Just wondering after all these posts of propping skill, what screw-ups should new builders look out for?
For example - After carefully mounting my MMM motherboard onto the ALICE frame, I marked out the center rivet point, selected a properly sized drill bit for the bolt, and then drilled a nice, neat hole before I realised that I’d fitted the motherboard onto the frame backwards. Doh!
Flipped the MB, re-drilled correctly - now the other hole is for the battery pack wires.
Also, rather more commonly, the Ion Arm is often seen mounted upside down. Some might argue screen accuracy, tho…
So, what’s your story? What foul-ups should the budding pack builder keep a wary eye out for?
rushing is probably the biggest mistake. take your time and measure each cut/drill hole twice. i usually measure three times since i seem to like messing up lol. mainly TAKE YOUR TIME and you will be fine.
i screwed up connecting the shell to the mobo last night. luckily only thing that got messed up were the aluminum angle brackets. i can just cut more of those.
rear instrument block was crooked as well. fixed that though.
rear grip was crooked, fixed that after about an hour of heating it with a hair dryer to melt the epoxy.
We’re all human and we all make mistakes, making these packs is a big learning experience for me personally, i’ve cocked up a few times making but you learn from it. I’d say my main mistakes are measuring wrong, getting measurments mixed up. Now i’m meticulous there! Its a learning curve!
for me, I think the mistake was gluing everything together permanently. I’d like now to go back and upgrade the lights, but cannot. I think having everything removable and accessible is a smart idea.
The pack I’m working on now was actually started by a friend of mine. He drilled at least three holes in the mobo for each bolt that is supposed to attach it to the fiberglass shell and the same goes for the bolts that attach the brackets into the shell.
There’s so many unnecessary holes drilled in this thing, it’s been a pain to take it apart and reassemble it after repairs and repaints.
Just take your time, have your construction plans handy, test fit parts before you attach them, and don’t take it too seriously. It’s a prop, not a test, so don’t stress too much.
Enchanted Unicorn also makes a good point about accessibility and not permanently attaching all the parts that I can expand on a bit. In the long run, lets face it, damage will most likely occur. So having everything removable and accessible makes repairs soooo much easier.
I agree with ectodeath here, its really benificial to be able to take it apart if need be, thats why i’ve decided i’m going to use bolts to hold the idividual components of the pack together, if something needs updating or repairing you don’t have to start from scratch I’m keeping my cyclotron removable from the syncronious genorator for the time being because i intend to put a car speaker there once i get a sound board, it just makes that bit easier. And like ectodeath said, its not a test, its a hobby, you build it to the best of your abilities, a lot a can be learnt from reading other people’s builds and seeing their methods
I’m keeping my