[Demon Vice Commander]

When attaching resin parts (booster tube, ion arm etc.) through a GBFans shell what length bolt/screw should I use. I have a bunch of 1/4-20 X 1" but I am thinking I might need 1 1/2" or longer.

1/4-20 x 1" should work just fine.

[YHSCraig]

Thanks! That's the answer I was hoping for.

[Lady Hatred]

And now I feel like Bob Belcher yelling at everyone with his caps lock on. The build looks super tight!
Sorry I'm a big emoticontrarian, and I'm also sorry that I made that word up just now.

[rays_occult]

Good job on the bumper, the alu label really sets it off well and its gonna look great on the shell.
Nothing wrong with being creative, I like the word emoticontrarian!

[YHSCraig]

Big couple of days behind me and ahead of me. I have received almost of all of my parts now including my brand new GBFANS shell and booster tube/plug from ejgunth87!





Had to do the traditional quick dry-fitting of parts.



Also received my lights/sounds kit from Crix as well as my blue 12v battery and speakers. I have no idea what I am doing so this should be a blast!

[THEbryon]

Looking good! Don't sweat the Crix kit. It's super easy to put together once you get started. It looks intimidating, but you'll be finished before you know it.

[rays_occult]

Great to see it all coming together Craig. Looking forward to seeing the build progress!

[YHSCraig]

Thanks guys, I am hoping to get all of my holes drilled tomorrow and to start painting on Sunday. We will see if that happens.

[kurisu7885]

Seeing your post got my curious to look up other 12 volt batteries, now I see why pack owners swear by the blue box.

[YHSCraig]

A few updates. I was back and forth on whether I wanted to work on the shell tonight but I decided to knock a few small things out of the way.

I picked up a set of these Forstner bits, which were recommended by a buddy of mine. They are great for drilling nice smooth holes and more reliable than a spade bit. They cut through the fiberglass shell nicely with no chips or craziness so I was really happy to pick these up. The set that I picked up at Home Depot was only 20 bucks and well worth it in my opinion.




I attached my HGA last night and today I drilled the holes for my vacuum tube as well as my Clippard-331. I used a 1/2" forstner bit for the center hole so the peg on the bottom of the clippard could easily fit. I drilled out holes for the 8-32 cap heads and tapped them before installing the Clippard.



Next I positioned my ribbon cable clamp (I think it's in the right position but I am super paranoid about that}. I drilled out the holes and tapped them. Looks good to me.





I used my 3/4" forstner bit to drill out my ribbon cable hole and the hole for the gear box hose hose hole.





More work coming tomorrow. I still have to do some cleanup on the inside of the holes.

[rays_occult]

Good job so far, the ribbon cable clamp looks in the right place to me!

[Venkman's Swagger]

Really nice mate

[Lady Hatred]

Go Craig Go!

[YHSCraig]

I got some more work today. I learned my first harsh lesson in pack building. Wear gloves. I am sure I am not the first person to have the weird invisible splinters of fiberglass dust in my hands. I did a quick Google search and the good news is that I am not going to die. Bad news is...this suuuucckks. (Okay, it's not that terrible and after washing my hands a few times and taking a few showers it's pretty much a non-issue but still.) Anyways, on to the work.

The first I did was tap my crank knob with my 1/4-20 tap and screwed in (with some gorilla glue epoxy as well) a 1/4-20 set screw. I drilled and tapped the hole and that part was finished. This was the smoothest part of the day.








I got all of my other holes drilled out for the ion arm, beam line, filler tube etc. Not to bad of a process. Crix's resin hero parts drill and tap very nicely.





Next I drilled out my 1/2" holes on the N-filter. I was DREADING this because I know that this part of the shell can be sensitive to chipping but once again, the forstner bits made this process quick and painless. It took me about 10 minutes total and it came out perfectly. I also drilled out my holes for the legris straights.





I got my injector tubes installed with two 1/4-20 bolts and also drilled out my holes on the side of the cyclotron for the red/blue tubing. I did a test fit and it's looking pretty good.







I had a little bit of trouble with my booster tube, the first holes I drilled out did not align the tube as straight as i would have liked but I fixed it. I forgot to take pictures but this is what the final results were.

[rays_occult]

Great job!!!
Yeah, fiberglass is nasty, I've got those splinters before and they hurt like hell.

[Parflagush]

There's nothing like the reminder of a hard day's work on your pack like itchy fiberglass hands.

Where did you get your crank knob?

[YHSCraig]

I got my crank knob from Wiz-GB008. I am not sure if he has any in stock right now but I think he might be doing another run soon.

[Parflagush]

Awesome! I don't think you can go wrong with his parts. I got one of his Clippard valve replicas. Hope to order some more things from him in the future when he has them in stock.

Your build is looking great!

[YHSCraig]

Yeah I also have his booster frame as well. Thanks for the kinds words! I'll have more pictures up later tonight. I am hoping to get my v-hook installed tonight as well as my bumper and motherboard mounts.

[YHSCraig]

Well I got a ton done this weekend! I had some personal stuff going on last night and it was a pretty crappy way to end a day of building but having a great support system in Abigail (Lady Hatred) got me through and I was inspired to do as much as possible today.

I got my new vac. tube and v hook in from Ejgunth87 and test fitted it before painting. He did great work as always!









Got my 3/4" hole drilled out for the thrower hose and also got my holes drilled out for the Booster Frame (great piece of work from Wiz!)





More test fitting



Time for painting. After some light sanding, because the GBFans shell barely needed any work, I primed the shell with Rustoleum Automotive Primer. I then taped off all of non-weathered parts in preparation for priming.





I used the water based wall texturing recommended in some other threads and did a light dusting over the shell. I was a little worried about doing this because I have never done anything like that before...that being said it worked out pretty well.



I sealed the coat with some clear spray laquer and waited a few hours. I did two coats of satin-black and bam! Here we go!



I thought the paint turned out a little too glossy in some parts so I picked up some matte-finish clear spray and it did wonders!

I didn't take any more pictures actually putting the labels on and attaching wires etc. but here is the finished product. I am really happy so far. I have not installed the blue/red lenses yet and will be tackling electronics next week. Also, I attached my motherboard brackets a few days ago, it was a pain in the ass, and tested my patience more than anything else on this build (well I also had trouble feeding the GB1 ribbon cable through the 3/4" mouse hole)

[Hoot]

I had a pain in the ass with the ribbon cable feeding also... Looking good buddy

[rays_occult]

Sorry to hear that Craig, Hope all is ok. That is a mighty fine looking pack you have there! Yeah the ribbon cable can be a nightmare, I twisted the cable and used a lot of masking tape to hold it before threading it through. Yours looks really good though!

[pyhasanon]

Masking tape... That's a good idea right there... will keep that in mind...

[YHSCraig]

Masking tape is actually the route I ended up going and was still a huge headache. It's funny, some of the parts that I thought would be the hardest (texturing, gun weathering, n-filter holes) ended up being pretty simple tasks for me. And on the other hand things like the booster frame centering, the ribbon cable, the injector tubes mounting turned out to be a little more difficult than I originally anticipated.

[pyhasanon]

Looking forward to experiencing that pain! ...if that makes any sense... =P

[YHSCraig]

Looking forward to experiencing that pain! ...if that makes any sense... =P

It makes a lot of sense. It took me about 5 years to finally get the courage to try and build a pack. I have little to absolute NO experience in this kind of thing but thanks to this site and all of the great pieces and parts available..well it wasn't too hard at all!

[lunchbox739]

Its looking good Craig.

[YHSCraig]

Thanks!

[Venkman's Swagger]

Beautiful

[GohstTarp]

Big couple of days behind me and ahead of me. I have received almost of all of my parts now including my brand new GBFANS shell and booster tube/plug from ejgunth87!

How flush does the bottom/angled end of ejgunth87's booster tube fit against the GBFANS shell? On mine, the booster tube is flush at front 1/3 of the angled end, but the back 2/3 has a 1/8 to 1/4" gap. Curious how yours fits. I was hoping for a more flush fit overall, but maybe I'm just being nit-picky

Here is are a few pictures of how mine fits...








Thanks!