Well even though it’s..
Dam cold here, i managed to get the ion arm assembly complete, and found a nice piece in the scrap bin that will do for the end cap.
Will start on the eda & booster box next week & see how it goes..
Cool, I’m going around here looking for someone who would cut a v groove on a small piece of steel, without having to pay hundreds of dollars..
If you drill two holes about 1/4" in diameter in each strip, you should be able to plug weld the strips on from the outside. If you’re feeling ambitious, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out on a piece of scrap. You would only need two welds per strip and if you fill the hole right up, simply sand the weld flush and hit it with some emery cloth and it’ll look like it was never there!
It’s looking awesome so far!
Guys, time for an update. Been working away at this thing when i have time, have most of the top half finished and tacked together. The corner piece isnt finished, just set in for the snaps. Went with solid bar for the booster plug and ppd, and im happy how they turned out, esp the milled finish. Here are a few progress pics. It’s not perfect by any means, but im happy enough so far. I will fill in the gaps and smooth out the edges with milliput, will leave that until im finished construction.
More to come in a few weeks, thanks for looking! 
It’s looking good.
Looks fantastic!
Those rounded corners are great. I’d say you’ve got the hard parts out of the way. The cyclotron should be a piece of cake.
Amazing update! This is going to be killer!
Do you know the weight so far?
Outstanding work!!
stunning!
This is going to be a very cool pack! And you can only imagine how nice this will naturally weather after a a couple of yers of heavy duty usage.
Thanks for the great comments! Will keep me going for another few weeks 
The weight is 2.8 kg, not bad. Feels lighter than that though. The booster tube added a fair lump of weight on it’s own :-?
That’s not bad at all! The alice pack helps to distribute the weight; if you use “super straps,” they have a sternum strap which takes a lot of weight off the shoulders, although the waist belt does take a fair amount of the load as well. :mrgreen:
I like the way you’ve done the ppd; it looks awesome with the hose fitting sunk down inside!
Thanks Mat, yes im very happy with how the ppd turned out, got the lads on the saw to cut the 45 angle, then my colleague on the mill to give that nice machined finish. Then onto the lathe with a 10mm slot drill to give me nice center hole with a flat bottom & just drill & tap m5 for the hose barb. The spilt loom fits really nice, and sits straight up which looks much better.
This looks awesome, you clearly have a knack for working with metal.
Is m5 that compatible with 10-32?
I’m guessing 10/32 is what’s in the barb? Honestly it was luck, I had the barb left over from my old build, matched it to an m5 tap & it was close enough, screws in nicely, although we do have imperial taps on hand too
Update, been working on the cyclotron and syn gen thingy, plenty of work in that!
Pics:
Might need to put the cyclo back on the lathe and grind it a bit rounder? What do you think guys?
Its looking great! Whats the radius of the curve?
The r& d shop borrowed our radius kit so I can’t say what it is at the moment unfortunately..