User avatar
By Banjo
#4909734
Hi Guys,
Another member with a first time pack build.
Long story short, I was 8 when GBI hit the theaters, and I was a ghostbuster with my cardboard homemade pack for Halloween for several years running. Had the toys, watched the cartoon, etc, etc....
Here I am 34 years later with the fabrication skills I need to build a real true to the movie pack.
Just not the budget to buy all the pre made parts to build one easily.
so my build will be a lot of fab and scratch build.
Here's the rundown so far.
I already have an A.L.I.C.E. Pack, so I will be robbing the frame for this project.
I found a piece of aluminum in the scrap hopper that was just big enough to trace out Stephan's motherboard specs and cut out. so that is done.
I searched the net for a smoking deal on a fiberglass shell and bumper, but it was all a bit more than I really wanted to spend, so I decided i was going to build a pattern and make a fiberglass mold myself.
But then I got turned on to 3D printing parts. So last week I ordered a Creality CR10 3D printer. (It was only 50$ more than the fiberglass shell would have cost!!!) and I have spent the rest of the week getting comfortable printing small parts and tweaking settings.
As of last night I have started printing proton pack parts. I'm using a combination of sources for the models. I have no computer modeling skills myself, so I am grateful for fellow members helping me get set up with what I need, and also Thingiverse is a good place to look.
I plan to only print the basics of the shell. all the tubes and such will be made from aluminum, because I can TIG weld.
the thrower I hope to make from aluminum as well.
Resistors will either be resin or printed
I hope to get a real Clippard for the thrower, but the one on the pack can be resin.
I have not decided on lights and sounds, but I would like to build my own system as much as I can. I have the electronics skills, but have never played with an Aurduino or Rasberry Pi.
Anyway, that's where I'm at. I'll post pics soon
Any advice is welcome.
I have no plans of what I'm going to do with this once it's built. I just know I need to build it.
User avatar
By Banjo
#4910188
A little update.
I've been steadily printing parts, and the pack is starting to look like something!
the more I print, the more I am deciding that I will be printing all the parts for this pack.
Once all the pieces are ready, I will be epoxying them together, sanding, and skim coating with the ultra fine bondo finishing filler. Priming, then painting it all.
I have started researching Arduinos to figure out what I need to get to build the lights and sound set
And I have a special idea for the thrower that if it works will make for an awesome visual. more on that later.
here's some pics! (I had to make a stop at Spirit to grab a trap and PKE.... I'm heavily thinking I am going back for some Ecto goggles)
Image013 by banjoben42
Image097 by banjoben42
Image107 by banjoben42, on Flickr
twmedford23, jreverhart, NickFame13 and 3 others liked this
User avatar
By Banjo
#4910831
A little update.
I've been running the printer almost every night with a few breaks while waiting to get paid so I could order more filament.
I finished the first round of parts, then primed and wet sanded them. Now I have the next round done, primed and wet sanded also. I'm down to the smaller detail parts, then it will be time to paint, assemble , and weather.
I have well over 400 hours on the printer, and am on my 5th spool of filament. ( I count one spool lost to mistakes and learning curve.)
Image035 by banjoben42, on Flickr

Image050 by banjoben42, on Flickr
User avatar
By Banjo
#4910992
Al the main pack parts are printed, primed, and wet sanded.
I used 2 part epoxy, and bolts to attach all the pieces together
now I have my shell assembled and its on to the finish coat.
I've added some hot glue "welds"
and I'm using the "wall texture" technique with satin black topcoat.
as soon as I can get someplace where I can spray paint that isn't 15 degrees we will make some progress.
Image004 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image005 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image006 by banjoben42, on Flickr
User avatar
By Banjo
#4911153
This weeks update. I got the shell all glued and bolted up, then I applied the " orange peel wall texture technique" sealed with lacquer, primed, and painted with rustoleum satin black.
2 things from this process. I didn't get the texture as fine as I would have liked, but it's ok.
and I will use a flat black if I ever build another pack. the satin is too glossy, and took forever to dry. I was able to get it to a better finish by deliberately dry spraying the pack and making it flat.
The wall texture stuff is essentially dry wall Spackle in a spray can. it dries really powdery, and you definitely need to seal it real good. I'm a bit concerned with it's durability as well. We will see how it holds up.
After all that was done I glued up all the main pack parts, and now I'm on to detail stuff.
the First non 3D printed piece (other than the motherboard) was the ion arm cap and rods.
I was able to source both scrap 1/2" aluminum and 1/4" brass rod for free. and an hour or so on the saw and drill press had me a nice proper piece. it's only lacking the knurling on the lower rod, because I don't have knurling tools for the lathe.
Image002 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image007 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image015 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image017 by banjoben42, on Flickr
tobycj, GiantRebel liked this
User avatar
By Banjo
#4911260
The latest from the maker cave.
I found a brass nut to add some realism to the Dale resistor I 3D printed
I finally broke down and scavenged the frame from one of my ALICE packs, and got it painted black
I also painted the motherboard, and cut a piece of aluminum angle into 1 inch wide pieces to make brackets to attach the pack to the motherboard.
Then I drilled and tapped them for M5 bolts.
After temporarily attaching them to the pack, I set some modeling clay on the motherboard to locate the spots to drill and tap to attach the brackets.
Now I have the pack and motherboard attached.
Next up will be the spacers to attach the ALICE frame. I need to stop and get a couple of hockey pucks.
Image010 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image007 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image012 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image013 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image014 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image017 by banjoben42, on Flickr
User avatar
By Banjo
#4911279
more progress!and to me this is a BIG step.
I sourced some hockey pucks at the local sporting goods store. 3 pucks cost 5 bucks.
Did a little searching on the forum here, and cut two into 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 rectangles.
The other I cut down the middle and trimmed off the edge to make it 1 3/8 thick at one end and 1 5/16 at the other
to accommodate the angle n the pack frame.
My wood cutting band saw did the trick in no time.
I even used the band saw to carefully put the notch in the small end of the half moon spacer for the pack frame rib.
I scavenged some hardware from my junk drawer, and drilled the holes in the motherboard. The upper half moon spacer was a total guess just from looking at reference photos. It works for me. This is not a strictly perfect pack.
Now comes the BIG part. I refit the webbing to the ALICE frame, and was able to put on my proton pack for the first time!
I still have a loooooong way to go. I don't have any of the detail parts yet, and I haven't begun to print the thrower parts. there is also all the electronics still needed, But I got to wear my own proton pack!!!!
Project tally so far:
5 spools of 3D filiment @$15 each =$75
2 cans of satin black paint, 2 cans of high build sandable primer, and 1 can of wall texture appx. $40
3 hockey pucks $5
total right now of $120
Everything else in my build has been salvage/ scrap or I already had it
And I am not adding the cost of the 3D printer to the tally, as I am using that for other things as well.
Image003 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image004 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image006 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image008 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Christof, canpara liked this
User avatar
By Banjo
#4913195
Long overdue for an update here.
With the printing of the pack complete, and having it mounted to the ALICE frame, it just awaits me ordering the accessory bits like the hoses, acrylic panels, and ribbon cable.
Meanwhile the holidays struck, and the printer started being unreliable. so between those things I have not done a lot of printing.
I do have the printer pretty much sorted out again. a new pack of nozzles, researched my layer skipping issue and changed settings to fix it, played around with bed leveling, a silicone boot for the hot end,had to experiment with nozzle and bed temps, and printed an upgraded cooling fan duct.
now that we are printing reliably, on to the thrower!
so here are the last of the detail bits for the pack I printed, and the first piece of the thrower. The housing!
Image110 by banjoben42, on Flickr
By QuartZ
#4913792
Hey friend,

I just took a spin through your thread. I hadn't seen it before so thanks for pointing me to it in my thread. I picked up a few useful tips with regards to your experience adding texture/satin black to the shell. Thanks! It's cool to see how far along you are and it makes me pretty excited since I'm headed in the same direction. Keep it up!

-Dana
User avatar
By Banjo
#4914060
Slow progress, but I am making headway. I have printed a handful more parts for the thrower, including most of the knobs and the switch boxes.
On the pack I finally installed the crank knob.I was going to just glue it on, but I was digging through my electronics stash anyway and found a nice potentiometer that fit with minor drilling. so now the knob is able to be functional if I decide to hook it into the electronics. And if not at least it turns.
I was in the electronics stash to see if I had any ribbon cable, and I hit the jackpot! its not the correct cable, but it works for me. I routed in in GB1 style with a used wire loop I had in another bin, and made the clamp out of some scrap aluminum.
So the best thing here is all this cost nothing. just my time.
Image009 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image010 by banjoben42, on Flickr
#4920632
WOW! 6 months later and the physical build is done
Further purchases were the plastic tubing $15, a set of brass fittings $8, the acrylic panels for the cyclotron and powercells,$20
a sheet of stickers from GBfans $15, and a 3 foot piece of 7/8ths acrylic tube for the barrel $13.
The thrower models consisted of an inner and outer barrel, so with some creative linkage and a spring It has a working popper mechanism
I took the acrylic tube, masked and sand blasted it to put the textured rings on it.
The forward trigger is fabricated from aluminum, and tig welded together. the brass legris banjos are 3d printed.
I wrote a very basic program to run the powercell and cyclotron lights just so I would be ready for this last weekend at the Salt City Comic Con in Syracuse New York. I wasn't going to miss meeting up with both the Buffalo and Central New York Ghostbusters, and the special guest ERNIE HUDSON!!!!
So now all that's left is to work on the electronics. I am hoping to use a lot of Count De Monet's setup.
Image063 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Some easter egg halves sprayed silver became the cyclotron reflectors
Image258 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Super basic powercel LED and resistor setup on a chunk of breadboard. (one white one because I ran out of blue)
Image259 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Close-up of the barrel with trigger, not extended.
Image261 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Night before Comic Con! All together, Lights ON!
Image263 by banjoben42, on Flickr
HOLY Winston Zeddmore!!!!! and me. I did a mashup outfit. I was Chief Jim Hopper from Stranger Things, but he found a Proton Pack!! that's why the hat.
Image279 by banjoben42, on Flickr
#4920633
If you're keeping track, this build is at a verified $190 right now
That's not including the 3D printer $450
or the Arduino starter kit $40 (My working basic pack lights were built entirely from that set)
But neither of those will be permanently part of this build.
The electronics are still to be purchased, and I have estimated that they will be between $200-250
I'm sure there are other costs I haven't added in as well, like 2 part epoxy, sand paper, and the like.
I have also been lucky to scrounge a lot of aluminum, and things like lights and switches and hardware.
GiantRebel liked this
#4920835
let me see if I can elaborate a little on the popper.
The thrower 3D models are from Legend Of Mart. His design provided me with a forward barrel that is made of an outer piece with a hole for a pin, and an inner barrel that anchors to the body with a slot that allows the outer barrel to rotate about 30 degrees with the pin sticking through the slot.
the acrylic tube fits inside the inner barrel and can slide in and out.
I put an "L" shaped slot in the acrylic tube, so that when the outer barrel pin is moved to one end of the slot the acrylic tube is allowed to extend about an inch, and otherwise the tube is held in place.
At the other end of the thrower body, the green lever extended across the inside of the thrower with bends in it that create an arm that activates with the movement of the end of the lever.
Connected to that arm is a fabricated aluminum block that connects the lever to a rod that is attached to the end of the acrylic tube. it had a spring attached that wants to make the tube extend.
I understand that this is a crappy definition. I hope these diagrams and pics will help.
Image002 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image003 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Image260 by banjoben42, on Flickr
ccv66, GiantRebel liked this
User avatar
By Banjo
#4925321
WOW! I can't believe my last update was in July.
That was after the packs first outing at the comicon.
Since then I have been doing upgrades and working on the full electronics.
I took Stephan Ottos dimensions and spent some time fumbling on the metal lathe after hours at work to make some aluminum knobs. I watched a couple of youtube videos on knurling to get the diamond pattern on the knobs, and ordered a $15 cheapo knurling tool that works just fine for aluminum. all said and done I have much better knobs than the 3D printed ones I started with. I plan to possibly make some more when I get more time.
Then I went to a local hamfest (ham radio show) which was a goldmine for electronic bits for propmaking in general. I found an aluminum heat sink for $2, and picked up some random light lenses that looked good.
As for the electronics , I am following Count DeMonet's plan using an arduino and a sound board.
This was far more expensive than I thought. For the arduino, soundboard, amp and speakers, parts for the bargraph, various lights, breadboards, wires, LiPo battery and parts to build an e-cig smoke machine it came to about $270
To me it's worth it. In the end I will have (hopefully) a full function pack, with great volume, bluetooth enabled, and smoke effect on the venting .
The other thing I underestimated was the time I spent soldering. I have spent hours at the workbench, and still have plenty more to go.
I am shooting to have it together by Halloween. or at least the local Con Nov 8-9.
Here is the shipment of electrical goodies before I started unpacking.
Image238 by banjoben42, on Flickr
More pics very soon. I need to do some transferring of pics, and I will try to upload a demo video from the test run of the electronics.
User avatar
By Banjo
#4925397
As promised, here's some detail pics
First is the hook and home made dixie cup mount on the base of my thrower
Image068 by banjoben42, on Flickr
next is my homemade ribbon clamp over the piece of random ribbon cable I had in my electronics junk box. I may swap it out for proper stuff later, but for now I'm happy with it.
Image067 by banjoben42, on Flickr
this is the 3D printed crank knob, hot glue welds, and collected fittings along with the brass fittings I popped for from GB fans
Image066 by
Here is one of the 3D printed, home made labelled Clippard valves. the one on the wand is done the same way. I'm happy enough with this to not even be worried about upgrading to real ones later.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hsgTBs]Image
065 by banjoben42, on Flickr
3D printed resistors, and an aluminum and brass ion cap I posted earlier in the thread
Image064 by banjoben42, on Flickr
and here is an overall shot. the shell is off the motherboard at the moment while I work on the electronics
Image063 by banjoben42, on Flickr
On to the Nutreno Wand! here's the new aluminum knobs I made and you can see some of my totally wrong lights.
Image062 by banjoben42, on Flickr
more of the knobs, and the aluminum heat sink I found at the Ham fest. the bargraph will have a bezel around it before I'm done. bigger fish frying at the moment
Image061 by banjoben42, on Flickr
Here's how the electronics are shaking out right now. I liked my Easter egg shell light bezels so much I kept them with the new neopixel jewels. That's the arduino and the adafruit on the board. the rest of the stuff will be mounted to the motherboard.
Image060 by banjoben42, on Flickr
and this is a test run of my e-cig smoke machine setup. It will basically be stuck into the n-filter through a piece of foam.
Image014 by banjoben42, on Flickr
twmedford23, Fitzhume liked this

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