Well, it’s high time I got round to building my first pack. This build is highly unlikely to offer anything you haven’t seen before, but that’s not the point, is it? 
I’m sure I will have many questions as I go along, so all advice and criticism is welcomed.
My overall plan is to build the pack in stages. This first stage will use a Matty want with Spongeface’s kit to interface with the GB Fans pack lights. At some point in the future I will upgrade to a metal thrower with pop mech, sound kit, e-cig vent, and all the other bells and whistles.
I didn’t want to rush in to things and ruin it, so I’ve waited over a year from when I joined this fine website, trying to learn from the masters. I’ve been slowly collecting parts, and while I still have a few orders to turn up, I finally have enough to do something with! 
A couple of days ago, a very large box turned up with Nick-a-tron’s name on it. I tore in to it like a child on Christmas morning who had found his dad’s party stash, then been given a puppy and told “we’re going to Disneyland”.
Naurally, after taking that picture, you just have to try assembling what you can…
… and yes, I know the ion arm is the wrong way round. I was too excited to notice, OK?
The shell, and resin componants are from Nick-a-tron, with other parts (so far) from Ejgunth87, Spongeface, Master Taran, Nosllit, the good old GB Fans shop, and a few random local shops. I’m still waiting for a few parts to come in from GB Fans, nstevic01, and Hijacker.
I must confess that I asked Nick to mount the shell to the motherboard for me. I’ve never rivited anything in my life, and I just knew I would ■■■■ that up somehow. Being the gentleman he is, he obliged, and I forwarded him the brackets I got from Eric.
So anyway, This afternoon, I decided to make a start. I have heard some horror stories about shells cracking when you drill in to them, so I decided to practice on the inside of one of the cyclotron rings. I used a hand drill and tried turning it backwards… all went well. So I tried forwards… all went even better.
The very first hole… an important milestone!
So far, so good. So let’s experiment with how to enlarge that hole. First I simply used a bigger bit, and did all four of them.
But there’s only so far you can go with notmal drill bits. I tried a spade bit…
… But it didn’t do much, so I switched to a circle cutter.
About half an hour of hand drilling later, I had this:
I decided to take a risk for the next hole and try a power drill on a low speed…
It worked perfectly and took less than a minute. Bye bye hand drill, you will not be missed! Before I knew it I had 4 holes in my pack.
Next step was to clean them up, so I broke out my trusty Drem- I mean “cheap JML multi tool”, and got to work.
- A short interlude to talk about safety: The ammount of dust produced was insane. I kept stopping ever minute of so to hoover it up just so I could see what I was doing. Tomorrow I am going to pop to the hardware shop and get a better face mask, as the cheap fabric one I was using is clearly not up to the job.
Ta-da! Four cyclotron hole cut and sanded!
Feeling on a role, I decided to move on to the power cell. A string of holes drilled round the edge…
Then a cutting disc to link the holes…
- Another short interlude to talk about safety: 1) I’m glad I was wearing safety glasses, and 2) maybe it’s about time I invested in a proper Dremel? 
After going to town with some small sanding / grinding bits, I now have a power cell window.
At this point the daylight was starting to fade, and there was dust everywhere in our living room, dispite my best efforts to hoover it up as I went along. So I’ve left it there for now. (I don’t want to rush things anyway). I’ve re-boxed the shell and given the place a thorough clean up before the missus gets home from work. And now I think I’m going to jump in the shower and scrub this dust off me. But naturally, I just had to share what I’ve done so far. The first steps towards owning something I’ve craved since childhood have finnaly been taken. I believe the word I’m looking for is “squeee!”
