[thebigone2087]

A number of months ago, we were given access to some amazing plans provided by countspatula for a Ghost Trap that was entirely 3D printed. As many others here, I had to have one. Not having a 3D printer, though, made it a little difficult for me. Luckily 3DHubs came through and in roughly a week, I had my first trap prints. Now, as amazing as the standard trap is, when countspatula offered "deluxe" upgrades to the kit with real-world parts, I NEEDED them. So i bought them and built the trap. I was VERY happy with it, but it took a lot of work with the paint prep and finishing. The prints that I originally had were printed at 400 microns, which come to find out inst very high. There was a lot of Bondo filler and sanding but the final product was pretty good. Since I wasnt 100% happy with the final product, I sold it and am starting over.

This time, I got the prints at 200 microns and the difference is mind blowing! The knobs are way more precise, the screw holes are properly oriented and the seams are much finer. There is still going to be Bondo filler everywhere and a good bit of sanding, but they already look so much better. I re-bought all the deluxe parts that countspatula offers as well as a few others. I haven't done a build log since I finished my Hero pack last year so I figure I would treat you all with this.

TL;DR - Enjoy my 3D printed trap build!

[damster117]

Wow that's a lot of parts! I'm looking forward to watching this build

[thebigone2087]

Those are just the 3D printed parts, those don't include the deluxe parts! There are quite a few!

[damster117]

Lol! Be careful not to lose any then, I keep misplacing the exact bolt I need right when I need it to continue my build! Hey... I've just noticed you have GB2 front knobs there- I've been hunting high and low for those. Are they 3D printed too?

[thebigone2087]

Lol! Be careful not to lose any then, I keep misplacing the exact bolt I need right when I need it to continue my build! Hey... I've just noticed you have GB2 front knobs there- I've been hunting high and low for those. Are they 3D printed too?

Yep. The front knobs of the trap are 3D printed since I can't find the round ones and no one knows what those Square ones are.

So my wife ended up falling ill this evening and decided to go to bed just after we put our daughter to bed... so I get started working on the trap. I put away all the nonessential pieces and got out all the deluxe pieces that I needed for the evening:



The easiest first step is attaching the hinge plate to the front pedal. Now the plate and screws that are sent with the deluxe kit are bright and need to be painted...



Next was wiring up the pedal switch and enclosing it within the bellows. I wired it up according to the trap build instructions (No electronics tutorial yet) and I used this really cool silicone wire I got from Adafruit. Its crazy flexible and I can snake it anywhere and it doesn't bunch up on me, plus it takes heat well and when soldering the sheathing doest melt off.





Then this piece simply gets bolted to the base.



Once the paint dried on the pedal and hinge, I screwed them to the base and added the acorn nut (which is also bright in the kit, so it was painted too).



Next came the boxes. The smaller box is made of aluminum while the larger box is plastic. The 3D prints include templates to use for the boxes to line everything up perfectly (if you decided to go with ONLY 3D prints and no deluxe parts then the boxes will print with holes already in them). So I laid out the templates and marked them with my center punch...



...and drilled everything out. I used a step-bit as often as possible to give me a clean, round hole.



Now the front and back holes were drilled 11/32" and then tapped ⅛"NPT for the Legris straight and Foster fitting. The Legris went in perfectly, but the foster gave me grief so I just drilled it out to 13/32" and used the brass nut from the kit to secure it. There will be some wiring that goes on in here, but there is no electronics tutorial yet so none of that has been done. I am using the GBFans Legris Straight and Banjo replicas here. The Foster fitting comes with the deluxe parts.



Same deal with the larger box. Mark then drill.



The ribbon cable went together quickly. The parts kit that I got for the trap had the wrong color connectors for some of the ribbon pieces so I got the correct ones from GBFans (though I made mistake and ordered the wrong part so I had to paint one of them black). I had a set of decals that are here on the boards printed in Vinyl from FedEx Office and the dry rubs from the shop here too. The dry rubs are harder to put on than they used to be, meaning the surface has to be degreased in order for them to stick. The bellows don't sit flush on the pedal simply because I haven't glued them down yet. The relay is an accurate ITT Italian relay. This was an easy build since there wasn't any filling or sanding I had to do. The trap itself is another story and that is going to take a while so stay tuned!

[Venkman's Swagger]

Nice to see you back building man!! Looking sweet already

[thebigone2087]

Small work done on the trap today. I took all the parts that needed to be filled with bondo and gave them a good sanding with 150grit paper. Made sure everything was smooth and got rid of any ridges there may have been. Then it was time for bondo. I have a PSA... if you have never worked with bondo before... it stinks. It has a very heavy odor and can make you dizzy really quick, always use it in a well ventilated area... or in my case:



...an open office window and a fan.

I am using a thin plastic scraper that I use for work to remove adhesive from various displays. Sadly, this isn't something you can by at the hardware store, but any good plastic putty knife would work well.



Didn't take quite an hour, but got everything all puttied up and it set pretty quick, but I now need to sand off the excess and get the parts primed and then painted. Stay Tuned!

[thebigone2087]

So over the last two days I was able to sand down the body filler, making the surface of all the parts super smooth with very little if any texture left from the ridges of printing. I had some Rustoleum filler primer left over from another project so I put on two coats of the primer this morning.



When I got me for lunch, I went ahead and applied a coat of paint. I bought a can of Krylon ColorMAXX matte black from Walmart since I was there. I usually go with Rustoleum but some folks here had luck with Krylon so I have them a try.



Not very happy with it. The spray pattern was very thin and I had to use a lot more paint per part than I have before and the coats still aren't consistent or even. I only did one coat, but normally I can get all the parts covered without anything showing through. Even the small parts had small pinholes of primer sticking through. I'm going to let me paint set for a day and then go out and get some Rustoleum flat black and paint over the Krylon.

[thebigone2087]

Well I had planned on chronicling a little but more of the build process for the trap... sadly that didn't happen. I got so into it over the last few nights I just kept building and building and never stopped to take any photos.

Both the trap and pedal are now assembled. I have the parts for the hose, but I am going to wait until the electronics kit comes out to assemble that. So in all its glory, my deluxe Ghost Trap:















Only thing I am not pleased with are the side bars because I rushed them, so they have sanding marks all over them. I used tape for the trap doors since that is what they used in the movie (and I didn't have any yellow paint on hand). Now that it is together, its very simple to access if I need to get inside of it to mount electronics. This kit was a joy to build and I really cannot wait for the electronics kit to hit so I can get this bad boy up and smoking!

Thank for checking this out!

[countspatula]

Looks great! Sean the designer of the kit here - I am working on the electronics guide right now - hope to have it ready soon!

[thebigone2087]

Wow, thanks Sean! I only hope it lived up to what you imagined for this kit! Can't wait for the electronics guide!

[damster117]

Finished already? Wow that was a quick build-well done it looks great! I'm really quite impressed with these 3D printed traps. Can you please stop working so fast though, you're making me look bad! My build seems to be taking forever to get to the same stage!

[Krieger]

Great build - once you get the bondo, primer and paint done it moves quickly with the assembly. Put one together this weekend. Did you glue the red light cover on?

[thebigone2087]

I did glue the light socket in place

[Krieger]

Thanks - glued the light cover in place, and great post of both your builds, got me inspired to print my pedal and get that started as well!