By thebigone2087
#4789588
The switch looks great, what you might want to keep in mind though is the placement of the ALICE frame. It may be a TAD bit difficult to squeeze your fingers in the to flip the switch.
By Mat
#4789637
Shouldn't be a problem! It's nicely hidden by the alice frame, but there's still plenty of room to flick the switch. :mrgreen:
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Lenses are installed!
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By Mat
#4789689
I got most of the shell assembled tonight; I still need to pick up some nylon lock washers for the bumper and paint both the shock mount & "Clippard Valve." Oh yeah, I ended up painting the two smaller resistors on the Ion arm; they look less out of place now; I left the round resistor grey. To get the injectors straight, I put a straight edge against one side of the power cell and adjusted the tubes as needed using the L bracket to hold it in line. To fit the ribbon cable, I cut the two ends of the clamp end off at a curved angle and bolted it up.

I then twisted it a bit and put the Clamp on lose. I then went to town with zap straps (like 6 of them) to temporarily hold the cable together in the approx. twist I wanted. I fed the one end through the hole and did the hose clamp on the booster frame up. I flipped the shell over and split the end of the ribbon cable like a banana and broke out "yee olde hot glue gun" And ran a bead at the end of each split while holding it against the shell with the butt end of a pencil. I then went entirely around the outside edge of them and ran an additional bead across the top of the ends. Worked like a charm! :mrgreen:

The inside.
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The outside! When it came to running the hoses, I used elements I liked from different packs; notably the blue ppd hose going over top of the ribbon cable and the over-under at the top right.
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There's still a lot of work to do yet!
By Mat
#4789890
Thanks man! :mrgreen:

I got the top lip of the motherboard ground down to size and for some reason painted both sides of the motherboard. Still debating on where I want to stick the "DANGER" label.

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By Mat
#4789914
Thanks! It's been a slow process, but I've been having a lot of fun building it! :mrgreen:

I can't wait to install the light kit; just waiting for a replacement LED to show up for the power-cell! In the mean time I picked up the hardware needed to mount the bumper (will do that soon) as well as an amber switch. I know it's a silly thing to change (being that it will basically be hidden by the Alice pack) and there's nothing really wrong with the red switch, I just like the amber on black better!
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I still need to paint the Clippard and shock mount. I'll paint the Clippard body black. The top of the Clippard and the entire shock mount will be light grey, similar to galvanized metal. I won't be trying to replicate the look of metal with paint, but the light grey should do the trick! I don't at present have any labels for the resin clippard, but I can add one down the road.
By Mat
#4789947
Bumper attached!
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I was curious to see how everything looked put together minus the hose, lights, clippard and shock mount. A bit of fine tuning to do, but overall not bad!

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I need to sand the ends of the bumper flush with the bottom of the shell. Once that is done, I may add another Allen head to suck this gap out; I haven't decided if it annoys me enough to warrant it or not!
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I need to plug that! :roll:
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That needs a red stripe and some form of mesh!
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On the back! I should have stood the other way around; you can barely see anything! (Image has been re-reversed to not be reversed!)
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I guess the reason I like the matty wand is that it adds interactivity without adding more weight to the pack; my main annoyance with it though is the white tip. The rest of it is at the very least, passable for the time being!
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So in a nutshell, there are a few things to get sorted out but overall nothing major. Waiting for the pack-wand hose to arrive as well as the more comfortable straps. Depending on how it feels, I may or may not add the foam insulation; need to endurance test it!
By Mat
#4790591
Not a significant update, but I dug through my "RC box of shame" and found a suitable rechargeable battery to use with the light kit. A quick test and it worked perfectly; I'm still waiting on the replacement LED mind you. I found some slotted connectors that are cop-acetic with the switch lugs and I also started sanding some of the high spots out of the shell to get a tighter fit to the motherboard (talk about an afterthought!)

Ye Olde Li-Po and Balance charger
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By Mat
#4790605
The switch is wired! Funny story; I didn't want the incandescent bulb inside the switch to light up, so I ended up cracking the switch open, taking the bulb out and running a bypass wire....AND THEN AFTER I discovered via youtube that I didn't have to take the bulb out to make it not light up...so I hooked it up that way and left the third prong wired through the switch where the light was; oh well! Somewhere an electronics guru is groaning or laughing right now at my inexperience! :lol:

So technically you don't have to do everything that follows, but for amusement purposes... :lol:

Cracking the switch open was fairly easy; I practised on the red switch first. All you need to do is stick a small screwdriver part way down one side and pry up on the clear part of the switch; it'll pop everything right out!
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That middle piece is the rocker.
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Incandescent Bulb; I figured for sure that in this day and age, this kind of stuff would be LED; guess I was wrong!
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Culprit removed
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Copper wire prepped to be laid into the switch body!
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Rocker re-seated
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wire installed
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Lights on! (You can see where I removed the defunct LED from the board)
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Lights off!
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By Mat
#4791008
New LED installed, new "super" straps are on and my leg hose from MMM showed up as well as the splitless loom from Gbfans!

One of these things is not like the other! Soldering, not one of my strengths apparently! Jupiter did offer to fix it for me, but I wanted to do it myself; he sent me two LEDs! :mrgreen:
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The powercell lights in place;
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I ran two "hot glue clamps" over the power wires that run up to the kit body to keep stress off of the screw terminals; I put a dab of hot glue over top of the wires going into the screw terminals as well, just to ensure they don't come undone!
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The cyclotron lights are just taped in place to keep them out of the way until I can mount them properly; same with the battery. They light up individually, however the timing of the camera must have been right between flashes or something.
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This must be why they call the straps "super" (The kidney belt is holding the pack up!) :lol:
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The sternum strap takes a lot of the pressure off the shoulders; it's so much more comfortable now; it wears more like a hiking pack and less like an instrument of medieval torture! The sternum strap can be adjusted for height. Quite happy with them and they look badass! Ignore the arc-bleached shirt, I got off work about 2 hours ago! ...also the spot on my beard is a spot on the mirror, not my beard. :mrgreen:
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Need to get some light grey paint for the clippard and shock mount yet, but it's starting to look like the picture!
rays_occult liked this
By Mat
#4791460
I painted the resin clippard and bellows and mounted those. Unfortunately I don't at present have a clippard label, but that's easy enough to add down the road. The tops I painted with some metallic automotive paint and the base of the clippard was painted with the same stuff as the pack.

I also found a spacer for the bumper, ironically left over parts from a tv wall mount. They look the part! :lol:

I still need to mount the cyclotron lights, but I do have a plan of attack for that as well as misc other stuff.

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Not the easiest do-dad to paint!
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The light in the one lens is a reflection of the light on the ceiling!
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1/3 of my room: open tool cases, misc boxes and about 90% of a proton pack!
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rays_occult liked this
By Mat
#4802313
So this thing has basically sat in the corner of my room collecting dust for the past few months; neglected on account of a mountain biking obsession I developed this summer. A few months ago, on a whim I had ordered the pack light kit from this site (just the lights for the pack itself; nothing else!) and was pretty impressed with them; so much so that tonight I decided to pull the Jupiter kit out (I never did finish mounting it!) and mount this one; the start up light sequence and the way the cyclotron lights phased basically sold me on it; I'm odd like that.

Another member on this site who's name is failing me at this moment came up with an ingenious method of mounting the power cell lights using a piece of sheet metal and the bottom bolt (or two) of the booster tube and his method made it insanely easy to line up the lighting on centre with the window; the circuit board is attached to the mounting bracket the same way that I had the Jupiter kit attached to the side of the shell. :mrgreen:

Brass plate cut with tin snips.
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I tried to get a picture showing the alignment, but...dust!
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I need to do some more work on the mounting bracket (remove some more material; cover sharp edges, etc) and I need to pick up some flash light backing reflectors as well for the cyclotron lights. I'll be using the Mattel thrower longer than anticipated, although I will be mounting the hose better; I'll be learning a new trade in the near future so my expendable budget isn't what it was.

That's about it for now!
By Mat
#4802408
Thanks! When I have projects, I tend to build in waves. When it comes to posting on forums, I lurk a lot. :)

I found the perfect reflectors to use for the lights; 3 dollar flash lights from princess auto. The opening in the reflector is almost a perfect fit for the lights. The light module of the flashlight is pretty nice as well; wish I had a use for it. It has an amber led on the bottom, a white led up top and 4 different modes; I'll hold onto them anyway, may find something to use them for down the road.

For 3 bucks, they're not bad flash lights; the little light module is self contained; not pictured, the lense housing. I was kicking myself after I bought them; should have grabbed an extra for my two year old nephew; he likes lights! :mrgreen:
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The housing and lights were fairly easy to install. Hot glue the housing to the lens in 4 spots and the lights are held in the housing with bit of gorilla tape; more than enough! Because the backs of the lenses are sanded somewhat, the hot glue holds fairly strong.
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A bit of trimming on the mounting bracket was in order. To protect the wires, I simply covered the edges with gorilla tape where they would rub.
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And the board is attached to the bracket...Just like that! I used nylon washers to insulate the board from the two machine screws.
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I did some work securing wires to the shell with gorilla tape since this picture was taken; I need to get a battery holder so for the time being the battery is held in place by...you guessed it! Gorilla tape.
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It's nice to have the lights installed finally.
By Mat
#4802492
I pulled the lens housings out and re-installed them today; I wasn't completely satisfied the first time as I had left the front flash light assembly together and the clear lens of the flash light was leaving artefacts on the red lenses. With a bit of stubborn determination I was able to detach the housing from the pack (a screwdriver may have been involved) and finagle the reflectors out. I then re-installed the reflectors and cleaned up some of the wiring. Only one umbilical to the motherboard for the switch now! I also put a bit of glue on the sides of said switch to snug it up. Worked like a charm! :mrgreen:

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By Mat
#4802934
I picked up some supplies today; screen repair kit, red electrical tape, a copper end cap, a brass doodad and a spring...I suppose technically I already had the spring (off a small Strong Hand F clamp; supposedly to make it operational with one hand, but more of a pain to use with the spring on than off!) and brass doodad, but that's irrelevant. It'll make sense later!

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So I started by stretching out a piece of red electrical tape along a cut-proof surface and using a straight edge, split it in half. I then wrapped it around the n-filter. Obviously if you have pin striping tape, you won't have to do this, however it's really easy to do! :mrgreen:

I used a piece of pallet banding as a straight edge.
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Next I cut and installed the mesh. I put a dab of hot glue between the holes along the top, and then I put a dab of hot glue on the end of a pencil and did the same along the inside.
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From the outside it looks the part! Could refine my red line a bit, but that's fairly straight forward to do. I need to find a piece of white felt for behind the mesh yet. :)
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By Mat
#4803067
I opted not to use the copper end cap for my hose attachment; while it would have worked after cut down, it wouldn't have looked right.

Instead I centred a jack in the brass fitting using electrical tape and backfilled said fitting with hot glue. With a little more electrical tape to make the spring fit snugly over top of the fitting (it didn't take much), I slid the spring on. It was a tight fit.

I then worked the loom over top of the spring; it was an even tighter fit! The spring keeps the hose in more of a straight line with the thrower, where the brass fitting keeps the end of the hose square and in line with the thrower handle!

This super fancy MS paint drawing shows what I'm talking about.
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Should the need a rise, a drop or two of hot glue under the fitting between the thrower would keep it firmly attached, yet easily removable without damaging the thrower whenever I get around to upgrading! As things stand, it seems solid enough for the time being. I'm happy with it! :mrgreen:

Initial test results are promising! The basement room needed more ventilation anyway... :wink:
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By Mat
#4803198
Felt is installed! It's gorilla taped in place; when I upgrade throwers down the road, I wanted it easily removable for the vent light. I ordered a booster plug from Nick. I thought about making one, however I decided to grab his belt gizmo kit and figured I might as well grab the booster plug as well. I'm going to incorporate the little light kit I originally bought for inside the N-filter into the belt gizmo; I've seen other people add lighting to them that looked pretty sharp and a good idea is a good idea! :mrgreen:

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By Mat
#4803312
Not a lot to add today; I made a Clippard label; essentially I just loaded Ken's PDF into gimp and cut out the clippard labels to save on ink and printed a few on a sheet of photo paper. I cut the label out using a paper cutter and laminated it with "hockey sock tape;" essentially clear vinyl tape. The tape unfortunately wasn't wide enough, so I used two strips on both sides and trimmed it down to the label size. I added a small piece at both ends with an overhang of about 1/4" which is what actually holds the label to the Clippard so it's easily removed; as far as first attempts go it's passable, but there is room for refinement. :mrgreen:
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I added a few of the labels that were missing on the thrower; not going to worry about the danger label that goes on the back of the slo blo box (the terminology is taking advantage of me right now! :walterpeck: )
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When I look at the painted silver parts on the thrower, I almost want to paint them a darker metallic like I did the resin clippard; it may not be an accurate color, but for some reason I think the darker paint looks less campy, so to speak. I'll have to think about it; I don't want to get to carried away though! :roll:
By Mat
#4803391
Thanks! It's been a learning experience every step of the way! :mrgreen:

So I took the plunge and painted the parts I wanted darker and after masking the thrower off, which took a good chunk of time from the start of Gremlins 2 up until Hulk Hogan's cameo to accomplish, I was left with this! :mrgreen:

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I swear, the pack itself is a dust magnet that's on par with the dashboard of my truck!

Once I get and install the booster plug, I'm calling the pack finished for this year! Once the plug is installed, I'll take better pictures and do more of a write up on things that need improving for next year(ish) as well as some other stuff and go from there!
By Mat
#4804693
I had some time today to fix an earlier cludge that was bothering me; my method of fastening the two resistors earlier in the build left a lot to be desired (recap: attempt to tap tiny holes in stainless didn't go as planned; 3M tape was involved and screws were glued into place! :walterpeck: ).

The larger resistor started pulling away from the ion arm on account of the tension caused by the blue tubing. Why I didn't do this in the first place is a mystery, but hey. I decided to rivet the two resistors into place. I'd like to say it was painless.

I was going to use one of my other resin resistors, but got a bit carried away with the hand riveter; without thinking I tried to snap the stud off using the rivet gun.

KABLAMMO!
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...

Having learned my lesson that resin parts don't rivet like sheet metal (and after an expressive, artistically rendered colorful bout of frustration later,) I set out to open up the shell, take the ion arm off the pack, drill out the two rivets and having gone back to using the first resistor....8 bolts and one nut later with due care and attention, tightening the rivets gradually and in the end, using a nipper to snap the stud off instead...the results were much more promising! It really cleaned up that section of the pack appearance wise. :mrgreen:
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The hose seems to hold it's shape better now that it's going into something substantially more rigid as well.
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My riveter is cheap; thusly, I didn't feel bad about bench grinding a little bit off one side of the mandrel to allow it to clear the edge of the resistor.
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Good times, good times...
By Mat
#4804986
I was digging through my leftover parts and stumbled across that little light chaser I was going to stick in the N-filter. I thought to myself "Shame to not have a use for that!" And then it hit me: I'm going to make my HGA interchangeable between the movie one and the video game one! :mrgreen:

This is still very much a work in progress (hence the rough, uneven cutouts on the front) but it has potential! It's made out of a spray bomb cap that not only nearly matches the existing HGA in size (except for the lip), but the chaser fits inside it perfectly!

Low res video of the chaser in action; my camera only does 640 x 480 video unfortunately!
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Even at this stage, it certainly looks ominous!
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And It's certainly bright!
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And before anyone mentions it, why yes...yes I do have a Snoopy Stuffy. That's because Snoopy is Awesome! :mrgreen:
By Mat
#4805079
I abandoned my initial idea and started over. This time I laid out the lines on the inside of the lens and darkened them with a permanent marker. I then flipped the lens over and using the marker lines as a guide, I masked off and painted each line with ultra flat black paint. Worked a lot better! :mrgreen:

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You can see the individual paint layers here
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And overall, it's way more uniform!
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By Mat
#4805100
Last update tonight, I swear! :walterpeck:

I'm pretty happy with how the HGA came out! I decided to not fake the socket heads onto it for the time being. It's about a 1/4" shorter in length than the other one and I know it's not a picture perfect match of the video game one, but I think it balances out the Power Cell lights and brings some lighting into an otherwise dark area. The lights are actually sitting just behind the black rim, so when it's lit up it's brighter around the rim and the color fades towards the center; no light escapes through the black parts. The effect is pretty neat in person!
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I have it running off a separate battery pack and that involved adding a second switch to the pack; not a big deal.
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Electricians, electronics guru's, etc...you might want to look away now! Here's the inside of the shell now.
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And a quick video; sorry it's sideways! :roll:
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By Mat
#4805187
I wasn't sure where to put this, but technically it clips onto the pack strap so hey. I wanted my L bend flashlight to use an led instead of an incandescent bulb. I looked all over the city, yet to much dismay I was unable to find a drop in LED replacement bulb and wasn't to keen on ordering one. What I did have was a flashlight I never use...In a rather barbarian-esque fashion, I gutted it for the module, soldered some wires onto it and then soldered the wires to the internal contact points in the flashlight. It still uses two C batteries and the switch on the side of the light still turns it on and off. :mrgreen:

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I tinned both the wires and contacts which made this process fairly straight forward; the center is the positive connection even though it has the spring; flashlight used a 3 AAA thing.
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Built the sides up with tape so it would fit in the flashlight snug and centered.
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It works!!!!
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By Mat
#4805314
Tonight I decided to rebuild the HGA I just built. :roll:

In a dark room it looked cool but anywhere else, it didn't look like a functional component. Rather than follow a specific reference, I just went to town on it with whatever I had on hand; truth be told, I'm still baffled that a spray paint cap can be tapped and hold threads.

To make the grid on the lens, I laid it out again in pencil. I filed notches on the ends of the lines and took mig some wire and made a small hook with a pair of needle nose pliers. I then stretched it across the lens and bent the other end down; I took it off the lens, finished the hook on the second end, cut the wire to length and slid it back over the lens and it sprung right into the notch.

Here's the front of the lens
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And the back of the lens
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I drilled the front out for a few machine screws; they hold the lens in place.

Outside
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Inside
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To hold the circuit board solid, I built up the outside edge with electrical tape until I had a friction fit; sits in there fairly tightly. I needed a crossbar for a mounting bolt, so I went and dug around the storage room...specifically the meccanno bucket. I found a part that fit the diameter of the cap perfectly and added a doubler plate to it to make it more rigid.
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Wax on!
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Wax off! A lot more convincing now, methinks.
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By Mat
#4805484
This'll be my last update for a little while; I decided to redo my hose-thrower connection.

I found something that fits over the end of the handle, yet isn't overly bulky. I drilled a hole in the cap that's the same diameter as the loom at it's narrowest; with a screwdriver I was able to pop one of the wider sections into the inside. Under the cap is a spacer and the jack fitting I built prior but without the spring; it's built up to fit snugly inside of the loom and it serves to press the hose tight against the cap so that it cannot be pulled out. I suppose the whole point of this ordeal was to keep the connection from being an overly bulky unit. Stubborn tenacity paid off!

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