[Shwalamazula]

I have been putting off making a Proton Pack for years. 5 years, to be exact. I made a suit and a Belt Gizmo previously and had so much fun that I decided I wanted to make a pack and a trap. I started to make a trap and then my local Tech Shop closed down. Without the equipment there, the project fell apart. Fast forward a few years and now I have tools, hobby things, and disposable income. Wewt!

My pack build will be based on the shell crafted by KnowOnesDesigns. I was going to 3D the entire pack but since my friend and I are both making packs, it would just take too long. After slicing all the files for printing and adding them up, it would take a minimum of 25 days worth of print time, just to fabricate the parts for the pack. That does not include painting, finishing, wiring, and assembly. Because of that limitation, I thought it would be better to find a good shell to work from and then use the printer to print all of the other parts I don't want to procure myself.

The Particle Thrower body and main components will be fully printed, so half of the project will go the way I was expecting. Again, I am working on another Halloween deadline to keep me motivated. Time to get printing.



::EDIT::
I forgot to include the source information for my build:

• Proton Pack - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2479141

• Particle Wand - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2442928

The pack designer had mentioned that they scaled the pack down to 90%. That means I need to increase the size of all the parts I print by 111%. Since I do not have the shell yet, I cannot confirm the parts before I print them. Because the wand will be fully printed, I really do not need to measure for reference.

[Banjo]

The Journey begins! I wish you a successful build, and maintained enthusiasm !
I wound up buying a 3D printer just to build a proton pack. I will confirm the crazy amount of hours to completely print a pack. I was well over 200.
That began a year ago. I got the physical build completed this spring, and now am setting myself a deadline of this Halloween to complete my electronics build.
I wound up purchasing a Spirit trap, and am modding it to look and perform better. I still need to print the trap pedal.
and I am currently building my belt gizmo. The board is 3D printed.
I love what I can do with the printer. It has really opened up the possibilities for those of us with a limited budget.
I look forward to updates of your progress. The guys here are awesome with any questions to have.
Good luck!!!!

[Shwalamazula]

Because I am printing the parts for two wands, I have to print everything in two batches. Since I am a bit scatter-brained, all of the print time did not go to the wands. I have printed off some minis for D&D, upgraded my firmware, tinkered with settings, and made a few organizers for things like batteries and cables. Now I am back on the horse!

I am over 50% done with the printing. I have about 40 hours left on the current set of parts (8 hours in and 24 hours to print a batch) and then it'll be another 50 hours for the final 2 batches. I just had a bit of a panic attack with the wands. The designer of the wand/pack had mentioned on the pack page that the pack was modeled at 90% scale. That means to make things full scale, I need to increase the dimensions by 111%. I also did this for the wands without checking if that is what was done. I am too far into the print to scrap the wands and start over. Worst-case scenario, I will have to re-print some parts with different sized holes to properly mount switches. 10% shouldn't make that big a difference ... I hope.

[Shwalamazula]

Turns out, my suspicions were correct, the wand was modeled at full size. So, I just printed these 11% bigger. I am gonna keep them because it is too much print time invested. We are just gonna have bigger guns than everyone else. Bah!

[Shwalamazula]

The first batch of parts got completed for the gun. I held off on printing the second main body in case the holes were too big and I would have to get the model remade with smaller holes so as to not scrap the ton-o-printing I have already done.



I got a bit excited when the first main body was complete and went to town putting it together and sanding it. I may have missed some pictures on the building process. The PLA sands fairly well and the layer lines look like machining marks.

Because this was the first batch of parts, they are a little rougher because I am tuning the printer for the parts as a batch prints. Still, they do not look too bad. I put the side piece on the main body and started sanding it to make things uniform. I paint minis in my free time, so I have a bunch of plastic putty around.



I simply filled in gaps and let them dry. Then I sanded everything down with 200 grit sandpaper. I don't think I am going any smoother than 200 for most of this. I like the feel of it and even though it looks really cool, once it gets painted, the really cool lines will be gone.



I did take the time to sand down the barrel and the handle all the way down to 2000 grit to keep it really smooth. I will still rough it up where the grips will contact the parts but the rest of the barrel and handle will be smooth.



Fun Fact:
PLA LOVES super glue. Once two parts are put together, they are bonded in 3 seconds and will not move. This was a bit of an issue with the barrel.

I printed the barrel in 2 parts. This reduced the chance that the part could get tipped during the print. The ends would need to butt together to make the full barrel. This is okay because the grips will be covering most of it and providing most of the strength. The front of the main body has a little nub for the barrel to fit over. The fit is snug and about an inch, so there is plenty of contact area.



I put glue on the nub and lined up the barrel to position it. There is a hole at the end of the barrel that allows for wires to be run thru the barrel. This hole had to be 90° offset for proper placement. This is where I found out how fast this material bonds with super glue. I put the barrel over the nub and started to twist it to fully seat the barrel and line up the thru-hole. In about 3 seconds, I couldn't move the barrel anymore and the hole was offset by about 45°. To correct this, I ended up filling the hole with plastic putty so that it can be sanded smooth. I will drill a hole in the proper place later.







I sanded the rest of the components and glued them on. I now have something that resembles a particle thrower.

[Shwalamazula]

After I had the Particle Thrower put together, I headed to my local electronics store to get LEDs and switches. I needed to find out if the holes were going to be too big for the hardware. Turns out, a 10% increase in the prop did not impact the hardware at all.

I purchased some LEDs, switches, and buttons. These were fairly pricey because they were one-off parts. Now that I know they fit, I can get some less expensive bulk parts. I am sure I'll need switches and LEDs for other projects so it makes no sense to pay $7 a piece for 6 DPST switches.





A few more parts and some more sanding and I have an even cooler piece.



This build is coming along at a nice clip. I am going to have to start working on the wiring soon. Now that I know the main body for the gun is going to work just fine with the hardware, I can print off the second one. This part takes about 24 hours to print, so I was really hesitant to print them back-to-back without checking the fit.

[Mat]

It's looking awesome so far!

[sammyguns]

Nice!

[McCrea]

I took the same STL for the wand Just so you know, usually the switch is on the bottom and the push button on top

[McCrea]

Here's how mine looks after all the post processing