need to fill and smooth out the section where the inner corners meet. It's a little low compared to the rest of that side.


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Scribed some marks for the EDA brass hose fittings. Got annoyed that my caliper batteries died just after doing this and I could not find its case with a spare in it.


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Made the pilot dimples, drilled, tapped and screwed the brass fittings in. Looks perfect to me!


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Placed, marked, drilled, tapped, and installed the real Dale resistors and the Legris fitting. Snuck in a pic of my lovey girlfriend. Can you believe she just turned thirty at the end of January? I know, right?! :)


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Did my best at approximating 16° on the cyclotron. Marked, drilled, tapped, and install the Legris. Sometime I drill holes by hand when I'm too lazy to take something to the drill press if it's not a thick piece. This time it just wouldn't fit and also was a weird angle, on a cylinder. It kills my hands and takes a bit longer, (pun intended) but it's strangely satisfying.


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I drilled out the clippard valve screw holes all the way through so I could see them from the reverse side.


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I marked a line on the underside perpendicular to the valve screw holes. Then placed the valve on the under side and lined up its holes to the perpendicular line. I made pilot impressions and removed the valve.


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These holes are for mounting screws that'll come from inside the synchronous guy. I didn't want to screw all the way through by accident so I wrapped the bit in electrical tape to make a depth stop.


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Drilled the back mounting holes. Front is still intact. Goal!


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Drew a line on the synchronous parallel to the straight upper edge area. Placed the valve base, lined up the holes, and made my pilot dimples. They are really close friends of mine and always welcome in my builds, those pilot dimples!


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Tapped all four holes on the valve base. Ooo kinky! Then screwed on the valve.


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I attached the base and valve from the back. I'm going to add two more base mount screws on the sides to bring it flush all around. For some unknown reason I thought about it right away but didn't do it. I just moved on and noted to myself to do it later.


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I tapped the vac hose tube, marked the synchronous where it goes, and drilled it out. I installed the thing but only took this picture of it. I was getting tired at this point. It was 10pm and I started at 4pm. 6 hours.


That's all for Sunday. More to come! How much and when? You'll just have to wait and see.
twmedford23 liked this
#4892979
Yesterday, Monday, after work I had the notion of getting some work done on the pack.

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The bumper caught my eye so I grabbed it. I found center of the middle face.

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There it is, all centery.

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Made a pilot dimple.


Then I felt really tired after sitting down to do this. That did me in. So I put it down and made a snack. Lol, shortest progress post of mine yet I think.
#4893212
Okay I gotta know... any tricks for the weld lines? I'm having a hell of a time tackling those.
#4893231
thebigone2087 wrote:Okay I gotta know... any tricks for the weld lines? I'm having a hell of a time tackling those.
Here is the post where I explain my weld warrior ways: viewtopic.php?p=4880964#p4880964

Hope it helps!
thebigone2087 liked this
#4895061
Hey Batfly,

I wanted to thank you for your build thread! For about 20 years now my friend and I have been talking about how we’d love to build a proton pack some day and finding your thread finally made that dream a reality. We’re not done but we’re making good progress and I couldn’t have done it without this thread. I’ve read and re-read your posts, and analyzed the heck out of your photos to see how you’re putting things together. I only wish you’d post your measurements :-P I kid, I actually enjoy measuring everything out and watching those calculations actually come together (when I’ve gotten them right).
Here’s a pic of where we’re at with our first pack – Not much left to fabricate. Image

thanks again!
nastynoah liked this
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