[edspengler]

I was able to get a little bit of work in today after the day job. I had painted the lever retention disk and done some finishing work along with the rear cylinder. I ended up filing one hole out of the wand body slightly to accommodate the bolt pattern of the oddball cylinder. Took my time and did it carefully so as not to make the hole bigger than it has to be.


Was able to get the cylinder mounted and inserted the lever as well. I replaced the grub screw in the retention disk with a socket head bolt to match the setup of the Spengler wand.


We’ll see what additional tasks I can get around to performing this weekend. The real job is heating up and progress on this build might slow down even more

[Couture]

Looks great! Love your weathering.

[edspengler]

I was able to finally get something done today. I removed the ion arm and booster tube, created a bolt pattern and boxed them up to receive their Spengler weld. Next time I see these pieces they will be ugly welded together. At that time, I will also have a new Spengler HGA. Slowly but surely this pack is coming together.

[edspengler]

Thrower grips arrived and I am very happy with them. These were made by Tom Morris. I had ordered one set and he was kind enough to throw in a bonus set! I guess I have no choice but to save the spares (and all my other extra parts) for a future build. I’ll have to order a pop riveter now to get these in appropriately. Now all I need is the front assembly at some point. One grip set is a bit lighter in color than the other, I will likely choose the darker set for the current build.

[edspengler]

Looks great! Love your weathering.

Thank you! I am trying to have a subtle weathering, I feel like less is more when it comes to that. Worst case just take all the paint off the thrower body and start over

[timecatalyst]

Hi Ed,

Can I ask how you went about finding the center line for drilling the mounting holes into the booster tube? I'm currently trying to figure that out on my build. I have a few ideas, but trying to keep my options open. Thanks!

[edspengler]

Here are some additional pictures of the process that I didn’t post for drilling the mounting holes in the booster tube. I laid the tube onto the shell and marked on the edge of the tube what looked to be the center that rests on the shell. From there I used my square to project a line down the back of the tube and placed some tape along that line, and marked the hole spots at an interval that seemed reasonable. Hope that helps!

[timecatalyst]

Haha, that's exactly how I was planning to do it too. What caused me to doubt myself was how the booster tube cap protrudes a bit from the top of the tube. It felt kind of awkward (but possible) to place the square off-center to get the center line down the tube, but it looks like that worked perfectly for you, so I'll give that a go as well.

Thanks for the help. Your pack is looking great!

[edspengler]

I was able to address a minor detail today, I removed the injector tubes and filed down the welds on the lower portion to be more in line with what is seen on the Spengler pack. While not perfect, the difference is noticeable as the corners are sharper than they were before.




Obtaining perfectly sharp and square corners may be beyond my capabilities at the present time, but I am happy with the difference for now. I will also work on the finishing of this piece as my finishing skills have improved since this build began, but I have to leave that for once the new paint is cured. That’s all for now…

[timecatalyst]

Another quick question for you:

Looks like you're using the same GBFans wand body and wand track that I am. Did you have any trouble affixing the track to the bottom plate for the wand body? The pre-drilled holes are in the correct locations, but the outer ones are too small to accept the hex bolts from the wand track. I was just going to widen the holes myself, but then I wondered if there was something else I was missing: https://ibb.co/Msh7XsF

[edspengler]

Another quick question for you:

Looks like you're using the same GBFans wand body and wand track that I am. Did you have any trouble affixing the track to the bottom plate for the wand body? The pre-drilled holes are in the correct locations, but the outer ones are too small to accept the hex bolts from the wand track. I was just going to widen the holes myself, but then I wondered if there was something else I was missing: https://ibb.co/Msh7XsF

I looked at the listings on the Mack’s Factory website and they list the screw sizes. I swapped out some screws based on that, which ones I don’t exactly remember anymore. But swapping out screws is an easier route than drilling.

[timecatalyst]

I looked at the listings on the Mack’s Factory website and they list the screw sizes. I swapped out some screws based on that, which ones I don’t exactly remember anymore. But swapping out screws is an easier route than drilling.

Ah, okay! Based on your pictures, I suspected that's what you did. Thanks for the info!

[edspengler]

It has been a while since I have posted any updates so here we go. The booster tube and ion arm box sat in my car for a while until I finally had time to mail it. They are still with the welder, and I will also be switching out the current HGA with a Spengler specific HGA.

As most of us know, the Mack’s Factory thrower front assembly and pop mech dropped so I have spent some time painting, finishing, and assembling those pieces into the wand. Overall, Aaron did an amazing job with the front assembly and pop mech. My grips fit the front barrel perfectly.


Assembling the front end was very easy and the included directions were very clear. I went ahead and installed the enhanced wand tip from Spongeface for the GBfans wand kit while I was at it. I may revisit this and bundle the wires with heat shrink, if so it is very easy to disassemble.


Assembling the pop mech release was also very easy and the directions were very clear. I then had to attach the rear grip, had to use some eyeballing as the drill points were not provided. I chose to use countersunk hex bolts instead of rivets to be able to remove the grip should I ever choose to do so. The bolts look very much like rivets at a quick glance anyway.


Once the holes were drilled in the rear grip, I placed it onto the rear wand handle and marked the hole points with a pencil, hit the marked points with a center punch to guide the drill bit, and drilled the holes with a step bit. I then tapped the holes using my tap and dye kit.


Last step was bolting the grip in, I’m pretty happy with how it came out given I eyeballed it from the reference library pictures. A few updated pictures of the wand as it stands. I will have to reposition the top hat light to the body interior once I get to the electronics.



That is where things stand for now, I will likely begin work on the interior and mounting the electronics in the near future.

[tobycj]

No flash bulb?

[edspengler]

No flash bulb?

I actually have a flashbulb from a certain someone!! It’s out on my desk right now and I am looking at the pictures to make sure I put it in correctly!

[edspengler]

I swear this project has become a curse, the more I look at the reference pictures of the Spengler the more I find. The wand I have has a straight emitter tip, whereas the reference library show an angled emitter tip, I was lucky enough just now to pick up an angled emitter tip from Freeky Geeky to replace the one I have now. Picture from the reference library vs the currently installed tip shown below for context.


Going for a specific pack has led to acquiring quite the surplus of parts.

[OnEdge]

The devil is in the details!

[edspengler]

I was able to get to installing the flashbulb and remainder of the front end electronics this weekend. The first step was to drill the banjos to accommodate the wires from the flashbulb through the tube and into the grip. I eyeballed a spot on each banjo while it was still installed and marked the drill point. After removing the banjos from the wand I used a center punch to provide a guide hole and drilled the holes using a step bit. Overall, a pretty easy task!


At first I used my fingers to hold the banjo while drilling but then moved to using a wrench which worked much better. Next was getting the flashbulb into the clear tube and running the wires through the first banjo and through the red tube. Running the wires through the tube was not easy, but it is possible. Then it was time for dinner, my wife made some lovely ramen soup.


I then also installed the GBfans ear button and LED, I had to remove the bottom of the lamp socket to accommodate the LED, it just pops out with a little bit of effort. Then removed the front grip to be able to run the wires back to the gun box.


A detail about the picture above, the original 84 wand did not have the holes that the Mack’s front end has to run the flash bulb wires through, this is a feature of the Phoebe wand. The wires were taped down on the original 84 wand. I however, made use of the holes since they are there… I decided it was an acceptable deviation that maintained the spirit of screen accuracy.


One last item of business was clipping off the jst connector for the GBfans wires so they could fit through the hole in the front of the wand body. At this point I also ran a piece of black heat shrink to bundle the wires that came out from behind the grip and into the wand body. Once the wires were pulled through the hole I resoldered the pieces that I had snipped off.


Them it was time to test, works great!

Once that was wrapped up I took the time to modify the GBfans wand kit to accommodate a brighter vent light. I snipped off the stock vent light LED and soldered on a separate super bright LED array. Not screen accurate, but it is incredibly bright and provides the vent effect that I want.


That is it for now, but I am pretty happy with the progress made. I need to get back onto the pack and start mounting the electronics.

[tobycj]

For future reference, you don't need to snip off JST connectors, you can use a needle or a pin to lift the "latch" on the plastic connector, and the wires with the little barbed metal connector doodads on them will slide out. Feed the wires through the hole, then just push them back into the JST connector once they're through (making note before you remove them of the order they go in!). Definitely quicker and easier than re-soldering and heatshrinking them!

[halloweenfiend]

Thrower grips arrived and I am very happy with them. These were made by Tom Morris. I had ordered one set and he was kind enough to throw in a bonus set! I guess I have no choice but to save the spares (and all my other extra parts) for a future build. I’ll have to order a pop riveter now to get these in appropriately. Now all I need is the front assembly at some point. One grip set is a bit lighter in color than the other, I will likely choose the darker set for the current build.

Does Tom still make these grips? If so how would one go about aquiring a set? Thank you.

[cybertron]

I contacted Tom via etsy and he indicated to me that he's sorting out a new workshop. And said he might have some grips up for sale before xmas.

[edspengler]

Emitter exchange complete! I received the angled one today, guess I’m saving the straight one for a future build. Here is a side by side photo, the straight (top) emitter is accurate to some of the other packs, but from the reference photos the Spengler has the angled (bottom) version.


A little further information on the emitter tips. From studying the reference library images, the Spengler and Venkman packs have the angled emitter tips and the Superhero and Stantz have the 90 degree tips. I have not been able to tell yet on the Zeddemore. (Please correct me if I am mistaken)

It’s a very small detail, but nonetheless it’s nice to be able to address it. The Spengler has one more quirk that I think the others don’t have but I am not fully certain yet. It seems to differ between the screen shots and the promo shots.

[tobycj]

Looks like the Spengler trigger tip has a bevel on the curved edge, like the one you had on first

[edspengler]

Looks like the Spengler trigger tip has a bevel on the curved edge, like the one you had on first

While I do not disagree, it is difficult to tell from the reference pictures even when messing with the contrast settings etc. The bottom picture has the best potential for showing the beveled edge. I would need to go through some of the books I have to see if they have any better shots of this feature.

That said, this could likely be addressed by grinding the edges down a little. The library images of the Superhero clearly show this feature whereas the Spengs seems questionable (for now). Also if I had to pick and choose features to included without modifying what I have, it would have to be the angled emitter as the feature is more prominent (to me) than the beveled edge.

[JTysonLambert]

Pretty sure the Spengler had the beveled edges, but it also looks like they were pretty worn down and not nearly as sharp as the other packs. Personally, I'd probably just get my rotary tool and give it a slight touch, and then round the hard edges out with a bit of finer grit sandpaper.

[edspengler]

I was able to install more of the wand electronics last night. The bezel kit that I have from Spongeface doesn’t fit so I will have to revisit to add in the bar graph when I have a bezel that fits. I ordered one from Freeky Geeky and should have it in a few weeks since he was kind enough to also take an order for another custom part and ship them together. I used heat shrink to bundle all the associated wires together and a zip ties and mounts to keep things in place. I added some electronic standoffs to the wand board, I was going to epoxy the standoffs to the interior but held off for now as the board is held firmly in place by the push of the folded wires.


I had already installed mounts for the vent LED board a few days ago using JB Weld to attach the mounts into the wand body, the LED array can be removed if needed.


Here is a shot of the vent light in action


I have to get to working on the actual pack as I pretty much have everything to get it together… and I have been picking up vintage parts here and there as I come across them… so more spare parts for a future pack! Building the wand before the pack seems to be reverse order of operations, but I am feeling very inspired to work on it right now so I’ll fly with the feeling.

[edspengler]

Well you guys twisted my arm. I held my breath and created a beveled edge on the angled emitter. Here it is! Thanks for the pointers! Also shown with the original from Mack’s for reference.

[JTysonLambert]

Looks really good. Following your build here and Spengler's Workbench. Gonna upgrade my wand body at some point, and thinking about the Mack's. Looks like there's plenty more room in there than what I'm currently working with.

[edspengler]

I was able to get a little done today, I added the decals to the wand trying to emulate the type and placement of the Spengler, really looking forward to getting the bar graph and bezel in there. I may choose to revisit the activate dry rub at some point.


I also removed the beam line to drill a hole in the bottom of the PPD and also attached my new vintage brass T fitting. Library foto included on the bottom for reference.


When reattaching the the bumper I accidentally chipped the shell where one of the the bolts go in, it is not visible with the bumper attached, but it was a clean break so I can epoxy the piece on tomorrow. Looking forward to getting more done this week.