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| alkaline| 's Build **Update 11-5-09** Weathering Shots

Posted: August 31st, 2009, 8:15 pm
by | alkaline |
Hey Everyone,

Started my pack about a month ago but I havent made real progress till now. My build is based off of Stefan's plans since they seem to be the most accurate. I Have roughly everything built and now I'm going back piece by piece to detail them. I'm going to becreating a plug, making a rubber mold from that, and then casting fiber glass shells till the mold basically falls a apart. So far I havent spent much on material. I'm lucky that my work has a wood shop and I've been using mostly scraps of melamine for my build ( more work but hey, its free). I may even be able to get some rubber for my mold and chopped fiber glass for free since my company uses this stuff in bulk everyday.

I decided to create a thread showing my progress so far. I started with the Crank Generator cause to me it seemed the most work. I'll update as I make significant advances. Also, I'm going to attempt to keep a total cost for the project so I can keep track of how much money I've blow. Feel free to ask any question on my processes or post comments and suggestions. Any ways with out further delay here is my pack build...

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Crank Generator:

Crank Gen. Built , sanded, and all edges listed on Stefan's plans as having a radius have been routed
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Another shot of the Crank Gen from the back.
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Detailed shot of the routed edge after the Crank has been primed and scratches have been filled with spot puddy.
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Full shot of the Crank primed and patched.
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Since all my edges are routed, I decided to take 1/8" strips of acrylic and bent them over the edges using a heat gun. I was able to do this but after doing so I would not recommend it. It was a lot of work and the pieces were hard to keep straight without getting burned. Its gonna take some work and bondo to fix some of the bends but I'll manage.I'm hoping it pays off in the end.
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Another shot from the other side.
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A shot of the bottom pieces after being bent and before being applied to the Crank Gen.
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Bottom pieces applied.
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Crank Generator with all "fins" applied ( except bottom right).
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Thats all for now. I still have to sand and fix some things on the part as well as trim/ sand most of the fins to the right length, but I'm going to wait till the whole pack is together before doing a final touch up. No use in fixing spots if they are going to be covered up by another part ;) .

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: August 31st, 2009, 8:46 pm
by jt001
That is looking great!!!

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 5:53 am
by Agent Gibbs
This is looking awesome Alkaline, i'll be really interested to see how you do the full pack in this style

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 6:03 am
by mburkit
| alkaline | wrote: Bottom pieces applied.
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Everything looks good except this picture. Those bottom fins don't extend down the side of the crank generator, they stop at the edge, like so:

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Other then that, it looks amazing man. I just wanted to point it out before there's nothing you could do to change it.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 6:12 am
by | alkaline |
mburkit wrote:
| alkaline | wrote: Bottom pieces applied.
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Everything looks good except this picture. Those bottom fins don't extend down the side of the crank generator, they stop at the edge, like so:

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Other then that, it looks amazing man. I just wanted to point it out before there's nothing you could do to change it.

Oh, I know. I just haven't had the chance to sand them down yet. The ones on the sides are too long too, but I didn't want to trim them until I have the booster and eda next to it so I don't cut them to short.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 7:49 am
by Syco54645
dude, looks good. i guess i can see it in person soon...

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 1:02 pm
by IV0 SHAND0R
Looking really slick there Mr. Alkaline. Nifty too. Slick and nifty.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build

Posted: September 1st, 2009, 1:27 pm
by bradboss12
yes, nice job. will probably look better after you cast it and paint it. : )

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 7:20 pm
by | alkaline |
***************************Update 9-03-09*****************************************************************************************

Hey everyone,

Managed to get a few things done today on the pack. Check the pics and captions below to see my current progress.

Started with my crank generator. I decided to trim and sand the bottom fins today. I started by trimming them all the same length. Now I know the fins are suppose to stop at the bottom of the Crank gen, but if you look at the crank's side view on stefan's plans, you'll see the fins actual wrap around the bottom and die into the bottom of the crank. If its not screen accurate that's fine, but I think it looks good this way.
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I started by building a jig for my belt sander to run on. I cut it at the angle I want the fins to taper toward the bottom.
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I then clamped the crank gen in place to the jig. Then I began to run the sander down the ramp until the fins were sanded to the correct height and angle
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Here's what it looked like when finished and dusted with a coat of primer.
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A shot from the side.
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***************** Cyclotron*****************************************************************************************************

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 7:22 pm
by bradboss12
nice--you can probably get those gaps with spot putty or if they are both acrylic will krazy glue work??

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 7:48 pm
by | alkaline |
Yea Im gonna fill all scratches/ small gaps with spot putty. Bigger gashes I will use bondo. Piece isn't done yet still in rough condition IMO.


************************************** Cyclotron***********************************************************************************

My Cyclotron is made out of Insulation foam cause its easy to work with and fairly forgiving. Below is the first 2 rings cut and glued together. The top ring has a 3/8" radius fillet applied to it.
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***********************Booser & EDA Box**********************************************************************************

Booster & EDA Box built and assembled. Not bondo-ed ....Nothing real special
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*********************************Power Cell************************************************************************************

Nothing Major but a few acrylic and wood strips glued to the Power cell.
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*******************************Ion Arm*****************************************************************************************

I used solid wood for my Ion Arm. I used a band saw, planer, table saw, and disk sander to go from this:
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To This:
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Here it is in place on the Booster
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That's all for now. I'll end this post with a shot of all the pieces together so far. Thanks for stopin' by ! !
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Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 8:10 pm
by jimbo7
very clean so far. keep up the good work man! i love scratch builds :cool:

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 8:17 pm
by bradboss12
wow --looks like the buck is almost done. You going to glue tha washers onto the cyclotron for the casting?

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 8:43 pm
by | alkaline |
Yea probably Brad. That way I don't have to glue them to every pack I make. The only things I'm not going to include on the mold are the Ion arm and any misc tubing such as the booster tube or HGA . Undercuts are the bane of a molds existence, the less the better. Still debating whether or not to cast the N-Filter in the mold or separate.

Tomorrow or this weekend, I'm going to re-cut the bottom part of the cyclotron cause I just cut it round instead of faceting where the 15 squares go. When that's done, I'm going to water putty all the foam parts in preparation for primer. Once my motherboard come from Irrican, I'm going to dry fit the parts to the board before I attach them together. This way I can make any adjustments I need to the buck to fit the board as good as possible. Thanks for the positive responses so far gang.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 9:36 pm
by CPU64
LOL, I really don't like the Save button either ^_^

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 3rd, 2009, 10:05 pm
by bradboss12
well a lot of folks cast the n-filter on there, bu yo make the mold taller by a few inches in that section. You could always do a smaller mold and attach it onto the fiberglass, I figured that you weren't casting the cables LOL. I put a wooden block into the ion arms I did for Ryan and attached them with 2 3" screws. If you do hollow n-filter separately you could cast the holes and put gauze inside it or window screen mesh to give it real filter look. : ) PS I may have some odds and ends and I have RTV resin molds for knobs etc (just need resin).

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 3:02 am
by Agent Gibbs
Very nice loving the finish you have got so far

what's your synchronous generator made out of? could you not just sand it flat for the plates? thats what i did and it worked quite well, then i managed to carefully fill the tiny gaps at the edges

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 5:32 am
by | alkaline |
bradboss12 wrote:well a lot of folks cast the n-filter on there, bu yo make the mold taller by a few inches in that section. You could always do a smaller mold and attach it onto the fiberglass, I figured that you weren't casting the cables LOL. I put a wooden block into the ion arms I did for Ryan and attached them with 2 3" screws. If you do hollow n-filter separately you could cast the holes and put gauze inside it or window screen mesh to give it real filter look. : ) PS I may have some odds and ends and I have RTV resin molds for knobs etc (just need resin).

Thats what I was thinking. The shorter the mold, the less rubber I have to use. With the n-filter, I like the idea of using abs or pvc tube that way when I drill the holes they will all be even in terms of hole wall thickness ( that make sense?). With fiber glass, you ten to have un-even spots in the resin so your not guaranteed to have nice even walled holes...HAHA can you imaging casting an entire pack cable and all ??

ps first time I tried to post this, I hit the save button...-5 more points for me :(

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 5:37 am
by | alkaline |
Agent Gibbs wrote:Very nice loving the finish you have got so far

what's your synchronous generator made out of? could you not just sand it flat for the plates? thats what i did and it worked quite well, then i managed to carefully fill the tiny gaps at the edges

The Sync Gen is also made out of foam but there's actually 2 problems with it. 1) if i sand the sides flat to accommodate for the plates, the diameter now changes and it wont fit right on Irricans motherboard. 2) some how on the bottom of the Sync Gen it bowed out. The only thing I can think happened was the wood glue I used dried around the edges but not in the center of the piece. Then the un-dried glue in the center soaked into the foam and caused it to swell. Oh well Live and learn.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 8:23 am
by bradboss12
PVC pipe? Why not? Prob 1/4" wall thickness. You can take styrene (maybe 1/16 or 1/8" thick) and glue it with pipe glue to the the top of it and while it's gooey scupt the "weld" mark around the N-filter (just a thought) what are you using for the plates around the bottom? I think they are 1/8" thick and 2 1/4" by 2 1/8" (chekc the plans to be sure) and there are 15 (one smaller one and 14 about the same size. If you used wood glue on the Synch maybe wood glue the pieces onto it? tricky part would be clamping, maybe use painter's tape? You seem to be on the right track--just tossing out ideas. Do you have a drill press? That would be great for the holes in the N-filter. More labor than a casting, but cooler and more realistic and stonger made of PVC pipe. Hardware stores like Keystone Plumbing sell it by 5 foot and ten foot lenghts pretty cheap. That's a lot of N-filters LOL!

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 9:08 am
by | alkaline |
bradboss12 wrote:PVC pipe? Why not? Prob 1/4" wall thickness. You can take styrene (maybe 1/16 or 1/8" thick) and glue it with pipe glue to the the top of it and while it's gooey scupt the "weld" mark around the N-filter (just a thought) what are you using for the plates around the bottom? I think they are 1/8" thick and 2 1/4" by 2 1/8" (chekc the plans to be sure) and there are 15 (one smaller one and 14 about the same size. If you used wood glue on the Synch maybe wood glue the pieces onto it? tricky part would be clamping, maybe use painter's tape? You seem to be on the right track--just tossing out ideas. Do you have a drill press? That would be great for the holes in the N-filter. More labor than a casting, but cooler and more realistic and stonger made of PVC pipe. Hardware stores like Keystone Plumbing sell it by 5 foot and ten foot lenghts pretty cheap. That's a lot of N-filters LOL!
For the N-filter weld line I'm actually gonna take the pvc pipe an route a 1/8" x 1/8" grove all around the top so the weld has something to sit in. I'm gonna try super sculpy or some other putty to make my welds ( still have to research a good weld look cause I don't want something that looks like pie crust for my welds ha) For the Sync Gen Plates I planed some hard wood down to 1/8" then made some rip cuts on the table saw. They turned out real nice.

I'm gonna use epoxy cause it sets faster than the wood glue and takes more abuse. Yes, I'm def gonna use the drill press on the n-filter so i get nice even, clean holes. I think the holes of my n-filter are going to be backed with just aluminum screening. I know they are white in the movie, but I plan on putting a speaker in there...Hmm maybe I'll paint the screen white?

That's another thing. When I checked for all these pipes at Lowes, while dirt cheap, come in like 10ft lengths. What the hell am I gonna do with 10ft of pipe? ( that's what she said). I might stop in my local plumbing store and see if they have any cut offs they don't want.

On that note, I think its a nice little tid bit that so far this pack has cost me about 30 in material. The only thing I bought was 2 boards of insulation foam. the rest I've had lying around ( like glue and sand paper) or has been scraped together form throw away pieces...one mans trash is another mans Proton accelerator.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 4th, 2009, 9:17 am
by bradboss12
yeah, you have more skill than me. I'm more like the A-Team, kitbashing everything with hot glue LOL. But, I got stuff done for the movie. Yeah, I guess you want to make sure those little buggers don't pull off when you pull off the mold. Yeah, if they are nice they will help with that. Maybe you could save the extra pipe for the side tanks for an Ecto, or the smaller pressure tanks for the slime blower, etc.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 7th, 2009, 8:08 pm
by | alkaline |
Hey everyone,

Not an update but a question really. I was reading on another pack post that somethings have changed since the stefan plans were created. Before I go any further, does anyone know exactly what's different or has changed since? Thanks

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 7th, 2009, 8:27 pm
by staticbuster
| alkaline | wrote:Hey everyone,

Not an update but a question really. I was reading on another pack post that somethings have changed since the stefan plans were created. Before I go any further, does anyone know exactly what's different or has changed since? Thanks
I think this is what you are refering to?

the different size cyclotron rings, the 15th cosmetic plate, the shelf on the powercell fin, the one piece segmented strip on the lower crank generator, and the tapered corner of the PPD...

I copied that out of Exoray's thread announcing the V71 Mark X shell he is producing. Just using his pics and that description, I was able to identify all the listed changes. I found this to be most helpful during my current build.

There's probably more discussion on each of these in other threads, but you could spend a lifetime searching for that. Hope this helps.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 7th, 2009, 8:34 pm
by | alkaline |
staticbuster wrote:
| alkaline | wrote:Hey everyone,

Not an update but a question really. I was reading on another pack post that somethings have changed since the stefan plans were created. Before I go any further, does anyone know exactly what's different or has changed since? Thanks
I think this is what you are refering to?

the different size cyclotron rings, the 15th cosmetic plate, the shelf on the powercell fin, the one piece segmented strip on the lower crank generator, and the tapered corner of the PPD...

I copied that out of Exoray's thread announcing the V71 Mark X shell he is producing. Just using his pics and that description, I was able to identify all the listed changes. I found this to be most helpful during my current build.

There's probably more discussion on each of these in other threads, but you could spend a lifetime searching for that. Hope this helps.

I got the 15th plate, but for the other things, is there new measurements or a set of new plans floating around? Even hand sketches will do.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 4:40 am
by Agent Gibbs
+1

I have the plate, but ring diameter is something i'm concerned of, and this change to the power cell, what shelf?

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 9:57 am
by GAVAL
The crank generator on my scratch pack is the lead screen accurate part of my prop. I'll be watching this closely to see if there's anything I can do to make a new box from scratch.

I agree with you, it seems like its the most work, which Is why my current crank box is cardboard, but it's time for an upgrade, and most of my electronics will reside there anyway so they'll need better protection.

G

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 10:26 am
by kind2311
see how the top powercell "fin" connects to the main bodo of the pack? it creates a "shelf" on top of the powercell. perhaps "shelf" isnt the best way to describe it.
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If you look closely, you can see the cyclo rings are slighty different diameters:
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Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 10:26 am
by Syco54645
there was a list of changes since stefan's plans a few months back. i'll see if i can find them.

Re: | alkaline| 's Proton Pack Build **Update 9-03-09**

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 10:30 am
by Syco54645